@PowerGlove, what do you think?
It's actually pretty easy to adjust this. The SMF devs left behind two easy-to-change array variables (one called
$normal_buttons and one called
$mod_buttons). There's a little bit of logic that makes
$normal_buttons have sometimes different entries for the top of the page vs. the bottom, but besides that, it's nice and simple.
So, to be clear, when talking about the buttons at the top-right and the bottom-right, you're talking about
$normal_buttons, but when talking about the buttons at the bottom-left, you're talking about
$mod_buttons.
With that terminology established, what you're asking for is that
$normal_buttons should be the same when it's rendered at the top of the page vs. the bottom, and that
$mod_buttons should also appear at the top, instead of only at the bottom?
I mean, yeah, that makes sense to me (to the first part, I agree with you that it would be nice to make
$normal_buttons symmetrical, and to the second part, I think I agree, too: firstly, IIRC, most newbies end up asking
how to move or lock their own topics and that's probably because those buttons aren't where they expect them to be, they'd probably more often notice them on their own if they were duplicated at the top of the page, and secondly, maybe the mods would appreciate having access to
$mod_buttons from both the bottom of the page and the top?).
Alternatively, Rick's suggestion basically amounts to taking two entries out from
$mod_buttons and appending them to
$normal_buttons. That suggestion has merit, too, but the mods probably won't appreciate
some of the buttons in that area being moved and others being left behind (like the topic-deletion button, and the set-sticky-status button, etc.), so the best way to do that, I think, and it might be what Rick actually had in mind to begin with, would be to just lose the distinction between
$mod_buttons and
$normal_buttons, and just have
$topic_buttons. That's a cool idea, but I'd be worried that the resulting list of buttons would be too long?
Maybe @theymos has some thoughts on this...