little pushpins/thumbtacks

In the recent Christian Ebola thread I have no options to reply to people with the chat bubble icon. The only icon is a pushpin which will turn from green to white when clicked. What is it's purpose?

a reply to: tavi45

If you look at the address bar that reads www.abovetopsecret.com... then click on the pushpin, you will see the address change. Its purpose is to identify a specific post so that if desired, you can link to it.

To reply to a post, click on the reply button, 2nd to the right of the pushpin. A window opens up to allow you to post a reply.

I am not familiar with the ATS chat option at all because I am cursed with a sticky keyboard that takes forever to type a word without having to go over it and insert the missing letters.

a reply to: tavi45
If there is no reply buttons, the thread might be closed. Can't find a thread that I know is closed to check for sure if the pushpin link stays up only in a result of a thread closing.