the link that the ‘Reply to this comment at’ points to is being taken from the $submissionUrl variable (…/workflow/access/…) and if the author clicks on the link the application denies access: ‘You don’t currently have access to that stage of the workflow. Maybe it should be that, as this is a new discussion with the authors, the link should be taken from $authorSubmissionUrl (…/authorDashboard/submission/…)
Sorry this is the localeKey:
msgid "emails.footer.unsubscribe.discussion"
msgstr ""
"Reply to this comment at <a href="{$submissionUrl}">#{$submissionId} {$authorsShort}</a> or <a href="{$unsubscribeUrl}">unsubscribe</a> from emails sent by <a href="{$contextUrl}">{$contextName}</a>."
msgid "emails.footer.unsubscribe.discussion"
msgstr ""
"<br><br>—<br>"
"Reply to this comment at <a href=\"{$submissionUrl}\">#{$submissionId} {$authorsShort}</a> or "
"<a href=\"{$unsubscribeUrl}\">unsubscribe</a> from emails sent by <a href=\"{$contextUrl}\">{$contextName}</a>."