XF 1.4 Linking to the Add Reply Page results in error

[WearableTechForums.com]

I'm attempting to add links in one of my templates that goes directly to the Add Reply page. The link would be:

<a href="{thread URL}/add-reply">text</a>

However, when I click on this link, I get an error that the page can only be accessed via the POST function (a form). Is it not possible to do this with a simple <a> tag? Thank you.