At the beginning of the Thread, The Question. Besides if you actually look at the Question Front Page is says Posts not Answers. 
Just a direct copy of the Disgusting Thread format the First Post to a Discussion is called Post 1 sort of a left over from earlier times at TR I would imagine. Back in the Dim Distant Past every Post had a Post Number which made it easier to find new posts and just generally navigate the forums. It used to actually work quite well till several Redesigns which where supposed to make things easier. Things are much easier now as we are constantly told but I'm just not sure who they are referring to as having an Easier Time those who use the Forum Threads or the Developers. :^0
Col
If you ask a question in Q&A, it immediately shows as having 1 response when all there is is the question and no responses.
However as TR has had some issues over the past few days it's not uncommon to have posts to questions disappear when they recover from the most recent Backup. For instance 24 hours ago when I logged in the Site had been returned to an earlier stage of the day and several posts that I had made as Answers to questions had disappeared.
Or a Post could be submitted that is removed either manually or automatically. The site has been heavily spammed over the post few weeks.
Col
Last Reply
And, no, I don't consider the question to be a reply to itself!