In a community discussion titled “Question about possible use-case,” daveharrisonnet asks if it’s possible to restrict topic, category, and post creation to admins/moderators only, while allowing all logged-in users to reply within existing topics — effectively making the forum static but open for discussion. Benjamin_D confirms this is achievable via category security settings by unchecking “create” permissions for non-admin groups. mattdm adds that the topic timer feature — particularly “delete replies after N days” — could be useful for managing feedback longevity, allowing moderators to preserve valuable replies by moving them to new topics. The consensus is that this configuration is straightforward using built-in Discourse category permissions and optional automation features.
I’ve used discourse for numerous communities I’m involved with but have never set up my own community. My question is this: Is it possible for the admin or moderator to be the ony ones to have permissions to create new topics, categories and posts, whilst letting other logged in users contribute within these pre-created topics/posts ( So in a sense the forum is static (and can only be expanded by admin) but all currently existing topics/posts are open for all to hold discussions within.
if this is possible how would I go about this sort of configuration or find the documentation to guide me?
Thanks everyone or anyone!
Hi,
Sure, I think you’re looking for the categories security settings “reply” and “create”.
You just have to uncheck “create” for the group(s) where every guest would be
Yeah, this is easily done with the category settings.
Depending on your use case, you might also find the topic timer feature useful, and in particular the “delete replies after N days” option. That makes it so people can give feedback but that doesn’t stay around forever. You can move the more useful replies to a new topic to preserve them.
