In a Support category thread titled “UI tool or plugin for notifying users of a related topic,” Ralph3 asked for a way to notify users of a new, related topic while archiving older discussions — specifically for reading group use. awesomerobot recommended using Discourse’s built-in “staff notice” feature, accessible via the 
icon under a post, which displays a banner above the post. They also suggested closing the topic and adding a custom message via the 
button to redirect users. Jagster praised the solution, expressing surprise at the feature’s utility and reflecting on how much of Discourse’s functionality they had overlooked, hinting at a need to review documentation more thoroughly. Ralph3 thanked awesomerobot and confirmed they would test the staff notice approach, expressing optimism about its suitability for their needs. The discussion highlights how Discourse’s native tools can effectively support community moderation and topic linking without requiring plugins.
We’re holding a series of reading groups where participants will discuss, in part, some of our older forum topics.
We want to create a new forum topic to collect posts from those in the reading group, and we’d also like to put a banner or similar at the top of the older topic letting people know that there’s a directly related topic on the forum.
Is there a built-in UI tool or plugin that we could use for this purpose?
There are a couple built-in features you can take advantage of.
To add a banner at the top of a topic, you could use the “staff notice” option (click the 
below a post to see these options):
The message appears above a post like this
You can also close the topic so new replies can’t be posted. After you close a topic, you can use the 
button on the right to add a custom message:
That is… wonderful tool. It solved one of my headaches. I didn’t have no idea what so ever it can be used that way. Bloody good OP did that question.
I’m just wondering how many other ways to use Discourse I’ve missed. Should I read more faqs and manuals 
Thanks very much for your “staff notice” recommendation. We’re going to give that a try. If it proves unsuitable I’ll come back, but I’m optimistic about it. Cheers.
