In a discussion titled “Schedule publishing” under the Feature category, ganncamp explains they want to schedule the move of a user-created topic from a public category to a staff-only category (where only staff can create topics, but all users can reply) to highlight it as part of a weekly Monday feature. However, Discourse’s “scheduled publishing” feature—which actually schedules a topic’s move to another category—is unavailable for topics already public, since it’s designed to move from private to public. Jagster clarifies that the feature is essentially “scheduled move,” not true publishing, and suggests moving the topic first to a staff-only category to enable scheduling. ganncamp clarifies they want to promote user content to a more exclusive space—not the reverse—and prefers not to move it preemptively to a non-public category, as it could reduce visibility and violate transparency principles. Stephen questions whether manually moving it later differs from scheduled moving, since both result in a visible category change. ganncamp emphasizes the convenience of scheduling ahead of time to avoid forgetting manual moves. Jagster argues the current state doesn’t matter since the topic is already public, but ganncamp insists on preserving accessibility and serendipitous engagement. Falco supports the idea of promoting content across categories, though ganncamp clarifies their intent is to elevate public posts to a more curated, staff-managed space—not to broaden reach. The core issue remains: scheduled moves are restricted by source category permissions, and users want flexibility to schedule moves from public to restricted categories without compromising transparency or engagement.
We’re experimenting with a category where only staff can create new topics but everyone can reply. We post a weekly discussion topic on Mondays & for next week, I’d like to “promote” a topic initially created by a user.
I assumed I could schedule publishing for Monday like I did for this week’s topic.
As you know, I reckon, you can’t schedule publishing to same category, because it is… already published
Actually Discourse doesn’t have scheduled publishing. It has scheduled move to another category, what is called as scheduled publishing.
Bad UX, I think.
But I’m quite sure the team doesn’t change that too fast (they have tendency listen you, though ) so use it more ”expected” way: publish it first in staff-only category and schedule it with moving to users-reply category. Problem solved.
Ehm… I thought about that. But I’m hesitant to move a user’s post to a place he wouldn’t be able to find it (yes, he can track it down through his user activity, but…)
We have a core principle of transparency, and a move feels like it would go against that.
What is the issue if you allow that category only (writing/reading) for staff and then you will schedule it to category, where topics are allowed only for staff and replying for everyone else?
Because I can’t schedule this, then I’ll be moving it manually. I had hoped to “set it and forget it”. And without the ability to schedule the move ahead of time, I have to remember to do the move on Monday.
Right, but your choices are to move it from the current category to a category where it can be scheduled from, or to wait until scheduled publishing allows it to go direct from current category to published category.
The option to schedule publishing is tied to the permissions of the source category, not the destination.
Either way the user will see their topic move categories, no?
I truly don’t understand this. I can’t schedule the move. That’s my whole point. So I’ll have to remember to do this manually on Monday with no extra help from the platform.
And yes, the user will obviously see the move. In fact I PM’d him yesterday to explain what we plan and why.
I’m asking for the ability to set up the move when I’m thinking about it, rather than having to remember to do it later. I’m sure you’ve never forgotten something you meant to do, but I have.
Moving it so I can schedule it means moving it to a non-public category, which I don’t want to do. Maybe someone will come across his post in the meantime and give an answer (probably not, but it could happen). I don’t want to prevent that. And as I said earlier, I don’t want to put the user’s post in a place that he, himself wouldn’t be able to (get to to) find it in.
Because…