One topic to rule them all

Product Support

AI-generated summary

In a support discussion titled “One topic to rule them all,” ncaming215 seeks a way to cross-post or pin a single topic across all 32 team subcategories on their football forum (thedenforum.com), to ensure broad visibility without relying on banners or alerts, which they feel lack UX integration. Heliosurge asks for clarification, suggesting a master link or pinned topic. merefield explains Discourse’s two pin types — Category (local) and Global — and suggests moving a topic to the parent category before pinning it locally. ncaming215 clarifies that global pins don’t appear in subcategories, referencing a meta thread on this confusion. merefield clarifies they never claimed global pins propagate to subcats, reiterating that moving the topic to the parent category first allows a local pin to serve the purpose. Heliosurge acknowledges possible miscommunication and suggests exploring theme components if core features fall short. The core issue remains: no native way to auto-propagate a pinned topic across all subcategories, requiring manual placement or custom development.

1

Hi all,

With the way we’re set-up, we have micro-communities that will be largely on one category most of the time. Is there anyway for there to be a “one topic to rule them all” option, where a topic can be cross-posted to ensure visibility to all users?

I thought maybe subcats would inherit permissions from the parent, so perhaps that was a route, but evidenly that isn’t the case.

Thoughts? Or at least a way to accomplish this? (Yes, the banner topic is a possibility, but the UX is entirely different from the threads).

2

I think may need more info. Can you give an example of sorts?

Like are you simply looking for each new/sub topic to link to a main topic?

You could for example add a master link to 1 topic for example in the main site bar could be one idea.

3

So, we run a football site (thedenforum.com). There’s 32 teams, so there’s 32 subcategories (under a General parent forum). For the most part, users (fans) will hang in their own designated category. However, there’s times I need to communicate something across all users—which the alert bar and banner topic just don’t convey (mostly a UX thing).

A pinned topic that surfaces across all categories would work well. Perhaps it originates from the Parent category?

This would give maximum flexibility as an admin, while entering into the threaded discussions with important information.

4

There are two types of pins: Category (a regular Pin) and Global.

Just go to the Topic menu.

You can also move a Topic to a Parent Category, then pin it as a regular pin.

5

True there is that option as well.

6

As @merefield has mentioned the 2 types of pins.

With it say with you needing to communicate to all members you could create a post and pin it globally for max visibility as a banner.

7

Global pin in the parent category does not pin it to the subcategory (that would be a solution if that were the case). There’s an entire other thread on the confusion over the language here.

8

I didn’t state it did? The normal pin pins to the topics current level I believe.

9

My bad, I thought that’s what you were inferring!

10

Nope and hence why I suggested moving the topic first to get it to the right level if you don’t intend a global pin.

11

My bad if my post led you to that conclusion.

It was more to help see if base features can do what your looking for or if you msy need a theme/theme component.