Sometimes it’s tough to tell what action to take when you don’t want/need your whole community seeing a certain post. Anyone have general rules of thumb for when you perform each action within your community?
AI-generated summary
The discussion revolves around guidelines for managing posts in a community, specifically when to close, delete, unlist, or make a post a private message (PM). bradydowling initiates the conversation, seeking best practices for handling unwanted or sensitive content. codinghorror clarifies that closing is appropriate for discussions that are resolved or unproductive, while deleting is reserved for harmful or off-topic content. Unlisting is used for topics with security concerns or low general interest, and making a post a PM is safer when personal details are involved. jomaxro adds that closing is also suitable for resolved questions or support requests. jomaxro also suggests changing the category as an alternative to restrict access. erlend_sh references a meta-discourse post for further clarification on the differences between closed, unlisted, and archived topics.
Close: discussion is too contentious, not going in a productive direction, endless.
Delete: discussion is harmful / hurtful, went in a flat out wrong direction, needs to be restarted from square zero
Unlist: Possible security implications, or not of general interest to the wider audience at all, highly specific to one person
Make PM: same as unlist, but “safer” since nobody can visit the URL any more. If you will need personal or intimate details to go further, probably a wise choice vs Unlist.
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I’d also add that close is frequently used when discussion is done - i.e. a question that has a conclusive answer, a support request that has been solved/resolved, etc.
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Interesting, that’s really helpful. I had the same thoughts about PM and Unlist but I still haven’t formulated an official guideline for Close and Delete so this is a good starting point.
One other option you did not list: change the category. If you have a category with restricted permissions (like the default lounge and staff categories), changing the category will prevent those without permissions from seeing and/or replying to the topic.
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Also see this:
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