I’ve closed a multitude of topics. It’s a hassle editing the close message after you’ve closed the topic. I propose a way to insert a close message before the topic closes.
The advantage of this would be that nobody would miss vital information. When you have to edit the close message, it’ll take at least 5 minutes to write a paragraph explaining why you closed the topic. People visiting during that time wouldn’t receive that close message information.
It is unusual for closes to need a ton of explanation. You could reply with the reason, then close. Why does it need to be in the close message proper? Or you could write it in advance, close, then edit and paste it in.
Alternately the canned responses plugin could be of use here.
Ninja’d - meh, posting anyway
Sorry, but I’m not following you.
What’s preventing you from making a “this topic is closed because” type of post before closing it?
If you wanted to you could even give it “staff color” to make it more official looking than a regular post.
Or your could write a quick post, close the topic, then edit your post with more info.