In a discussion about whether regular users should be allowed to archive or close their own topics, Greg_Swallow proposes enabling this feature, especially for categories like buy/sell or event discussions, where topics become irrelevant after an event or sale. sam suggests it could be implemented as a category-level permission, similar to read/write access, though notes that the current permission system may not easily support this. Greg_Swallow agrees that whether archiving is appropriate should depend on the category’s subject matter. He references an earlier discussion on closing topics (meta.discourse.org/t/closing-own-created-topics-for-users-at-level-3/12414/8) and questions the distinction between closing and archiving. Mittineague clarifies that closing a topic prevents new posts but still allows editing existing ones, while archiving disables all non-staff interactions. Greg_Swallow acknowledges that archiving might be better reserved for admins/mods, but suggests that allowing users to simply “close” their own topics would be acceptable. codinghorror confirms that archiving fully disables all non-staff activity within a topic, including edits and replies. The consensus leans toward allowing topic closure (not full archiving) for users, possibly via category-specific permissions, to avoid clutter without compromising moderation control.
Is there an easy way to allow regular users to be able to archive a topic they started? I don’t think this feature would be abused for what I’m considering using discourse for. For example for a buy and sell category, where the item is sold, or maybe a category discussing events, where the event is over, it would be good if the original poster could archive the topic themselves.
A point in the right direction would be appreciated. Thanks!
I can see this as a permission on a category (like read write, etc)
However mucking with the permission system is not something I am super eager to have done leading up to V1.
Right, I think that makes sense. It depends on they subject of the category whether it would be appropriate or not.
I was searching here regarding ‘archiving’ topics, but I found now that this was discussed a bit already in regards to ‘closing’ topics - https://meta.discourse.org/t/closing-own-created-topics-for-users-at-level-3/12414/8 - where in that discussion it was basically decided that it was not good to have the power in general for users, but it wasn’t discussed on a per-category level.
By the way, I can’t find the definition/function of closing a topic vs archiving a topic. What is the difference?
Closing a Topic won’t allow any new posts but will allow post editing
Archiving closes the Topic to both new posts and post editing.
OK, so maybe ‘archive’ is more of an admin/mod level task, but pretty much the same thing. I would be ok with just letting them ‘close’ their own topic, but that is also not possible either at the moment I guess.
Archiving disables all non-staff actions in the topic, including like.