"auto close topic sensitivity" vs "num flaggers to close topic"

I think that auto-closing topics based on multiple unique user flags when the conversation goes south is a brilliant feature of Discourse. I just don’t understand these two settings:

  • num flaggers to close topic Minimum number of unique flaggers that is required to automatically pause a topic for intervention
  • auto close topic sensitivity The likelihood that a flagged topic will be automatically closed

How can there be a low/med/high sensitivity setting if there is also a finite number of unique user flags that will close the topic?

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Good question, I have this puzzle for a long time. Did anyone from the team answer that?

This is how I understand it

This is the minimum required flags to close the topic. It could end up being more…

…Which I assume this setting controls. I understand it as how many flags after the minimum the topic will close. Lower sensitivity is closer to the minimum, and higher is further from it.

This one is how many different people need to have cast at least one flag on a post in the topic for it to be eligible for auto-closing (default 5). This stops one person getting giddy and flagging everything, forcing an auto-close.

This one is based on the combined score of the reviewables. The higher the sensitivity, the lower the score needed. So a tranche of low-scoring ‘something else’ flags may not trigger an auto-close even if more than 5 people sent one in.

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