The discussion revolves around the settings for auto-closing topics in Discourse: num flaggers to close topic and auto close topic sensitivity. rahim123 initially questions how these two settings interact, as they seem to serve the same purpose.
Firepup650 attempts to clarify the settings, explaining that num flaggers to close topic is the minimum number of unique flaggers required to pause a topic, while auto close topic sensitivity controls how many flags after the minimum are needed to close the topic. A lower sensitivity means fewer flags are required, while a higher sensitivity means more flags are needed.
JammyDodger provides further clarification, stating that num flaggers to close topic prevents a single person from forcing an auto-close by flagging everything, and that auto close topic sensitivity is based on the combined score of reviewables, with higher sensitivity requiring a lower score to trigger an auto-close.
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?
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.