# Automatically delete topics in a category if no reply within set period
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/automatically-delete-topics-in-a-category-if-no-reply-within-set-period/167483
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [October 17, 2020, 10:31pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/automatically-delete-topics-in-a-category-if-no-reply-within-set-period/167483 "2020-10-17T22:31:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2020, 10:31pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/automatically-delete-topics-in-a-category-if-no-reply-within-set-period/167483/1 "2020-10-17T22:31:05Z")
I’ve set up [RSS Polling](https://meta.discourse.org/t/configure-the-discourse-rss-polling-plugin/156387) and would like to be able to automatically delete the RSS topics after a while if nobody has replied to them. Would it be possible to have this done automatically?
Thanks.
---
### Author:  [@RGJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/RGJ)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2020, 6:00am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/automatically-delete-topics-in-a-category-if-no-reply-within-set-period/167483/2 "2020-10-18T06:00:17Z")
I’ve built a plugin for that a while ago: [Delete Unreplied Topics plugin](https://meta.discourse.org/t/delete-unreplied-topics-plugin/163546)
---
### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2020, 6:46am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/automatically-delete-topics-in-a-category-if-no-reply-within-set-period/167483/3 "2020-10-18T06:46:21Z")
I _had_ decided not to install any third-party plugins… but this does exactly match what I need…
Your plugin is short and elegantly written so I hope wouldn’t be a problem but, in general, is there any way to confirm before each upgrade that a third-party plugin will still work?
_Edit: moved comments on plugin to its topic._
---
### Author:  [@RGJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/RGJ)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2020, 8:40am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/automatically-delete-topics-in-a-category-if-no-reply-within-set-period/167483/4 "2020-10-18T08:40:35Z")
You’ll always need to test, or to lag sufficiently behind with updating (so other people will have tested for you).
---
### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2020, 10:03am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/automatically-delete-topics-in-a-category-if-no-reply-within-set-period/167483/5 "2020-10-18T10:03:14Z")
Thanks. Some other places have a centralised way for authors to state which versions of the core software their plugins/extensions work with. Would you be willing to edit your “read me” page to this effect?
---
### Author:  [@RGJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/RGJ)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2020, 10:36am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/automatically-delete-topics-in-a-category-if-no-reply-within-set-period/167483/6 "2020-10-18T10:36:03Z")
No, I won’t be doing that, because that means I need to maintain that information.
The plugin is in active use by one of our clients and that means that we will keep it up to date with at least the stable branch. But there could always be a few days between the release of a new stable version and the updating of the plugin.
Given the fact that this specific plugin is not monkey patching any methods I doubt that it will ever be able to break in such a way that your Discourse instance will be unusable.
---
### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2020, 10:46am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/automatically-delete-topics-in-a-category-if-no-reply-within-set-period/167483/7 "2020-10-18T10:46:07Z")
That’s understandable - and reassuring. Yes I can’t imagine Discourse changing so fundamentally as to break your plugin, but I’m new to this. Thanks again.
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2020, 5:54am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/automatically-delete-topics-in-a-category-if-no-reply-within-set-period/167483/8 "2020-10-23T05:54:45Z")
This is one that I think should maybe be in core @sam as a category level setting.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2020, 5:54am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/automatically-delete-topics-in-a-category-if-no-reply-within-set-period/167483/9 "2020-11-22T05:54:48Z")
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.