Best practices for archiving topics

Feature
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This post has been updated re-posted here:

Original post below

I was trying to get a handle on what “archiving” a topic does compared to “closing”, I walked though the code and made a few notes - which I thought I would share.

I just want to point out and re-iterate that @codinghorror’s post here really does visually display quite well this functionality:

##So how does “Archiving” vs. “Closing” a topic compare?

###Common to both

  • Displays a “lock” icon next to topic in lists
  • It is possible for two lock icons to display if both closed and archived: Close and Archive a Topic
  • Disables replying to topic
  • Disables voting.
  • Disables “Invite” button at bottom of topic.
  • Closing or archiving a topic does not bump its last activity date.

###Specific to Archived topics

  • Disables users ability to a delete a post.
  • Disables likes.
  • Disables display in “all categories” “latest” page (usually the homepage for logged in users).
  • Disables display of topic on the /top page
  • Disables inclusion in digest emails.
  • Disables display of topic in “random” topics list in footer of topic page.
  • Continues to allow flagging of topic or posts.
  • Continues to allow bookmarking.
  • Continues to be displayed in the Unread list (i.e. you see the post marking it as Archived, this is by design).

##Where do they go?

##The Future

And I also noted this comment, which indicates that what archive ultimately means might change:

There is further discussion in this topic:
How should category archiving work?

If you spot an error or something changed, please do reply to this post - I’ll update it.
Perhaps this could be a start of a spec post for archived topics?

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