# Best practices for archiving topics

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/best-practices-for-archiving-topics/27069
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [2015年四月1日 18:17 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/best-practices-for-archiving-topics/27069 "2015-04-01T18:17:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 4

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [2015年四月1日 23:02 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/best-practices-for-archiving-topics/27069/4 "2015-04-01T23:02:18Z")

</div>

It’s a subtle distinction but

> Close **only prevents new replies**.

and

> Archive **freezes a topic in carbonite so nothing about it can ever change**. _Ever._

Refer to this handy diagram:

 ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/d/d/dd981719e8f2e079af2a5c690076ded1fa534d69.jpg)

The idea is that archived topics would eventually be moved out or deleted. Archiving a topic means it has one foot in the grave.

---

_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/best-practices-for-archiving-topics/27069)._