# Can I effectively make a topic read-only?

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-effectively-make-a-topic-read-only/41582
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [2016年三月25日 22:49 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-effectively-make-a-topic-read-only/41582 "2016-03-25T22:49:56Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![carninglipartners](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a87d85/32.png) [@carninglipartners](https://meta.discourse.org/u/carninglipartners)
#### Post date: [2016年三月25日 22:49 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-effectively-make-a-topic-read-only/41582/1 "2016-03-25T22:49:56Z")

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Last year I installed a Discourse instance set up on a Digital Ocean droplet. It has worked fine, but now I want to make a series of related posts on a certain topic over a period of several months and make them read only.

I would like discussion of these posts to take place in a separate topic so that the original ‘diary-like’ posts are kept apart.

Is this possible or indeed desirable?

Thanks  
Dan

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### Author: ![cpradio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/cpradio/32/4970_2.png) [@cpradio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/cpradio)
#### Post date: [2016年三月25日 22:50 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-effectively-make-a-topic-read-only/41582/2 "2016-03-25T22:50:46Z")

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Close them? The Reply as Linked Topic will still work, or you can customize the close message to point them to the Discussion topic.

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### Author: ![pfaffman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/pfaffman/32/120154_2.png) [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [2016年三月26日 22:26 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-effectively-make-a-topic-read-only/41582/3 "2016-03-26T22:26:00Z")

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> [@carninglipartners](#):
>
> Last year I installed a Discourse instance set up on a Digital Ocean droplet. It has worked fine, but now I want to make a series of related posts on a certain topic over a period of several months and make them read only.

I do this for challenges (aka assignments) that are presented in categories that are read-only (everyone can “see”, admin can create/reply/see). Students are instructed to reply-as-linked-topic and post their responses in a different category. It works pretty well, though the reply-as-linked-topic button is hidden if your mouse isn’t on the message, which some people find confusing.

This solution has each student create a new topic for their solution. If what you want is a single conversation about the read-only message, then what you might want to do is reply-as-linked-topic yourself and put that new topic into a category that is see/reply for everyone.

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### Author: ![system](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/system/32/443519_2.png) [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [2018年十二月31日 13:46 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-effectively-make-a-topic-read-only/41582/4 "2018-12-31T13:46:51Z")

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### 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: [2018年十二月31日 18:38 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-effectively-make-a-topic-read-only/41582/5 "2018-12-31T18:38:02Z")

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Archiving a topic would be closer to true read only. Closing a topic only prevents replies, it still allows other actions (likes, edits within the allowed edit window, etc).

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### Author: ![system](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/system/32/443519_2.png) [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [2021年十二月1日 06:20 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-effectively-make-a-topic-read-only/41582/6 "2021-12-01T06:20:49Z")

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