# Can I effectively make a topic read-only?

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-effectively-make-a-topic-read-only/41582>\
**Category:** Product Support\
**Created:** [25.Март.2016 22:49:56 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-i-effectively-make-a-topic-read-only/41582 "2016-03-25T22:49:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 3

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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:** [26.Март.2016 22:26:00 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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