# Category-level auto-delete topics the same as auto-close feature
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-level-auto-delete-topics-the-same-as-auto-close-feature/138361
**Category:** Feature
**Tags:** topic-timers
**Created:** [12 januari 2020 om 05:23 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-level-auto-delete-topics-the-same-as-auto-close-feature/138361 "2020-01-12T05:23:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Pad\_Pors](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Pad_Pors)
#### Post date: [12 januari 2020 om 05:23 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-level-auto-delete-topics-the-same-as-auto-close-feature/138361/1 "2020-01-12T05:23:38Z")
this is a feature request to make it possible to have a category where users are **free to discuss without any concern**.
two use cases I can think of:
- for newbies who may be afraid to participate, one can config a category whose topics are temporary and is more like a test environment (like [try.discourse.com](http://try.discourse.com)).
- for countries with lots of censorship (less freedom of words), it’d be much safer for users to discuss temporarily rather than permanent.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [13 januari 2020 om 00:33 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-level-auto-delete-topics-the-same-as-auto-close-feature/138361/2 "2020-01-13T00:33:34Z")
I raised this here:
> [@Automatically delete replies after N days](https://meta.discourse.org/t/automatically-delete-replies-after-n-days/128759):
>
> For the various knowledge base topics we have I would like to have a special timer for: Replies on this topic are automatically deleted after N days I think this is a very powerful tool for keeping documentation topics clean. I would have this on most documentation topics on meta. It means people can reply to them but they know upfront that replies are like tears in the rain. If you want something permanent: Open a new topic or Edit the OP Even though we can do this pruning …
The general consensus now is that we want to build something like this. I am going to slot it to next release.
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### Author:  [@Pad\_Pors](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Pad_Pors)
#### Post date: [14 januari 2020 om 09:21 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-level-auto-delete-topics-the-same-as-auto-close-feature/138361/3 "2020-01-14T09:21:42Z")
thanks but I guess the functionality of these two features are opposite to each other. as you mentioned in the linked topic, the “auto-delete reply” feature is best for keeping well-documented topics, while the “auto-delete topic” feature is ideal for temporary discussions.
isn’t it possible to have both features?
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [14 januari 2020 om 10:08 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-level-auto-delete-topics-the-same-as-auto-close-feature/138361/4 "2020-01-14T10:08:54Z")
Sure… we already have auto delete topic, so you can consider that done 👍
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### Author:  [@Pad\_Pors](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Pad_Pors)
#### Post date: [14 januari 2020 om 14:58 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-level-auto-delete-topics-the-same-as-auto-close-feature/138361/5 "2020-01-14T14:58:44Z")
yes of course, then is it possible to add a setting to the categories as “ **auto-delete topics in this category after … minutes** ”, just like “auto-close” setting? I’m looking for some way to set a temporary discussion category, and it’d be hard and boring if admins need to set the topics of a category for auto-deletion by hand.
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### Author:  [@memeta](https://meta.discourse.org/u/memeta)
#### Post date: [21 oktober 2020 om 20:03 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-level-auto-delete-topics-the-same-as-auto-close-feature/138361/6 "2020-10-21T20:03:17Z")
> [@Is there a way to auto-delete a post?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-auto-delete-a-post/51617/8):
>
> auto delete/hide for all topics […] similar to how you can set auto close topic on the category
Like @jessicat and @Pad_Pors, I’m interested in such a category-wide setting that automatically deletes topics within a category. I can see that stickies should be preserved with such a function. Maybe optional, topics with many bookmarks or likes could be kept, too, although I’m not interested in that. Do I overlook other topics that should not be deleted?
I figured with _auto close_ and [Automatically delete replies after N days](https://meta.discourse.org/t/automatically-delete-replies-after-n-days/128759) most of the similar code should already be there and would just have to be adapted and put into a plugin. But the pull-request is overwhelming me.
Are there or have there already been further steps in this direction? Does the team or the community have any further interest in this?
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### Author:  [@PhilippBoeing](https://meta.discourse.org/u/PhilippBoeing)
#### Post date: [28 januari 2021 om 12:22 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-level-auto-delete-topics-the-same-as-auto-close-feature/138361/7 "2021-01-28T12:22:47Z")
I think this would be very useful as well.
We have a category where each post is a wiki (for our internal documentation). We use replies to discuss change-requests and these are deleted after 30 days.
We can set up auto wiki on a category level, but it would be really great if we can automatically add a topic timer (auto delete replies after X days) to each new topic in the category. Right now we have to do it manually for each topic which is a lot of extra clicks.
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### Author:  [@bigfudge](https://meta.discourse.org/u/bigfudge)
#### Post date: [8 april 2021 om 12:02 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-level-auto-delete-topics-the-same-as-auto-close-feature/138361/8 "2021-04-08T12:02:06Z")
> [@PhilippBoeing](#):
>
> it would be really great if we can automatically add a topic timer (auto delete replies after X days) to each new topic in the category. Right now we have to do it manually for each
I came here to see if this was possible/request the feature. It would be really useful. Our use-case is a student-support forum where we’d like questions to time out after a specific period of time to avoid cluttering the category with prosaic queries/noise. We’d like to be able to manually preserve some topics where they have lasting relevance, but this would not be the default
Relatedly, it would be cool to have an admin/moderator feature where topics that are about to be deleted can be reviewed before they go. If a moderator could subscribe to a weekly digest of to-be-deletd topics and replies that would be even better.
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### Author:  [@suteroun](https://meta.discourse.org/u/suteroun)
#### Post date: [3 maart 2022 om 18:08 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-level-auto-delete-topics-the-same-as-auto-close-feature/138361/9 "2022-03-03T18:08:43Z")
I also desperately need this function 🙋♂️
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### Author:  [@mattdm](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mattdm)
#### Post date: [13 februari 2023 om 22:16 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-level-auto-delete-topics-the-same-as-auto-close-feature/138361/10 "2023-02-13T22:16:29Z")
> [@bigfudge](#):
>
> We’d like to be able to manually preserve some topics where they have lasting relevance, but this would not be the default
Yes. I think options could be:
- Only delete closed topics
- Only delete archived topics
- Don’t delete closed topics
- Don’t delete archived topics
- Don’t delete closed topics
- Don’t delete pinned topics
- Don’t delete topics with solutions\[1\]
- Don’t delete topics with at least \_\_\_\_ hearts (or other reactions)
- Don’t delete topics with at least \_\_\_\_ votes\[2\]
- Don’t delete topics with at least \_\_\_\_ replies
Also: if this does get attention sometime, it makes sense to me to add “Archive” at the same time.
* * *
1. if that plugin is enabled, of course
2. again, if the plug is enabled
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### Author:  [@Gunnar](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Gunnar)
#### Post date: [26 februari 2024 om 00:16 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-level-auto-delete-topics-the-same-as-auto-close-feature/138361/11 "2024-02-26T00:16:47Z")
I’d like to add our voice to this request. We’d like to have a setting for each Category where the admins can (optionally) set a default auto-delete topic timer for all posts to that category.
In our case we have a Classified Ads category and I’d like to keep it tidy by having all ads (topics) older than N days be deleted automatically.
Thanks
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### Author:  [@patrickemin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/patrickemin)
#### Post date: [29 maart 2024 om 03:05 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-level-auto-delete-topics-the-same-as-auto-close-feature/138361/12 "2024-03-29T03:05:10Z")
I’d like to have this functionality as well.
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### Author:  [@KhoiUSA](https://meta.discourse.org/u/KhoiUSA)
#### Post date: [11 juli 2024 om 23:28 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-level-auto-delete-topics-the-same-as-auto-close-feature/138361/13 "2024-07-11T23:28:49Z")
I’d also like to have this as a feature, my forum has a knowledgebase and currently staff have to manually append reply-deleting topic timers to each post that is created by our users.
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### Author:  [@patrickemin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/patrickemin)
#### Post date: [22 augustus 2024 om 14:18 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-level-auto-delete-topics-the-same-as-auto-close-feature/138361/14 "2024-08-22T14:18:35Z")
Hi, this feature request would really be great for my use case, others have mentioned its importance. Is there a plan to implement it? Thanks.
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### Author:  [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [28 augustus 2024 om 13:47 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-level-auto-delete-topics-the-same-as-auto-close-feature/138361/15 "2024-08-28T13:47:19Z")
3 posts were split to a new topic: [Plugin to introduce auto-delete as a category-level option](https://meta.discourse.org/t/plugin-to-introduce-auto-delete-as-a-category-level-option/323769)
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### Author:  [@patrickemin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/patrickemin)
#### Post date: [30 augustus 2024 om 16:23 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-level-auto-delete-topics-the-same-as-auto-close-feature/138361/16 "2024-08-30T16:23:06Z")
Found this plugin which answers my need:
> [@Delete Unreplied Topics plugin](https://meta.discourse.org/t/delete-unreplied-topics-plugin/163546):
>
> The Delete Unreplied Topics plugin scans designated categories for topics that exist over x days which did not get any replies, and deletes them. This keeps your forum clean of topics that did not gain any traction for whatever reason. Settings: delete\_unreplied\_topics\_categories the categories to work on delete\_unreplied\_topics\_days the amount of days before a topic without any posts will be deleted delete\_unreplied\_topics\_dry\_run a safety net to test and make sure the plugin will not delete…
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### Author:  [@alltiagocom](https://meta.discourse.org/u/alltiagocom)
#### Post date: [8 maart 2025 om 10:58 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-level-auto-delete-topics-the-same-as-auto-close-feature/138361/17 "2025-03-08T10:58:35Z")
Thanks for sharing this plugin.
This can be a step forward.
I suggested the developer to maybe use that plugin as a foundation for a new plugin to actually delete topics that are older than N days.
Fingers crossed…
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [27 mei 2026 om 23:21 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-level-auto-delete-topics-the-same-as-auto-close-feature/138361/18 "2026-05-27T23:21:36Z")
This will be solveable quite cleanly with Discourse Workflows.