The discussion revolves around a feature request to implement category-level auto-delete topics, similar to the existing auto-close feature. Pad_Pors initiates the thread by requesting this functionality to support temporary discussion environments, such as safe spaces for users in censored regions or test areas for newbies. sam notes that while auto-delete replies exists, the team is working on broader solutions, but Pad_Pors clarifies the need for a specific category-wide setting to automate topic deletion, arguing that manual administration is inefficient.
Several users express strong support for this feature. memeta highlights the need to preserve stickies and highly engaged topics while auto-deleting others. PhilippBoeing and bigfudge cite use cases involving internal wikis and student support forums, where automatic cleanup prevents clutter. bigfudge also suggests a review process for topics nearing deletion. mattdm proposes detailed configuration options, such as excluding pinned, archived, or highly reacted-to topics, and potentially archiving instead of deleting. Gunnar requests this for a classified ads category to keep listings current.
While Patrickemin shares a plugin for deleting unreplied topics, alltiagocom suggests it could be a foundation for a more robust solution. Finally, sam indicates that the feature will be addressed cleanly through Discourse Workflows, suggesting a native integration rather than a plugin-based workaround.
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).
for countries with lots of censorship (less freedom of words), it’d be much safer for users to discuss temporarily rather than permanent.
I raised this here:
The general consensus now is that we want to build something like this. I am going to slot it to next release.
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?
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.
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 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?
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.
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.
I also desperately need this function 
Yes. I think options could be:
Also: if this does get attention sometime, it makes sense to me to add “Archive” at the same time.
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
I’d like to have this functionality as well.
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.
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.
3 posts were split to a new topic: Plugin to introduce auto-delete as a category-level option
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…
This will be solveable quite cleanly with Discourse Workflows.
