# Delete Unreplied Topics plugin

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/delete-unreplied-topics-plugin/163546
**Category:** Plugin
**Created:** [September 9, 2020, 7:42pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/delete-unreplied-topics-plugin/163546 "2020-09-09T19:42:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 23

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### Author: ![RGJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/rgj/32/523185_2.png) [@RGJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/RGJ)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2025, 11:12pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/delete-unreplied-topics-plugin/163546/23 "2025-03-09T23:12:44Z")

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> [@alltiagocom](#):
>
> Why is it a _good_ choice to delete topics that have replies older than N

Actually, I don’t think that is a good choice either?

And Discourse does not have such functionality, nor am I aware of a plugin that does this. Discourse is able to delete _replies_ after a certain amount of days (and TBH I think it’s one of its worst features, maybe only [autobumping old topics](https://meta.discourse.org/t/automatically-bumping-old-topics-on-a-category/92518) is worse).

> [@alltiagocom](#):
>
> Your plugin relies on the age of a reply.

No, it doesn’t. It removes topics with _no replies at all_.

> [@alltiagocom](#):
>
> Do you want people replying to your topic 6 months from now, when probably you sold the chair 1 week after you created the topic?

The obvious thing to do here is to have the topic auto close X days after the last reply / after creation or to manually close it after that chair has been sold. Keeping the topic gives people an idea of a) how to sell a chair b) what a chair is worth c) that a chair can be sold through the forum. A good example is the #Marketplace category right here on meta.

> [@alltiagocom](#):
>
> 1 - They know that they don’t have to worry about deleting their topic, in case they sell the item in those 2 weeks and forget about the topic;  
> 2 - If they don’t sell it in those 2 weeks, they just need to create a new topic.

This doesn’t make sense (at least to me) since the potential gain of #1 is less than the potential extra effort of #2.

> [@alltiagocom](#):
>
> is that the user (or anyone else) could keep “bumping” the post with replies like this `🔥`

Which can be prevented with settings like `Max consecutive replies`, `Min post length` and normal moderation.

Long story short, I would be reluctant to remove ANY topics (spam excluded), because the content is what defines your forum and its “culture”. It also breaks internal links, which can be frustrating to users.

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