# Discourse Category Lockdown
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-category-lockdown/70649
**Category:** Plugin
**Tags:** pavilion
**Created:** [September 23, 2017, 9:26pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-category-lockdown/70649 "2017-09-23T21:26:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 6
### Author:  [@jumagura](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jumagura)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2025, 4:14pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-category-lockdown/70649/117 "2025-02-20T16:14:56Z")
Thanks for reporting this! I’m aware of the deprecation warning, and a fix is already in the log. I’ve been busy, but I’ll address it soon. Appreciate your patience!
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### Author:  [@Jagster](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jagster)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2025, 8:27pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-category-lockdown/70649/118 "2025-02-23T20:27:06Z")
FYI: it doesn’t show the icon before locked topic. I don’t know how long it has been that way, but I have a feeling it has been missing longer time.
Sure, it can be a conflict with other plugin or something — but because it is a plugin, I don’t have too much enthusiasm to start dig deeper, unless I’m sure the issue lies on my end 😏
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### Author:  [@kendoer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/kendoer)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2025, 11:49am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-category-lockdown/70649/119 "2025-02-27T11:49:18Z")
Please let us know when the fix is on the way. Thank you very much for your hard work!
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### Author:  [@jumagura](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jumagura)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2025, 10:01pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-category-lockdown/70649/120 "2025-03-13T22:01:25Z")
I’ve just released the latest version of the plugin, which fixes the deprecation warnings and restores the missing icon.
You can check the changes here:
[https://github.com/paviliondev/discourse-category-lockdown/pull/19](https://github.com/paviliondev/discourse-category-lockdown/pull/19)
Thanks for your patience, and I appreciate the reports!
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### Author:  [@copymonopoly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/copymonopoly)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2025, 9:42am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-category-lockdown/70649/121 "2025-03-23T09:42:20Z")
Thank you so much for your plugin. I believe this is one of the greatest unofficial plugins ever! I was wondering if it would be technically possible to implement a tag lockdown feature, similar to your Discourse Category Lockdown. Would that be feasible?
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### Author:  [@satonotdead](https://meta.discourse.org/u/satonotdead)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2025, 12:04am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-category-lockdown/70649/122 "2025-06-20T00:04:38Z")
I wonder if it makes sense to enable the opposite behavior on this plugin in order to limit the topics only to a specific group.
That should allow us to motivate _lurkers_ to contribute on specific areas designated for them.
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### Author:  [@Ivan\_Rapekas](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Ivan_Rapekas)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2025, 9:46am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-category-lockdown/70649/123 "2025-08-15T09:46:09Z")
> [@satonotdead](#):
>
> to limit the topics only to a specific group
Agree with this idea!
Due to school age of some members of my forum, I ask their parents to send the agreement to use childrens’ personal data during their registration and getting proper grants.
When the parent sends an email, it is converted into an a topic (for history and law purposes). The parent becomes a staged user. But to work email-in topics the category must be accessible to anyone. Currently it is too open, not suitable for my case. Limitation only for staged users (if it possible to use it as an automatic group) might solve the problem.
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2025, 7:21am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-category-lockdown/70649/124 "2025-09-06T07:21:53Z")
> [@Ivan\_Rapekas](#):
>
> The parent becomes a staged user. But to work email-in topics the category must be accessible to anyone.
Are you sure? I think staged users can send emails even to categories that are staff only.
 
This configuration does not allow users with an account to post in that category because then the users’ permissions are checked and they aren’t allowed to interact with the category, but it works fine for staged users
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### Author:  [@RGJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/RGJ)
#### Post date: [September 6, 2025, 8:42am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-category-lockdown/70649/125 "2025-09-06T08:42:48Z")
Yes, that is correct, and it creates the weird situation where promotion from a staged user to an actual user can result in _less_ posting rights, which will lead to endless issues and a lot of misunderstandings.
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### Author:  [@Ivan\_Rapekas](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Ivan_Rapekas)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2025, 8:16pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-category-lockdown/70649/126 "2025-10-14T20:16:32Z")
> [@Moin](#):
>
> I think staged users can send emails even to categories that are staff only.
Sorry for the delay, you are absolutely right. Thank you for the solution!
I think something was wrong in my settings, probably `Email in allowed groups` which I “tuned” and set to `everybody`.
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### Author:  [@Ivan\_Rapekas](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Ivan_Rapekas)
#### Post date: [October 14, 2025, 11:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-category-lockdown/70649/127 "2025-10-14T23:39:09Z")
> [@RGJ](#):
>
> promotion from a staged user to an actual user can result in _less_ posting rights
Less posting rights are explainable. As a staged, the ‘user’ is actually not a user. It cannot login at all. After promotion it can login according initial trust level. That’s ok.
But I found a case concerning emailng during such promotion.
I wrote above, that my case is a parent sends an email to the forum without an account. He becomes a staged user. When admin answers its post, the staged user receives an email. This email contains some context and next steps to be done.
But when admin has activated staged account, the user in a moment cannot use emails (even to recieve URL to login without password). Admin have to impersonate new user to activate email feature for this user. Before this no chance to be notified such user about new direct message as well. (DM is created from original post as a proof of agreement delivery and allowance to continue interaction with a forum)
And only after impersonation admin can safely send DM to user to inform him or her with additional automatic email notification. Now user can login the first time.
Hope my text is clear 🙂
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### Author:  [@RGJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/RGJ)
#### Post date: [October 15, 2025, 5:59am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-category-lockdown/70649/128 "2025-10-15T05:59:26Z")
Is this specific to this plugin? If not, we should move this to a dedicated topic.
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### Author:  [@satonotdead](https://meta.discourse.org/u/satonotdead)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2026, 5:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-category-lockdown/70649/130 "2026-02-12T17:46:31Z")
I wonder if I’m the only one looking to display the first posts on locked-down categories?
My use case is to motivate subscriptions in a course (via Discourse Docs).
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### Author:  [@PatrickH](https://meta.discourse.org/u/PatrickH)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2026, 10:34am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-category-lockdown/70649/131 "2026-04-07T10:34:48Z")
> [@satonotdead](#):
>
> I wonder if I’m the only one looking to display the first posts on locked-down categories?
nope, me also.
But i don’t want this:
_It **IS NOT** designed to keep the contents of the category 100% private - if someone is determined enough they will be able to piece together the content from search results._
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### Author:  [@dylanb](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dylanb)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2026, 5:52pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-category-lockdown/70649/132 "2026-04-18T17:52:49Z")
> [@satonotdead](#):
>
> I wonder if I’m the only one looking to display the first posts on locked-down categories?
>
> My use case is to motivate subscriptions in a course (via Discourse Docs).
I would also like a way to make this happen. Want people to see some and then want to subscribe.
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### Author:  [@Luna\_Mora](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Luna_Mora)
#### Post date: [May 31, 2026, 1:36am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-category-lockdown/70649/133 "2026-05-31T01:36:27Z")
Getting a deprecation notice in console for this plugin:
```plaintext
deprecated.js:54 [PLUGIN discourse-category-lockdown] DEPRECATION NOTICE: The file 'discourse/plugins/discourse-category-lockdown/discourse/connectors/category-custom-security/lockdown-settings.hbs' uses the deprecated .hbs extension. Refactor it to use '.gjs' instead. [deprecation id: discourse.hbs-extension] [info: https://meta.discourse.org/t/398896]
```
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### Author:  [@jumagura](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jumagura)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2026, 4:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-category-lockdown/70649/134 "2026-06-17T16:47:52Z")
I’ve just released the latest version of the plugin, which fixes the deprecation warnings.
Thanks for your patience, and I appreciate the reports!
[https://github.com/paviliondev/discourse-category-lockdown/pull/21](https://github.com/paviliondev/discourse-category-lockdown/pull/21)
[Previous page](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-category-lockdown/70649.md?page=5)