Use a Topic Timer to schedule a topic to be published in the future

Topic timers can be used to create a topic that can be scheduled to be published in the future at a later date. All timers can be used by staff (admin & moderators) as well as TL4 users

Overview

At a high level, these are steps to schedule a topic to be published in the future.

  1. Create a new topic and publish it to a private category
  2. Click the admin “wrench” icon next to the first post of the topic
  3. Select “Set Topic Timer…”
  4. Choose the publish time and select the category you would like it to appear in

Details

Here are some more detailed step by step instructions on how to create a timed topic.

Create a new Topic in a private category

  1. Press the “New Topic” button at the top of your forum just like you normally would:
  2. Add a title
  3. Select a “Private Category” like “Staff” that you can temporarily publish this topic to. You may even want to create a new private category for this purpose called “Scheduled Topics”.
  4. Write the content of the topic.
  5. Press “Create Topic”. Yes this topic will be published at the current time, but that is why we selected a private category so nobody will see it.

Schedule it to be published in a new category later

  1. Click the admin “wrench” icon next to the first post of the topic
  2. Select “Set Topic Timer…”
  3. Select the “Schedule Publishing” dropdown option:
  4. Choose the time and category to publish the topic
  5. Click the “Set Timer” button.

Review Changes

Now you can see when and where the topic will go live a new section at the bottom of the topic:

Verify your changes and make sure it will be published at the correct time and in the correct category. You can edit or delete the timer by clicking the :pencil2: and :wastebasket: buttons.

When the scheduled post is later published the timestamp will be updated accordingly.

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