# Instantly auto-lock topics in a category (or create+see but NOT reply perms)

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/instantly-auto-lock-topics-in-a-category-or-create-see-but-not-reply-perms/75385>\
**Category:** Feature\
**Created:** [2017年十二月4日 23:39 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/instantly-auto-lock-topics-in-a-category-or-create-see-but-not-reply-perms/75385 "2017-12-04T23:39:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lilly\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b5ac83/32.png) [@Lilly\_S](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Lilly_S)\
**Post date:** [2017年十二月4日 23:39 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/instantly-auto-lock-topics-in-a-category-or-create-see-but-not-reply-perms/75385/1 "2017-12-04T23:39:58Z")

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Hi Discourse,

We have recently created a new category on our forum designed to act as a repository for announcements and game patch notes _by our community_. This means that the topics in these sections should be read-only, but topics can be created by users with trust levels \>=1. We have enabled auto-locking topics after one hour, but this is not ideal. We would like to be able to have these topics instantly locked.

Alternatively, the ability to have `create + see but not reply` permissions for categories would be fantastic and enable the exact behavior we’re trying to accomplish.

Thank you!  
Lilly

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**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)\
**Post date:** [2017年十二月5日 00:27 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/instantly-auto-lock-topics-in-a-category-or-create-see-but-not-reply-perms/75385/2 "2017-12-05T00:27:15Z")

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Isn’t this already possible? Simply set the permissions such that only users with trust level {x} are allowed to create topics there, then close them after creation.

I’m unclear why auto-close isn’t acceptable?

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**Author:** ![Lilly\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b5ac83/32.png) [@Lilly\_S](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Lilly_S)\
**Post date:** [2017年十二月5日 02:30 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/instantly-auto-lock-topics-in-a-category-or-create-see-but-not-reply-perms/75385/3 "2017-12-05T02:30:15Z")

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Hmm interesting, thanks for the response - could I get steps for this? Our forum admin can’t seem to figure out how to make it so they can only create topics and not reply to them.

Thanks,  
Lilly

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**Author:** ![pfaffman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/pfaffman/32/120154_2.png) [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)\
**Post date:** [2017年十二月5日 03:09 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/instantly-auto-lock-topics-in-a-category-or-create-see-but-not-reply-perms/75385/4 "2017-12-05T03:09:41Z")

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Set auto close topic hours to a very small number. I just set it to 0.01. I didn’t test it, but it seems like it should work.

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**Author:** ![Lilly\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b5ac83/32.png) [@Lilly\_S](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Lilly_S)\
**Post date:** [2017年十二月5日 03:16 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/instantly-auto-lock-topics-in-a-category-or-create-see-but-not-reply-perms/75385/5 "2017-12-05T03:16:01Z")

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This seems to have worked great. Thanks Jay!