Is there a plugin for Discourse forum that allows hiding and replying privately to unwanted comments or replies?

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We use Discourse forum to interact with our customers. However, we have a scenario that we need help with. It is described below:

  1. We have a product called XYZ that has a forum for customers to share their feedback and queries.
  2. Our moderators and admins are responsible for monitoring the forum and ensuring that there are no negative or spam comments or replies that can harm or mislead other customers.
  3. Sometimes, we encounter customers who post rude, offensive, or irrelevant comments or replies that violate our forum rules and etiquette.
  4. To prevent these customers from affecting the forum atmosphere and quality, we want to hide their comments or replies from the rest of the forum and reply to them privately within the same thread.
  5. This way, we can address their issues or concerns without exposing them to other customers. We can also make them feel that they are still part of the conversation and being respected.

Is there any plugin that would help us achieve this? I am developer, but I have never worked on Ruby or any Discourse plugin development before.I would greatly appreciate any advice or guidance on the development approach, such as which hooks or which APIs we should use to implement the desired functionality. Or any plugin that handles a similar scenario.

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Have you read the Discourse Moderation Guide ?

That’s a good place to start.

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It seems like a duplicate/continuation to this topic

It doesn’t seem like a sustainable practice, but you could try searching for ‘shadowban’. I don’t know of one that works at the topic level.

If you have a budget you could post in marketplace

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Also if you are not hung-up about total “privacy”, “Unlisting” is a way of taking a Topic off the mainstream view and calming it down without it appearing for others in lists and digests (even though direct links will still be accessible by the same people).

It’s a bit like having a huddle in the corner with someone even though others can see the huddle if they are told where to look and can listen in if they really want to (but are unlikely to have their attention drawn to the huddle).

I believe staff can always see an Unlisted Topic in lists, and you can always re-List if you feel the issue is resolved sufficiently.

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