Is there a way to auto archive a topic?

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AI-generated summary

The discussion revolves around the possibility of auto-archiving topics in Discourse. Avraham inquires about two options: automatically archiving or deleting topics after a certain time in a specific category, and allowing topic creators to set a lifespan for their posts. ondrej points out that manual archiving is currently the only option, but suggests submitting a feature request for the second option. Additionally, ondrej shares a related feature request for allowing regular users to archive their own topics.

albert_vu proposes another feature: auto-archiving topics when they’re moved to a specific category. This would simplify the process of maintaining a tidy forum while allowing easy access to old topics. Currently, the process involves several tedious steps: searching and filtering old topics, moving them to the archive category, and then archiving them.

1

I saw this post, but my question is a bit different in nature.

Is there a way to:

  1. Automatically archive or delete a topic after a certain amount of time – in a specific category (not across the whole platform?)

  2. Give the option to someone who creates a topic to choose how long they want the post to live in discourse before it is archived or deleted?

Thank you!

P.S. How does the search work here in discourse? In other words, how does the search choose what comes up first?

2

Hello,
for question 1 you can give support here:

However, for now you are just going to have to archive the topic manually with admin wrench.

This can be a new Contribute > Feature request and in itself. There are multiple examples of these things

Furthermore, not sure how much support the team will have.

All the best :+1:

3

Another feature I think Discourse could consider is auto-archive topics when they’re moved to a specific category.

So for our site, we’ve created a public category called “Archive” where we’re working to move old topics into it & archive them. We’ve also set the security settings so that only admins & moderators could create & reply to topics within said category.

This way, we believe, would tidy up our forum considerably whilst allow members to access old topics/post easily when needed.

Nevertheless, the current process of archiving topics is still quite tedious:

  • Step 1: Search/Filter old, inactive topics from either each category’s topic list or in Advance Search.
  • Step 2: Select all topics & move to said category.
  • Step 3: Select all topics again to archive them.