# Merged topic doesn't redirect
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/merged-topic-doesnt-redirect/246657
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [November 24, 2022, 3:26pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/merged-topic-doesnt-redirect/246657 "2022-11-24T15:26:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@elopio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/elopio)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2022, 3:26pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/merged-topic-doesnt-redirect/246657/1 "2022-11-24T15:26:07Z")
I’ve merged [this topic](https://collective.flashbots.net/t/devcon-bogota-pbs-developer-roundtable-summary/633) into this [other topic](https://collective.flashbots.net/t/development-next-steps-for-pbs-roundtable-at-devcon/438/4).
The merge worked nicely.
I expected that when I open the old link, it would redirect me to the new location, but that doesn’t happen. When I open it anonymous, I shows “Page not found”. When I open it with my account, it shows me the old closed/deleted post.
This is the link that doesn’t redirect:
[https://collective.flashbots.net/t/devcon-bogota-pbs-developer-roundtable-summary/633](https://collective.flashbots.net/t/devcon-bogota-pbs-developer-roundtable-summary/633)
This is surprising, I think it is a bug. Am I missing something, here?
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### Author:  [@maiki](https://meta.discourse.org/u/maiki)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2022, 11:17pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/merged-topic-doesnt-redirect/246657/2 "2022-11-24T23:17:21Z")
> [@elopio](#):
>
> This is surprising, I think it is a bug. Am I missing something, here?
It is non-intuitive, but there is a reason! 🙂
We use a soft-delete system in Discourse, so admins are able to go back and see deleted topics, including the ability to restore them. The result: admins can see a deleted topic, everyone else sees a “page not found”.
There _is_ a way to setup a redirect, manually, by visiting `/admin/customize/permalinks` and adding a redirect from the topic path to a topic ID:
* * *
Having a setting that automatically create redirects when merging topics sounds like a nice #Contribute > Feature request. 🙂
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### Author:  [@elopio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/elopio)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2022, 10:27am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/merged-topic-doesnt-redirect/246657/3 "2022-11-28T10:27:16Z")
Thanks! This makes sense, but I still cannot make it work.
I’ve set up a redirect from t/devcon-bogota-pbs-developer-roundtable-summary/633 to topic id 438. The behavior is the same, when I go to [https://collective.flashbots.net/t/devcon-bogota-pbs-developer-roundtable-summary/633](https://collective.flashbots.net/t/devcon-bogota-pbs-developer-roundtable-summary/633) as admin I get to the moved topic, and when I do it anonymous I get page not found.
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### Author:  [@maiki](https://meta.discourse.org/u/maiki)
#### Post date: [November 28, 2022, 7:04pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/merged-topic-doesnt-redirect/246657/4 "2022-11-28T19:04:20Z")
🤔
Nothing comes to mind on why the permalink would operate that way… let’s see. Did you move the topic `t/devcon-bogota-pbs-developer-roundtable-summary/633` into a category that is not public?
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### Author:  [@anon59994034](https://meta.discourse.org/u/anon59994034)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2022, 1:34am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/merged-topic-doesnt-redirect/246657/5 "2022-11-29T01:34:36Z")
It seems permalinks don’t work for internal links?
> [@Permalinks within Discourse](https://meta.discourse.org/t/permalinks-within-discourse/105589):
>
> I would like to redirect topic 3405 to topic 5618. So anyone linking to 3405 gets sent to topic 5618, instead. I read up on Permalinks here: [https://meta.discourse.org/t/59727](https://meta.discourse.org/t/59727)[https://meta.discourse.org/t/88918](https://meta.discourse.org/t/88918) I tried setting it up a few ways: But none of these seem to make topic 3405 redirect to topic 5618.