# Merged topic doesn't redirect

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/merged-topic-doesnt-redirect/246657>\
**Category:** Product 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:** 1\
**Showing post:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![maiki](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/maiki/32/233950_2.png) [@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")

</div>

> [@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:

![Screenshot 2022-11-24 at 15-14-49 Admin - fnord](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/2/5/1/251a27177ccc7622f66448d05d33c5ced73ed280.png)

![Screenshot 2022-11-24 at 15-12-03 Admin - fnord](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/optimized/4X/1/4/2/142f871f9122634e315cbd36c2ed25021dee362c_2_690x36.png)

* * *

Having a setting that automatically create redirects when merging topics sounds like a nice #Contribute > Feature request. 🙂

---

_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/merged-topic-doesnt-redirect/246657)._