# New topic not defaulting to uncategorised

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-topic-not-defaulting-to-uncategorised/241996>\
**Category:** Bug\
**Created:** [October 15, 2022, 11:29pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-topic-not-defaulting-to-uncategorised/241996 "2022-10-15T23:29:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1

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**Author:** ![spdegabrielle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/spdegabrielle/32/190784_2.png) [@spdegabrielle](https://meta.discourse.org/u/spdegabrielle)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2022, 11:29pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-topic-not-defaulting-to-uncategorised/241996/1 "2022-10-15T23:29:21Z")

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Hi,

When one of my users(‘leader’ role) tries to create a new topic, the category is blank, and if they click the create topic button they get a 404 error:

 ![image|690x360|error message 404](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/a/0/d/a0dbc4c8cabcdb2e69c5adb47d4bbcea2b11fb95.jpeg)

When I (staff) try to create a new topic I still have the blank category, but I get a `You supplied invalid parameters to the request: category` error

 ![image|690x198|error message](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/8/4/7/8471803560d05bcd10f6fce6781efa1ebd00b645.jpeg)

I’ve found a setting:

> Allow topics to be created without a category. WARNING: If there are any uncategorized topics, you must recategorize them before turning this off.

I done remember enabling it but it is enabled - I believe it is a default but I’m not sure.

I had a look at the uncategorised category settings:

> This category is special. It is used as the default category for new topics that do not have a category selected. If you want to prevent this behavior and force category selection, [please disable the setting here](https://xxxxx.discourse.group/admin/site_settings/category/all_results?filter=allow_uncategorized_topics). If you want to change the name or description, go to [Customize / Text Content](https://xxxxx.discourse.group/admin/customize/site_texts?q=uncategorized).

In the short term I’m worried that our users are having a bad experience and unable to post. (404 error)

I’ve tried searching [meta.discourse.org](http://meta.discourse.org) to find answers to my questions:

**Question 1: Why is the category field blank when I try to create a new topic?** (it is not blank when I post to [meta.discourse.org](http://meta.discourse.org))

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/a/6/0/a60f802b713a82c38648a9bd2c0f2bd999fe3a48.png)

**Question 2: If _‘Allow topics to be created without a category.’_ is enabled - why am I getting an error?** (I suspect ‘Uncategorised’ actually means ‘without a category’, but it is described as _'[…]the default category for new topics that do not have a category selected. ’_

I actually like the behaviour of [meta.discourse.org](http://meta.discourse.org); where is defaults to ‘general’ instead of uncategorised but I’m not sure which is right approach;

a) renaming ‘Uncategorised’ to ‘general’. (note: I found a post - from 2016 - that indicated this was a bad idea, and equated ‘Uncategorised’ with ‘null’ in the database.)

OR

b) Creating a ‘general’ category, moving all uncategorised to ‘general’(how?), setting ‘general’ as the default of new posts, and disabling _‘Allow topics to be created without a category.’_

Any advice - or pointers to the relevant documentation are appreciated - is appreciated.

best regards

Stephen

PS FWIW we are a OSS project and this is a free discourse instance kindly provided by the nice people at [https://www.discourse.org](https://www.discourse.org)

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