# Quoting a closed topic prefills category in composer that should be off-limits

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/quoting-a-closed-topic-prefills-category-in-composer-that-should-be-off-limits/260009>\
**Category:** UX\
**Created:** [March 30, 2023, 6:06pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/quoting-a-closed-topic-prefills-category-in-composer-that-should-be-off-limits/260009 "2023-03-30T18:06:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1

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**Author:** ![bfsrcproduc2763](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/bfsrcproduc2763/32/300552_2.png) [@bfsrcproduc2763](https://meta.discourse.org/u/bfsrcproduc2763)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2023, 6:06pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/quoting-a-closed-topic-prefills-category-in-composer-that-should-be-off-limits/260009/1 "2023-03-30T18:06:56Z")

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## Explanation

As a regular on the Hopscotch Forum, I have access to most of the categories of topics, but there are some that I can’t create topics in, such as “Announcements” [as I am not a part of the team]. When quoting a post from a topic that had previously been closed, the quote appears in a new topic draft that is automatically set to the category that the closed topic is in. These two facts combine to give users a loophole, permitting them to create topics in categories they shouldn’t normally be able to create them in by simply deleting the quoted post and treating the empty draft as a normal topic draft.

## Demonstration

For example, here is an empty topic draft in the Discourse Meta category #announcements, which, like the Hopscotch Forum version, is normally off-limits to me.

 ![Screenshot 2023-03-30 105436](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/4/0/0/40005150ac51c6aa156007d34945715df4b04d92.png)

## Comments

While I personally have never seen this exploited, I believe that it already has been done somewhere out there, and that it could potentially be an issue if it happens frequently enough that the leadership team of a smaller forum is overwhelmed.

## How to reproduce

1. Find a closed topic in a category that is off limits
2. Quote a random post
3. When the quote appears in a topic draft, delete it
4. Treat it as a typical topic draft that is empty

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/quoting-a-closed-topic-prefills-category-in-composer-that-should-be-off-limits/260009)._