While crafting a lengthy post, I found myself needing to create multiple entries for the purpose of linking them together. One half of my content was designed for the first post, and the rest was intended for the second post that would be linked in the first one. It was then I realised that there’s no feature to save multiple drafts without actually posting them in some category. I noticed one of the workarounds suggested is to “PM yourself” by some other member, but it doesn’t seem like the most efficient solution.
Are there plans to implement a feature that allows saving multiple drafts in the future? It would certainly streamline the process and make life much easier.
2. Hidden Posts
This problem is somewhat related to the issue mentioned above. Considering the absence of a multi-draft saving feature, I posted my first draft (which was only half-written) and sought to make it hidden since it was incomplete. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a feature for hiding posts either.
My temporary solution was to create a new category named “Hidden” and restrict its access to admins and mods. However, this is a rather unproductive and disorganized way to store hidden posts. Plus, it’s difficult to locate the needed post due to the disorganised state of the “Hidden” category.
It would be vastly more efficient to have a feature for hidden posts, enabling us to post directly to the appropriate category as a hidden post. Then, once we complete editing, we can make it visible.
Those are indeed significant problems that need to be addressed. Features like these should be basic offerings to ensure a more organised and efficient admin/mod experience.
I’m not 100% sure I’m following your workflow, but have you considered using the Shared Drafts feature? That would allow you to create a draft version of your topic in a specific category and then publish it when ready:
That’s just a workaround to share the draft with other staff members. Not what I meant though (and not usable or relatable to what I’m explaining above)
With shared drafts you need to mention a specific category as the shared “category” and saving the post to it so others can view it.
That’s bit worse than my workaround tbh, your suggestion makes it more disorganised and involves another extra step
But nothing solves the root cause that I explained.
Just as an FYI, we try and keep one feature request per topic so we can track them better, so you may need to pare this one down.
For hidden posts, do you mean hidden topics? There is the Unlist feature that would make them only visible in the topic list to admin, mods, TL4 - though they’d still be accessible via a direct link (and send out a notification to anyone Watching/Watching First Post the category). You can access it from the gear menu in the composer when you create a topic. Though normally we would recommend creating a shared draft, or simply creating the topic in a permission-controlled category and recategorising it somewhere more public when ready.
And in case it’s useful/relevant, you can have multiple post drafts, but only one per topic.
I use admin category with subcategories like folders. You can also use a running PM to your self with a link to it in a custom menu section.
For hidden posts, you can also use whisper posts for staff only posts in topics. The whisper mode can be toggled off later with the whisper toggle theme component.
The complex nature of interconnections between posts. Mostly useful for admins, moderators, staff. Some sites require complex post structures. If you view Discourse as just a “traditional forum”, then you’ll find no use for that feature.
(and not usable or relatable to what I’m explaining above)