Setting for auto closing topic if OP is hidden

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The discussion revolves around a proposed feature to automatically close a topic on Discourse if the original post (OP) is hidden due to community flagging. flameens suggests this would prevent further discussion when the OP is removed, especially to avoid flame wars. AmiAthena supports the idea, seeing its value in maintaining discussion quality. sam argues the feature should be enabled by default. codinghorror expresses skepticism, noting such cases are rare in practice. eviltrout confirms the current system already auto-unlists topics when the OP is hidden, even without replies. codinghorror clarifies that the topic is automatically unlisted if only the first post remains and it’s flagged. flameens seeks clarification on whether this applies to cases where the OP is hidden but not the only post. sam confirms auto-unlisting occurs when the first post hits the flagging threshold and is the only post. flameens adds context, explaining they recently migrated to Discourse and are still adjusting, and that they’ve observed the issue firsthand.

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There have been requests in my community for a feature that temporarily auto closes a topic if the OP has been hidden via community flagging. The reasoning behind this is that if the OP is hidden, there is little sense in continuing the discussion anyway, and it would be a good way to stop potential flames before they even begin. Of course this could set to on or off according to the needs of a specific community. Mine is quite prone to flames lately, so that’s why we’re asking.
I know there’s a global setting for auto close, but it doesn’t work exactly the same way. Is this something you would consider adding in the future?

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I can definitely see how this could keep an incident from turning into a full-blown Situation.

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If this is a setting I think it should be default on, if the OP is hidden conversation simply degenerates into “why was the op hidden” nothing good comes of that

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I am not against it but this has been exceedingly rare in practice. I like to design for what actually happens instead of what people imagine might happen.

Also kinda sucks if there are replies, they get deep sixed as well. In fact, I thought we already did this when there are no replies… can you check @eviltrout?

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Confirmed, I created a topic with no replies and flagged the OP to oblivion. It became unlisted.

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Prevent content hidden by flags from being viewed
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Thanks, so this already works as designed. We already auto unlist the topic if the only post is the first post.

Otherwise we’re throwing away other people’s posts, which I don’t like to do.

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That’s a good thing as well! Does that happen when the OP is hidden? Or is there a different threshold?

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auto unlist happens as soon as the first post reaches flagging threshold and it is a single post.

Do you have an specific examples of the issue you are having that you can link us to.

I agree with @codinghorror that this is mega rare, before building anything here I think we should look through a few examples of where “auto closing” would have actually helped.

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We have only just migrated to Discourse since 4 days, so this is a typical example of putting the cart before the horse :slight_smile: Auto unlist sounds like a good alternative, I’ll get back to you after some testing should we have any problems. Thanks!