# (Superseded) The difference between Topics and Posts
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/superseded-the-difference-between-topics-and-posts/200943
**Category:** Using Discourse
**Tags:** explanation
**Created:** [August 19, 2021, 10:20am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/superseded-the-difference-between-topics-and-posts/200943 "2021-08-19T10:20:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@osioke](https://meta.discourse.org/u/osioke)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2021, 10:20am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/superseded-the-difference-between-topics-and-posts/200943/1 "2021-08-19T10:20:09Z")
> ℹ This has been superseded by parts of the [Understanding Discourse for new users](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-new-user-guide/96331)
Inspired by [this answer](https://meta.discourse.org/t/data-explorer-plugin/32566/225) by @jomaxro, this is a short explainer on the difference between topics and posts in Discourse.
Topics are collections of posts. Let’s use a random topic here on Meta as an example:
> [@Don't warn whisperers](https://meta.discourse.org/t/dont-warn-whisperers/199028):
>
> Hi, My user came up with his own solution and marked the thread solved. I felt the need to discuss his “solution” internally & whispered to another admin. And now with each response in the internal conversation, we’re being chastised/warned about replying to solved topics: Since only privileged (and presumably savvy) users can whisper, and since whispers and de facto not public continuations of a solved thread, maybe this warning could be repressed in whisper mode? Sim…
That topic has a title, “Don’t warn whisperers”, and ID, `199028` , and contains 5 posts at the time of writing this howto.
Posts are the individual “content” within a topic. This includes the “OP”, or original post, that is created at the same time as the topic.
As a point of note, a topic should always have 1 or more posts, in Discourse technical speak, this is called the posts count `posts_count`. If a topic has more than 2 posts (that is `posts_count` = 2) but no replies have been made to the topic, then that topic has “small posts”.
Small posts are topic activity notifications, things like `topic closed`, `topic opened`, `topic pinned`, `topic archived`, etc. See this image for an example:
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### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2022, 1:10am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/superseded-the-difference-between-topics-and-posts/200943/4 "2022-10-07T01:10:01Z")
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### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2022, 1:10am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/superseded-the-difference-between-topics-and-posts/200943/5 "2022-10-07T01:10:03Z")