# Topic closed without system record

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813
**Category:** Bug
**Created:** [July 12, 2021, 2:00am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813 "2021-07-12T02:00:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![littleviolette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@littleviolette](https://meta.discourse.org/u/littleviolette)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2021, 2:00am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/1 "2021-07-12T02:00:42Z")

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Lately our community has been seeing topics being closed after the first post without any staff action or system record. I cannot find any record in Settings \>\> Logs \>\> Staff Actions either. Any hint on what is causing the auto-closure, which has never happened before? Thanks!

 ![Screen Shot 2021-07-11 at 6.58.55 PM](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/c/1/c1ff4e4656d66dc1f173b36d0ae4c4158ceac3ce.png)

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### Author: ![incapaz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/incapaz/32/175057_2.png) [@incapaz](https://meta.discourse.org/u/incapaz)
#### Post date: [July 12, 2021, 4:19am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/2 "2021-07-12T04:19:17Z")

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There are category settings you can configure to have topics automatically close. However, I believe even any changes to those are logged, but it wouldn’t hurt to check.

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### Author: ![Fabby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/fabby/32/170928_2.png) [@Fabby](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Fabby)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2021, 7:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/3 "2021-08-07T19:40:14Z")

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Yup, same thing happening over on the [Manjaro forum](https://forum.manjaro.org).

### Relevant data:

- Installed: 2.8.0.beta4: ( [00820f0fad](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commits/00820f0fad94c69809d6bcc1904ecffcadac1d25) )
- Topic closed but no Mod logs about how it was closed.
- Mods can reopen closed posts (or most of the time: delete them as the user started a new one)
- Seems to be happening to TL0 users only.

@sam —^  
I can give you links to exact examples over on the Manjaro forum if that would be helpful?

My apologies for pinging you directly, but as this looks like a serious bug and I only know you and codehorror, and I’d rather ~~be kicked in the 🌰 by you than him~~ _bother you than him…_😱 🙇‍♂️

**Plug-ins Installed:**

| Name | Version | Enabled? |
| --- | --- | --- |
| discourse-auto-deactivate | 0.0.1 | Y |
| discourse-chat-integration | 0.1 | Y |
| discourse-fingerprint | 2 | Y |
| discourse-push-notifications | 0.3.0 | Y |
| discourse-solved | 0.1 | Y |
| discourse-user-notes | 0.0.2 | Y |
| discourse-stopforumspam | 1.0.1 | Y |
| docker\_manager Docker | 0.1 | Y |
| procourse-installer | 0.1 | Y |
| retort Reactions plugin for Discourse | 1.2.3 | Y |
| styleguide | 0.2 | N |

⚠ _ **In the meantime, we’ve activated unlimited edits on first posts, and are monitoring the issue closely!** _

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![dax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/dax/32/244677_2.png) [@dax](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dax)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2021, 3:49pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/5 "2021-08-09T15:49:33Z")

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Hi Fabby,

Looking at your plugin list I would try to uninstall the unofficial plugin  
[https://github.com/singerscreations/discourse-stopforumspam](https://github.com/singerscreations/discourse-stopforumspam)

since it seems the only one in the list that is acting on new users (TL0) and has not been updated for over 2 years

Uninstall it, rebuild the site and let us know how it goes.

Have you noticed if the closing is taking place in a single category or in several categories?

Have you noticed if it happens only in private or public categories or both?

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### Author: ![littleviolette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@littleviolette](https://meta.discourse.org/u/littleviolette)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2021, 5:18pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/6 "2021-08-09T17:18:33Z")

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We don’t have any unofficial plug-ins installed yet we are still experimenting the issue.

> [@dax](#):
>
> Have you noticed if the closing is taking place in a single category or in several categories?

It happens in different categories on our site.

> [@dax](#):
>
> Have you noticed if it happens only in private or public categories or both?

We only notice it happening in public categories, though our private categories are not active.

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### Author: ![dax](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/dax/32/244677_2.png) [@dax](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dax)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2021, 5:34pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/7 "2021-08-09T17:34:52Z")

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Please share a link to a closed topic on your site.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Fabby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/fabby/32/170928_2.png) [@Fabby](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Fabby)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2021, 7:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/8 "2021-08-09T19:44:54Z")

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Looks like @littleviolette is 💤 or very busy so [here is one](https://forum.manjaro.org/t/cant-boot-to-windows-after-installation/77221) from the Manjaro forum…

🤞

Ping me on the [Manjaro Telegram chat](https://t.me/manjaro_official) `@Fabby` or DM me [on the Manjaro forum](https://forum.manjaro.org/u/fabby) if you need urgent help.

🙇‍♂️

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### Author: ![Falco](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/falco/32/179432_2.png) [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2021, 7:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/9 "2021-08-09T19:46:42Z")

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> [@Fabby](#):
>
> [here is one](https://forum.manjaro.org/t/cant-boot-to-windows-after-installation/77221) from the Manjaro forum…

That page is 404 🤔

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Fabby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/fabby/32/170928_2.png) [@Fabby](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Fabby)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2021, 7:50pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/10 "2021-08-09T19:50:49Z")

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:facepalm:

Topic has been deleted in the mean time…

Ah! [Found one that hasn’t been deleted!](https://forum.manjaro.org/t/configuring-vpn-using-nmcli/76711)

Most were deleted as posters immediately created a new topic so most of them were duplicates…

🤷‍♂️

cc @dax

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![littleviolette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@littleviolette](https://meta.discourse.org/u/littleviolette)
#### Post date: [August 9, 2021, 10:32pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/11 "2021-08-09T22:32:42Z")

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Sorry our community has been actively reopening topics that have been closed by no one since this has been a known bug within our site for a while. I can only find screenshots of these topics when they were first reported:

 ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/9/0/903104cee1da031f1beb5fb3056465149b338b07.jpeg)

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Fabby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/fabby/32/170928_2.png) [@Fabby](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Fabby)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2021, 12:12pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/12 "2021-08-10T12:12:59Z")

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The devs need the URL AFAIU… Did you take a screenshot including the URL somewhere?

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Fabby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/fabby/32/170928_2.png) [@Fabby](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Fabby)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2021, 11:26am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/13 "2021-08-11T11:26:46Z")

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Feedback to @dax and @Falco

> [@Fabby](#):
>
> ⚠ _ **In the meantime, we’ve activated unlimited edits on first posts, and are monitoring the issue closely!** _

~~So far the issue hasn’t cropped up any more, so if you’re testing this and can’t reproduce, please turn that setting off…~~

 

~~@littleviolette So you would want to do the opposite of my advice to our lords and ladies of the development team…~~

And of course the moment I write this, _It’s happening again!!!_ Most recent example:

[https://forum.manjaro.org/t/pamac-update-fails-invalid-or-corrupted-package/77894](https://forum.manjaro.org/t/pamac-update-fails-invalid-or-corrupted-package/77894)

_My sincerest apologies for getting everyone’s hopes up!_

😭 :facepalm:

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Fabby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/fabby/32/170928_2.png) [@Fabby](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Fabby)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2021, 12:31pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/14 "2021-08-12T12:31:12Z")

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And another one bites the dust:

[https://forum.manjaro.org/t/imposible-instalar-el-paquete-splashtop-streamer/77984](https://forum.manjaro.org/t/imposible-instalar-el-paquete-splashtop-streamer/77984)

Do you have enough examples now and should I ~~shut the hell up~~ _stop posting new ones?_ 😁 (I.E. not all moderators provide feedback to me, _should I pester the ones that look into the newest of the newest posts to provide some more examples?_)

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### Author: ![sam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/sam/32/102149_2.png) [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2021, 4:03am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/15 "2021-08-13T04:03:49Z")

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> [@Fabby](#):
>
> Do you have enough examples now and should I ~~shut the hell up~~ _stop posting new ones?_

Given this never happened on meta, my concern here is that this is something very specific about how manjaro forum is configured, a third party plugin interacting badly, something else?

We have not had a single report of this to the best of my knowledge across thousands of customers [@tech-advocates](https://meta.discourse.org/groups/tech-advocates)?

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Fabby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/fabby/32/170928_2.png) [@Fabby](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Fabby)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2021, 8:07am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/16 "2021-08-13T08:07:58Z")

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Long time no hear and good to hear from you! 😁

Seeing that I just added information to [an existing bug report](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813) and [posted all of our plugins](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/3) saying that

> [@sam](#):
>
> We have not had a single report of this

> [@sam](#):
>
> a third party plugin interacting badly

is only 1‰ off for thousands (2000?). 😜 so _I do agree it seems to be an edge case_, and if @littleviolette could post a link to

> [@littleviolette](#):
>
> our community

shouldn’t a DBA be able to `diff` between whatever ~~both of us are doing wrong~~ _which obscure parameter we’ve both set and everyone else didn’t?_

Alternatively could you provide us a method of comparing ourselves to everyone else as we have professional \*nix Engineers, Oracle DBAs, devs, … in our community.

You know that me playing human MTA (Message Transfer Agent) between multiple of your library suppliers [can help you](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/15) solve [weird edge cases](https://meta.discourse.org/t/multi-line-strikethrough-not-covering-quotes/64808/25)…

👍

P.S. We haven’t disabled [the unofficial plugin](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/5) as [LittleViolette said they didn’t use it](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/5), but if _you_ tell me to jump, I’ll ask “How high?” 😉

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### Author: ![tshenry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/tshenry/32/119495_2.png) [@tshenry](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tshenry)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2021, 7:22pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/17 "2021-08-13T19:22:20Z")

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> [@sam](#):
>
> We have not had a single report of this to the best of my knowledge across thousands of customers

I cannot recall any reports. The only time I have seen this happen is when I’ve been tinkering around and use the rails console to manually set `closed` to `true` rather than using `topic.update_status`

Looking at the category this topic came from:

> [@Fabby](#):
>
> Ah! [Found one that hasn’t been deleted!](https://forum.manjaro.org/t/configuring-vpn-using-nmcli/76711)

I notice that there are a variety of topic timers in play. This is the angle I would investigate and play around with @Fabby. If you can come up with a way to reproduce the issue, we’ll be happy to try to dig in! Things I would check/adjust include:

- Do you use the `solved topics auto close hours` site setting? If so and a post is marked as solved then unsolved, is the auto-close successfully canceled?
- Do you have the category set up to auto-close topics?
- Do your mods often manually add auto-close timers to topic or ever attempt to manually cancel existing timers?
- Are the topics with this issue topics that were moved between categories?

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Fabby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/fabby/32/170928_2.png) [@Fabby](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Fabby)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2021, 10:28am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/18 "2021-08-14T10:28:24Z")

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Thank you!  
Just wanted to provide some feed-back: your suggestions have been copied over into our internal thread and the forum owners have been pinged. As they are also the Manjaro founders and maintainers, feedback might take longer than you’re used to until now…

😅

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![littleviolette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@littleviolette](https://meta.discourse.org/u/littleviolette)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2021, 2:54am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/19 "2021-08-15T02:54:24Z")

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> [@tshenry](#):
>
> - Do you have the category set up to auto-close topics?

Yes to this and no to everything else. Our topic auto-close timer is set to 2 months after the last active topic. The reported bug happens when there was only one post (the OP) before the topic got mysteriously closed. This also happens in categories that does not have an auto-close timer set.

I wonder if the issue is related to post deletion (either by the OP or the system). When I was trying to find sample links to affected topics, I noticed they have all been either moved by our moderators (for other reasons) or deleted by the system, after a mod has reopened the mysteriously closed thread. Here is a screenshot:

 ![Screen Shot 2021-08-14 at 7.52.50 PM](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/e/6/e61e836f5aeb40c57c00cf273859eb62014a52c2.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Fabby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/fabby/32/170928_2.png) [@Fabby](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Fabby)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2021, 4:45pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/20 "2021-08-15T16:45:42Z")

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Can you copy-paste the URL to one of these, please?

🤞

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![littleviolette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@littleviolette](https://meta.discourse.org/u/littleviolette)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2021, 10:15pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813/21 "2021-08-15T22:15:59Z")

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The topics are no longer visible to public…

[Next page](https://meta.discourse.org/t/topic-closed-without-system-record/196813.md?page=2)
