Understanding closed, unlisted, and archived topics

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:bookmark: This guide explains the differences between Closed, Unlisted, and Archived topics in Discourse, including their characteristics and use cases.

:person_raising_hand: Required user level: All users

Discourse offers various ways to manage topics, including closing, unlisting, and archiving. Each of these options serves a different purpose and has specific effects on how topics are displayed and interacted with. This guide will explain the differences between these three states and their implications.

Summary

  • Closed topics prevent new replies but remain visible in lists and search results.
  • Archived topics are frozen completely, disabling most interactions.
  • Unlisted topics are hidden from most topic lists and search results.
  • Topics can be in multiple states simultaneously (e.g., closed and unlisted).

Closed topics

Closing a topic is the least restrictive option among the three. It’s primarily used to prevent new replies to a topic that has reached its natural conclusion or to temporarily halt discussions.

Characteristics of closed topics

  • Display a “lock” icon next to the topic in lists
  • Disable replying to the topic
  • Disable the “Invite” button at the bottom of the topic
  • Do not bump the topic’s last activity date when closed
  • Continue to allow flagging of the topic or its posts
  • Continue to allow bookmarking
  • Remain visible in all topic lists and search results
  • Allow likes and voting on polls

Archived topics

Archiving a topic is more restrictive than closing. It’s typically used for old or outdated topics that you want to preserve but significantly limit interaction with.

Characteristics of archived topics

Archived topics have all the characteristics of closed topics, plus:

  • Disable users’ ability to delete posts
  • Disable likes
  • Disable poll-based voting (effectively closing polls)
  • Remove the topic from the /top page
  • Exclude the topic from digest emails
  • Remove the topic from the “random” topics list in the footer of the topic page
  • Continue to be displayed in the Unread list (users see the post marking it as Archived)

Accessing archived topics

  • Use the status=archived query parameter: https://meta.discourse.org/?status=archived
  • Archived topics remain visible when browsing specific categories
  • Use the status:archived filter in search to find archived topics

Unlisted topics

Unlisting a topic hides it from most users without removing it entirely. This is useful for topics that should remain accessible but not prominently displayed.

Characteristics of unlisted topics

  • Prevent inclusion of the topic in lists for regular users, including:
    • Homepage / “latest” list
    • Unread topics list
    • Search results
  • Exclude the topic from digest emails
  • Can only be accessed via a direct link
  • Are not indexable by search engines (though previously indexed topics may remain in web search results for some time)
  • Are excluded from automated user badges. Automated badges such as “Nice Topic” and “Good Reply” only apply to visible topics. Unlisting a topic may remove user badges.

Important notes

  1. Admins, Moderators, and Trust Level 4 (TL4) users are not affected by these limitations and can continue to post in and edit posts in both archived and closed topics.
  2. Polls are only closed by closing the poll itself or archiving the topic.
  3. The topic “auto-close” functionality cannot be used to close polls at a specific time and date.
  4. A topic can be in a combination of all three states: Closed, Archived, and Unlisted.

FAQs

Q: How do I find archived topics?
A: You can use the status=archived query parameter in the URL or the status:archived filter in the search function.

Q: Can regular users reply to closed or archived topics?
A: No, regular users cannot reply to closed or archived topics. However, admins, moderators, and TL4 users can still interact with these topics.

Q: Are unlisted topics completely hidden?
A: No, unlisted topics can still be accessed via direct links. They’re just hidden from most topic lists and search results for regular users.

Additional resources

Last edited by @sam 2024-08-30T03:03:40Z

Last checked by @hugh 2024-07-31T06:08:41Z

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3 posts were split to a new topic: How to hide archived topics from latests but show them in other pages?

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3 posts were split to a new topic: Providing more visual distinction between Closed and Archives topics

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Hello! First time posting here - thank you all for your wonderful work :slight_smile: I love discourse !!

I have a question based on this that I’m still trying to grasp.

Am I able to unlist a series of categories, sub-categories, and topics, and make a post which links to these unlisted categories, sub-categories, and topics, and allows anyone to view the posts within the unlisted categories, sub-categories, and topics? I.e., the only way to view these unlisted posts would be via links found within this new post? I want these posts to remain on the forum, but I generally don’t want them to be searchable or come up easily.

My specific reason for wanting this is posterity with our community, so we aren’t removing old community posts, but also we are making it more difficult for this old information to surface so our community members don’t get confused about old / outdated information. Does this make sense?

The other option I’ve thought about is exporting the specific categories, sub-categories, and topics as HTML files and uploading these in a public google drive link. I’ve tried to find the best answer this in the forums, but would love anyone’s thoughts, or if anyone has experienced this themselves.

Thanks all - love discourse and all the work you all do :pray:

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Yes the new topic with links to the unlisted topics & categories will work the way you mentioned.

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