Unlisted topics - what are they

[EricGT]

The difference between Closed, Unlisted and Archived topics

How do “Archiving” vs. “Closing” a topic compare? Common to both Displays a “lock” icon next to topic in lists Disables replying to topic Disables “Invite” button at bottom of topic. Closing or archiving a topic does not bump its last activity date. Continues to allow flagging of topic or posts. Continues to allow bookmarking. Specific to Archived topics Disables users ability to delete a post. Disables likes. Disabled poll based voting (effectively closing polls). Disables display of topic …

Points of note:

• An unlisted topic will not show up in a search using the Discourse search, even as a category moderator they do not show up in a search which makes them hard to find at times.

• A topic that is listed then converted to unlisted may have been indexed by a search engine such as Google before becoming unlisted. As such while these topics are hard to find with a Discourse search they are easier to find with a Google search even though one of the points of unlisting them is to keep them from being found with a search engine.