Provides a toggle to hide replies to a topic for everyone but the topic owner.
Further discussion on Discourse Meta https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-private-replies/146712
To install Discourse Plugin - https://meta.discourse.org/t/install-a-plugin/19157
First, enable the plugin in Admin - Plugins.
Then you can turn on the functionality of the plugin on a per-topic basis.
If you are the topic-starter then you will see a new button at the bottom of the topic.
By pressing this button you have enabled the Private Replies feature for this topic.
A banner will appear above the topic and the following happens:
- people will only be able to see posts made by themself, by the topic owner, and by staff.
- only the topic owner will be able to see all posts.
By pressing the button a second time, the topic will revert back to normal.
This can be used for for instance homework assignments where the teacher opens a topic and posts an assignment, and all students make a post with their answers. When everyone has submitted their work, the teacher can open up the answers so the students will be able to discuss them.
A second use case can be an auction where something is offered for sale. People can post their bid and when the sale is done, the topic owner can reveal all bids in order to show the community that everything went according to the rules.
The topic list icons will still show who has posted in the topic. You will also be able to see 'user xxx is replying' at the bottom of the topic.