In this instance I have business users creating discussions to provide feedback. Once I have carried the updates in EA, I need to set this discussion as closed since the author is not a regular user (I like Paolo suggestion of a force close).
As I show all open discussions on the main Dashboard within a widget, it is important to close those that are considered as dealt with. I don't want to ask each author to go back to Prolaborate only to close a discussion.
There could be a case also where someone reopens a discussion to add a note under an existing thread.