[johnhiler]

From one coding novice to another, I can try to answer that question.

Plugins that need to keep track of topic_id include topics that tend to “attach” something to a topic, or track data tied to a particular topic. _ck_’s examples above mentioned file attachments and polls… I’m guessing that at some of the following might work similarly:

* Best Answer (since a post within a particular topic is selected as the Best Answer)

* Unread Topics (which tracks if a topic has been read by a particularuser)

* bb Topic Views -(which tracks views for each topic)

Just a guess though…