Active
A discussion is created in the Active state. Anyone who has access to the object of discussion has access to the discussion. Anyone with access to the discussion can reply to the messages, attach or remove documents, and download attached documents.
On premises only: Discussions can be set to public or private. Public discussions can be accessed by people from other companies who have access to the object of the discussion. Only people from the host company can access private discussions.
Inactive
When a discussion is demoted to Inactive, all people who had access to the discussion can still access the discussion to thread the messages and download attachments. However, new replies cannot be added to the discussion.