If you create a new story, but, set the expiration date to some time in the past to keep the story hidden, XOOPS will not accept the date at first.

If you then edit the story and set the expiration date again, it will behave as expected and expire the article for the specified date.

Euhm, what are you nagging about? There is an option to hide articles from the front page...

Didn't mean to nag. Just trying to help by reporting a bug.

In any event, the bug report is not a feature complaint about what steps the user must do to hide a story.

Instead, it is simply a report of what happens if you create a new story and give it an expiration date in the past. That's all. No big deal. I apologize if it sounded like a complaint.

(Note: If you use the option you mention, "Do Not Publish in Home", it only prevents it from appearing from the news index and blocks created from the news index. The story is still visible in the topic list and visible if you type the link directly. The only way to completely prevent access to a story [at least currently, I think] is to expire it... or delete it.)