Data Ownership and Control Discussion Summary
Gabe_Ferrara is evaluating Discourse for their organization, seeking to control access to user-generated content and ensure data ownership. Stephen responded, asking for clarification on the organization’s needs and mentioning that Discourse offers access control via groups and trust levels.
Gabe_Ferrara elaborated that their organization wants to enable commenting and conversation around content, but is unsure if Discourse is the right fit. Stephen explained that Discourse comments can be embedded on external sites and users own the content they create. He also noted that controlling access to comments depends on how the sites are secured.
pfaffman chimed in, suggesting that creating groups and limiting access to categories can control which users have access to topics. This approach can satisfy the need to control access at the category level.
Hello - I am a user trying to decide if Discourse is right for my organization. We have requirements around data ownership and controlling who has access to the content our users produce.
Can we control who has access to the comments we are producing through Discourse?
Thanks,
Gabe
Could you expand on this a little? Maybe elaborate a little on your organisation and the use case?
Discourse has lots of ways to control access via groups and trust levels, but the mention of comments suggests an off-site use too. Knowing more would help us provide an accurate answer.
Thanks for the quick response Stephen. Yes our organization is interested in utilizing a tool to allow commenting and conversation centered around pieces of content (articles etc). Looking deeper at the tool, I am not sure if that is the exact use case Discourse is used for.
Gabe
Discourse comments can be embedded on other sites, for example:
A WordPress plugin exists to make the process very straightforward, other CMS require slightly more hands-on implementations.
In each case when users wish to comment on a post they are directed to the Discourse site to make their contribution.
In terms of controlling who has access to the comments, that’s really down to how you secure your sites. As for ownership, users own the content they create, that’s the law. They assume the copyright on their works at the point of publishing/creation. The terms of your sites will determine whether you have a license to re-use the things they post.
Are you merely asking if you can control which users have access to topics in various categories?
Yes, you can create groups and limit access to categories according to group membership and/or require that only logged in users can see stuff and so on.
If you’re satisfied with controlling access to stuff at the category level, then you’re covered.