Hello,
It would be good for each User to have 2 Groups as Standard , like Private Groups for them 
Like Followers & Following So In the Side Panel ( Categories ) Have a Users Drop Down , which would hold the …
User ( $User )
<------------->
1.Followers
2. Following
3. Family
4. Friends
5. Chat
6. Messages
7. Inbox
It would be Good , as I’m going to Host Discourse on my own server & do not need so many Categories , so my Panel would be lees than this one.
I hope that makes sense