The way i see this issue:
- Having users join interest groups when they join the site isn’t great UX, but its not too off-putting.
- Having those interest groups dictate users site navigation is perfectly reasonable and creates a site focused around the user, which is pretty awesome.
- Blocking off the ability to view all other areas of the site to achieve that isn’t an acceptable trade off as it breaks down the ability of all users to communicate and explore outside of their direct interests.
My suggested solution would be:
A 3 setting toggle in the sidebar settings which says ‘set initial user navigation sidebar settings by showing only categories/subs they have permission to either 1.view 2.reply 3. create’.
Users would then begin with the sidebar setup based on the groups they’ve told the site they are interested in, which makes initial onboarding and finding their way around far easier in a large site, but they are still be able to customize their navigation themselves afterwards by clicking the navigation sidebars edit button (which is a fantastic function for onboarded users, but not good to ask new users what is important in a site they aren’t yet familiar with).