I’ve noticed that the “New Topic” button is visible and active for users who don’t have permission to post in certain restricted categories. Even though the category permissions are set to certain users, they can still see and click the button, which is confusing.

Huh. Never noticed this before. I thought the button used to be disabled :thinking:…

Well spotted, this was changed yesterday: https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/33495

Yes. It was working fine recently.

Is there a way to turn this off? Some members have been accidentally posting in restricted categories because they think it’s allowed, and their posts are ending up in the wrong sections.

Hi Cate, this was an intentional feature change but I’m curious to learn more about the issue you are experiencing. If the category is restricted then they shouldn’t be able to post under it. When they click New Topic they would still be able to create a topic but under a different category. Can you share details on the category where you are experiencing issues to see if there is a bug here?

I think Cate meant that her users are inadvertently posting to the default category while they intend to post in a category that they don’t have create-rights to

[image] davidb: you are experiencing. If the category is restricted then they shouldn’t be able to post under it. When they click New Topic they would still be able to create a topic but under a different category. Can you share details on the category where you are experiencing issues to see if there is a bug here? No error at all, and it’s working as intended. However, it’s causing confusion for some of our members when they are able to create a “New Topic” in restricted categories, and while their post gets redirected to a different category (as designed), some users don’t realize it. As a result, we’re seeing some misplaced posts, since users believe they’re posting in the original (restricted) category.

Thank you for sharing, I understand the issue now. I will have a quick chat with the team and see if we can improve this. Maybe preventing the default category from being populated when clicking New Topic on private categories would solve this issue.

New Topic button enabled to restricted users

Product Support

davidb (David B) July 29, 2025, 5:06pm 18

I’ve reverted this change temporarily while we work on an updated approach to this issue.

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New Topic button enabled to restricted users

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