From experience the greatest benefit of Categories is the permissions, and the fact it forces the user to apply at least one “Tag” to the Topic(i.e. the Category). In most communities this isn’t useful, as most communities are built around one single thing – e.g. Rust Community. But when you have a large user base, who you know will have distinctly different interests, the Categories can help you govern those interests, and provide them on demand.
For our Community I implemented the following with Categories and Groups so the user can select their content/feed:
- Every Category is clearly distinct
- Every Category has two Groups attached to it
a. Category Moderators
b. Category Members - A Category can only be seen by Members or Moderators
- If you are not a Member or Moderator, you can view the Members Group in the Groups page, and submit a request to join.
This means that if I search the Groups, I can Join a group to gain access to that Category. If I am not a member of that Group, I don’t see the information from that category at all.