Wondering about the result of this conversation from awhile ago. Can moderators create groups?
Alternatively, is it possible to have users of a certain trust level create groups?
On my site, it looks like the answer to both questions is no, but I want to confirm as it would be helpful to have this ability…
Do you really mean groups (collections of users) and not categories (collections of topics)? It might help to describe your problem rather than this solution.
Yes I mean groups. Just looking to figure out the current ability to allow users (be it moderators, certain trust level, or other) to create groups.
I think you’d need a plugin.
It’s still not clear what your intent is, whoever. What are people going to do with the groups? Send group direct messages? Get flair?
Just looking to confirm whether or not users can create groups. That’s all at this stage. Sounds like the answer is no out of the box.
I say we rename:
No new site setting, rename the old one, increase scope, and the option makes more sense.
It is very oddball to want to give moderators the right to create a category but not give them the right to create a group.
Shall I slot this for next release @codinghorror
Is it possible for users with a specific trust level to create a group? Then other users who have any trust level can request to join that group or be invited by the creator. The creator by default, becomes the owner of that group.
The idea behind is how gaming clans / guilds / teams are done. Maybe this can be a external plugin, but there are several forums that have this feature as an extension. It’s also analogous to facebook groups that people can join if they are fans of something.
I’ve made pretty good progress on this new feature and I think it’s getting close to being ready. A weird little edge case has been identified by @jomaxro, however…
Moderators can change the Visibility of a group to ‘Group Owners’, which means as soon as they update the group they will no longer be able to see that group and therefore can no longer manage that group. If they start clicking around within the group settings once they’ve updated, they’ll get errors which results in some inelegant UX.
Thoughts on how to handle this? Should the backend realize they’ve just updated into a state that means they don’t have access, and force the front end back to the groups index? Should we not let them update to a state where they don’t have access?
Thinking of other examples of access changes.
If a moderator changes category settings such that they can no longer see the category, they end up on the 404 page. Not ideal, but no errors.
If a user is logged out (by an admin, via console, etc.), they see a modal, and are redirected to the homepage.
I think the simplest option here is a redirect to the groups index. Fancier option is a modal explaining they can no longer see the group, with a button to redirect to the groups index.
While we’re doing refactoring, we may want to improve the current situation when a moderator changes category permissions and loses visibility. A forced redirect to /c is nicer than a 404 page. We could also add a modal first, if we want to be fancy.
Interested in Robin and Sam’s opinions.
I think it’s a pretty silly operation for those people to perform and it’s not unreasonable for us to not support it well. I think Josh’s suggestion of a redirect to the index is good.
It would be nice if this can be extended to not just moderators but users with specific trust levels. This would allow for users to create their own groups / teams / clans. This is common in many gaming forums. The team captain can invite other members to join their group or members can request to join. Teams could have their own topic thread that only they can see and reply. The team leader picks the team name and can attach a banner or logo for their team.
A specific Trust Level or group membership sounds great for adding ability to create groups. I suppose Trust Level would be fine since it can be assigned to a group (though I believe all members as opposed to just owners).
https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/aa1fc0130754d54696f9fa44b953be9b5f1c763d
This was merged in recently, but I think we’ve neglected to mention it. Sorry about that!
It’s super simple to use: Enable the moderators_manage_categories_and_groups setting to let moderators create and/or manage groups on the site.
Awesome update!
For an intranet, it would be amazing to streamline this so ANY user could create a Category and a group, and while doing so, be prompted to add people to the group who need access. Make it non-tech and a streamlined, very few click process.
I don’t know whether it’s an issue or intended, but moderators can’t add or demote group owners. They can add group owners when they create the group, but then, once the group is created, it’s not possible anymore. It would seem logical to me, that if they can manage the group, they should also be able to decide who is managing the group (and they are able to add owners when creating the group, why not after).
We would like to avoid requesting the admins to do this.
Is there a way to make that possible?
As it’s said in the first post they should be able to do it, I suppose it’s an issue.
I believe this is an oversight, as moderators are able to assign group owners if they create a group, but not after. @jamie.wilson, thoughts?
https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/10960
A moderator should now be able to manage group members.
With the new site setting, moderators can create and manage groups, but, if I am not mistaken, cannot delete groups. Is it by intent or an oversight? Would it be possible to give moderators the permission to delete groups?
Apologies I am not sure of the etiquette here of creating a new topic vs bumping up this old one. Please do split this thread if I have made the wrong call. 
Whilst I agree with this, we would like to do the opposite on our forum - allow the managing of groups but not categories. This I think is much less oddball.
So I’d like to request that the two features be separately toggleable as I don’t really feel they’re the same ‘level of permission’. I appreciate we’re a niche case…
It’s all good to bump this topic.
Can you explain in more detail why you would want them to create a group but not a category, given that the purpose of groups is to define permissions to categories?
What is it that you use groups for?
