Allow Users to See and Reply but not Create in Category

AI-generated summary

martyn_thomas is trying to configure a category so that ‘Keyholder’ users can create, reply, and see topics, while ‘Members’ can only reply and see topics — but not create them. Despite setting permissions to restrict topic creation for Members, they still appear in the Composer dropdown and can successfully create topics. Firepup650 questions whether creation actually succeeds, and martyn_thomas confirms it does. JammyDodger expresses surprise, as this behavior shouldn’t occur. Lilly tests the setup on a dev instance and confirms that, under correct permissions, the category does not appear in the dropdown for users without create rights, and the topic button is disabled with a tooltip. Finally, martyn_thomas realizes the issue: his test account was also an admin, which bypassed the restrictions — a simple oversight resolved with community help.

I’ve trying to limit a category so:

  • users with ‘Keyholder’ role can Create/Reply/See topics in the category
  • users with ‘Members’ role can only Reply (or edit if it’s a wiki post) and See topics in the category

I seem to be unable to limit access to the category/topic creating, to trouble shoot i’ve only set up the security for Members to See and Reply

However Members are able to see the Category in the Composer drop-down and can create a topic in the category:

Does anyone have any ideas on what i’m missing…
Thanks

Does pushing + Create Topic from there actually succeed? I’d expect it fails.

It works.- I’m able to create topics without issue. So i’m missing something as don’t want people to be able to create topics/see the topics in the category select dropdown

Hmm. That should not be possible. Are you using an admin to check this, or a test account?

I have tested this just now on on my dev instance with latest beta and cannot reproduce on any device or browser I have (MacOS/iOS Safari/Chrome, Ubuntu Chrome/Firefox). Categories that a group has reply permission but not new topic post permission have the topic button disabled in that category and can still reply, and creating a topic from main page doesn’t show the category they don’t have new topic permissions to in the new topic category drop down selector. Disabled button even has an info tool tip.

Admin view: project category is secured from creating topic for test group

User view: category not in drop down for new topic on main page

User view: new topic button disabled on main page

You cracked it - I didn’t realise my test account was also an admin account facepalm
Thanks for giving me the much needed kick.