Categories as private rooms, that are publicly visible?

Hi all,

I have created an discourse instance, which I planned to use as kind of building full of private discussion rooms.

Meaning, somebody, who was invited to the building can wander through it and see lots of doors with signs on it, which discussion room that is, but at first he is not permitted to enter.
He can see on the door though, who is the owner, and can contact him to get invited.

I discourse terms I thought I can accomplish that with private categories, whose acl contains a group specific for this category, where all the members who can talk in that category are registered. Then there is another group for the moderators of that group, who can invite people and do the moderation.

The only bad thing is, that as soon as i switch “see” on for everybody (everybody who wanders through the building should see the doors, right) can also see the discussions in it, and can find these discussions also over the search.

My questions are

  • Is there somewhere a button, where is can say → everyone can see the Category name, but can´t enter and won´t be able to see (or find) anything posted in these categories.
  • If not, would it be possible to just take out the “see” flag for everyone, and maintain a public post with all available categories over an automatisms (API)
  • Are there plugins, who could help me achieving want I have in mind ?

Many thanks for reading and have a great day guys!

Cheers,

WS

It sounds like the Category Previews theme component could work for some of what you’re looking to accomplish.

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