# Categories vs. Groups? **URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/categories-vs-groups/69817 **Category:** Support **Created:** [September 11, 2017, 4:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/categories-vs-groups/69817 "2017-09-11T16:11:28Z") **Posts on this page:** 1 **Showing post:** 7
### Author: ![tobiaseigen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/tobiaseigen/32/539204_2.png) [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen) #### Post date: [September 11, 2017, 6:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/categories-vs-groups/69817/7 "2017-09-11T18:40:37Z")
Actually, I think Laura’s last question is on topic - understanding groups and categories is hard especially for new site admins, and email notifications are a big part of that. It’s worthwhile talking it through.. though I agree it’s true she could find answers to these questions for herself using the search. I’ve been grappling with the categories vs group messages question myself in my community, and decided against using group messages completely except for staff. The group messaging functionality is very sparse in comparison with the categories for topics which is very functional in comparison. Here’s a handy topic you might want to look at: > [@Good use cases for groups (to better understand groups vs categories)](https://meta.discourse.org/t/good-use-cases-for-groups-to-better-understand-groups-vs-categories/62875): > > I’m trying to get my head around possible uses of groups. Or rather: good uses, because the number of possible uses is virtually infinite. My basic question here is: how do you use groups? My guess is that the most common use of groups is to use them a way of managing access to categories (and/or badges) and not much more. But with [group mentions and messages](https://meta.discourse.org/t/group-mentions-and-messages/36228) there seems to be much potential for using them to communicate too. I imagine them group messaging like a little mailing list, though not… Also this: > [@Better flow for group membership requests](https://meta.discourse.org/t/better-flow-for-group-membership-requests/64412/11): > > This is pretty cool - thanks for looking into making groups better, @tgxworld! seedling Generally, I’m still downplaying groups in my community because people continue to get confused by what it means to be watching categories (containing topics/discussions) vs joining groups (containing people/can be mentioned to alert them to topics about them or that they should respond to). That said, I’ve been experimenting with a few groups that people can join to express their affiliation (e.g. people… --- _[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/categories-vs-groups/69817)._