# Category creep and information overload

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-creep-and-information-overload/62493>\
**Category:** UX\
**Created:** [2017 年5 月 11 日 08:37 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-creep-and-information-overload/62493 "2017-05-11T08:37:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 5

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作者： ![scombs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/scombs/32/48616_2.png) [@scombs](https://meta.discourse.org/u/scombs)\
发布日期： [2017 年5 月 11 日 13:03 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-creep-and-information-overload/62493/5 "2017-05-11T13:03:40Z")

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I have tackled some of theses issues by

- making categories restricted to certain groups, except for a top level Welcome category for users not logged in
- setting main site categories to viewable by TL0 so logged in users get the content common to all users
- using the groups page to allow users to “follow” restricted categories
- suppressing subcategories on hamburger menu
- adding a groups icon to the nav

This works ok for me, including creating a curated email summary for the groups that each user follows. See [https://community.talkbaq.org](https://community.talkbaq.org) for an example.

At scale, the menu and groups page gets unwieldy. Some ideas to consider

- group page enhancements to help with order and arrangement, “My Groups,” group categories, show group description/dated added, search, orderby (clickable) options, etc.

- simple category overview page that shows all categories and subcats on one page like a sitemap

- The new changes are great but further enhance the preference page for [Categories](https://meta.discourse.org/my/preferences/categories) to add a “check the box” interface.

- Show groups on profile in more pretty way and under separate tab

- Preference page for categories or groups page could be part of registration flow to let users pick their groups/categories.

- Allow generic invites not tied to an email so communities can be transitioned in more easily with group assigments when you don’t have a user’s email or you want the invite to be shareable (used with caution)

- As an alternative to groups approach. allow categories to be private but not hidden, so users know the categories exist and can get instruction in the about topic on how to join.

- Above all else–should work on mobile.

The downside to all this for me is it takes everything out of search because categories are restricted. Also users have to jump through a couple steps.

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