# Category-Specific Moderators, phase 1 RFC
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators-phase-1-rfc/21900
**Category:** Feature
**Tags:** rfc
**Created:** [November 6, 2014, 10:04pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators-phase-1-rfc/21900 "2014-11-06T22:04:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@jmay](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jmay)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2014, 11:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators-phase-1-rfc/21900/22 "2014-11-17T23:39:15Z")
And these:
> [@Adding user to a group on user's admin page would be convenient](https://meta.discourse.org/t/adding-user-to-a-group-on-users-admin-page-would-be-convenient/12450):
>
> Continuing the discussion from [Group seems to have a limit of 201 members](https://meta.discourse.org/t/group-seems-to-have-a-limit-of-201-members/11366/4): We have a forum for the backers of our Kickstarter campaign. We want certain categories to be read/write only to them, while other users (i.e. everyone) can only see them. We are adding users to the group by an external script and currently we have a group of about 3,500 users. However, the group UI is now completely useless – there is no way how to check if user is part of the group or remove him/her from the group. I…
[https://meta.discourse.org/t/group-seems-to-have-a-limit-of-201-members/11366](https://meta.discourse.org/t/group-seems-to-have-a-limit-of-201-members/11366)
I see now that this has been a nuisance for at least a year. I’ll take a look at the code. Time to learn how Ember works.
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### Author:  [@technogoggles](https://meta.discourse.org/u/technogoggles)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2015, 9:40am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators-phase-1-rfc/21900/23 "2015-03-09T09:40:37Z")
Hi Jason,
This feature really helps us as we’d like to be able to support ‘groups’ on the [Folksy.com](http://Folksy.com) forum [talk.folksy.com](http://talk.folksy.com). Would you mind clarifying the following authority scope:
> [@jmay](#):
>
> invite new members with access to the category (this does not override the the must\_approve\_users site setting)
> view/export list of users who can post in that category? or are members of any group with write permission for that category? (should not include admin, site moderator, TL4s)
Use case 1. User wants to join a category. Would this be possible or do moderators have to invite them? It would be helpful if people could have a way of requesting to join and the request would go to the moderator of the category.
Use case 2. A user would like to choose whether their category has public or private write ability. Is this something on the roadmap?
Use case 3. A user would like to start a new category as a moderator (use case 2). How do they initiate this?
Thanks!
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### Author:  [@jmay](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jmay)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2015, 10:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators-phase-1-rfc/21900/24 "2015-03-09T22:30:37Z")
This proposal doesn’t say anything about the creation of categories (your item #3). A category must exist before a moderator can be assigned.
Do not confuse _categories_ (collections of topics) with _groups_ (collections of users). A user cannot join a category, only a group. Category access can be limited to particular groups. I’m addressing non-admin group invitations elsewhere (see [https://meta.discourse.org/t/invitations-to-group-restricted-topics/25895](https://meta.discourse.org/t/invitations-to-group-restricted-topics/25895)).
Short answer: All this stuff must currently go through admin.
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### Author:  [@Maestra\_Powers](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Maestra_Powers)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2015, 8:55pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators-phase-1-rfc/21900/25 "2015-03-21T20:55:47Z")
I know an easy way of implementing this. And it doesn’t need too much of explaining.
@sam, @codinghorror, how’s this idea?
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2015, 9:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators-phase-1-rfc/21900/26 "2015-03-21T21:07:55Z")
That an easy UI change, but the internal changes required to carry this are quite huge. You need to expose partial flagging screens, allow more permissions to the group and so on. Its a huge change this is a tiny part of it.
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### Author:  [@Maestra\_Powers](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Maestra_Powers)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2015, 9:24pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators-phase-1-rfc/21900/27 "2015-03-21T21:24:35Z")
Well, yea. By _implementing_ I ment easy front-end part, that is easy to understand for users. Not saying it’s easy to code or something. But do you plan to add this feature in any way thought? It’s kinnda critic for my forum now, because games! 😄 To explain this better - we have one staff in Tera guild and other staff in Black Desert guild. And all of them can moderate forum globaly. From my expiriense, people can turn out betrayers. Or just start fighting about something, raging out and try to break things. So I don’t like the idea that our forum holds on trust now, it turns me into paranoic big times.
* * *
Wow… what I just found in a search.
[https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators/11668](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators/11668)
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### Author:  [@technogoggles](https://meta.discourse.org/u/technogoggles)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2015, 12:37pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators-phase-1-rfc/21900/28 "2015-04-07T12:37:43Z")
Hi Jason,
Thanks for the reply. Picking up on this conversation, if a private category is already in place and a moderator is assigned (by admin / staff) can the moderator invite users to the private category?
We want to support closed conversations for specific groups on Folksy e.g. “Leeds Craft Team” or the “Renegade Seller Team” and there is a desire for these groups to have some autonomy over that conversation within the main forum.
Thanks,
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### Author:  [@jmay](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jmay)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2015, 8:10pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators-phase-1-rfc/21900/29 "2015-04-07T20:10:38Z")
The question of invitations relates to _groups_ rather than _categories_. Group managers (as opposed to category moderators) have been implemented on the back-end but not exposed in the UI. But you could use that to set up specific users that can invite users into topics that are in restricted categories.
[https://meta.discourse.org/t/invitations-to-group-restricted-topics/25895](https://meta.discourse.org/t/invitations-to-group-restricted-topics/25895)
> [@User Invitation/Poking a user to a topic is now live!](https://meta.discourse.org/t/user-invitation-poking-a-user-to-a-topic-is-now-live/27180):
>
> warning As of March 2022, the ability to notify a user from the share button on a topic has been removed. See [Notify Feature can be easily abused](https://meta.discourse.org/t/notify-feature-can-be-easily-abused/219497) for more details. The Invite feature has just been improved so that you can invite existing users to a topic. I still think this is kind of a weird use case, since if I want @techapj to look at something I would just mention him in the post and explain what’s going on. [image] But! It makes the Invite button more useful and applicable in more …
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### Author:  [@watchmanmonitor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/watchmanmonitor)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2015, 3:05am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators-phase-1-rfc/21900/30 "2015-10-27T03:05:57Z")
I find I have a need for this in my hosted forum.
I need to add moderators, but they shouldn’t see the content of one category.
What’s the status here?
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2015, 3:07am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators-phase-1-rfc/21900/31 "2015-10-27T03:07:32Z")
It helps to check what is listed in the releases topic for the current and (if present) next version. That stuff can always be postponed to a future release, though.
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### Author:  [@watchmanmonitor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/watchmanmonitor)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2015, 3:23am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators-phase-1-rfc/21900/32 "2015-10-27T03:23:03Z")
Sure, but the last thread on the matter said v1.5, but I didn’t see a related link.
For anyone else curious , it’s up soon\*!
> [@Discourse Version 1.5](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-version-1-5/30609/1):
>
> Category-specific moderators
\*relatively speaking
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### Author:  [@riking](https://meta.discourse.org/u/riking)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2015, 3:42am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators-phase-1-rfc/21900/33 "2015-10-27T03:42:41Z")
Note that moderators are subject to access control - only admins are not.
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### Author:  [@Capacitron](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Capacitron)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2016, 10:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators-phase-1-rfc/21900/34 "2016-02-02T22:40:51Z")
What is the current status of this feature? Has it been rolled out yet?
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### Author:  [@jomaxro](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jomaxro)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2016, 11:48pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators-phase-1-rfc/21900/35 "2016-02-02T23:48:22Z")
Not developed yet. It is currently planned for #releases in 1.7
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### Author:  [@Capacitron](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Capacitron)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2016, 6:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators-phase-1-rfc/21900/36 "2016-04-20T18:44:25Z")
It looks like this feature made it into 1.6. How do I turn it on or configure it etc? I can’t seem to locate it in the Admin area. Thanks.
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### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2016, 6:50pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators-phase-1-rfc/21900/37 "2016-04-20T18:50:44Z")
If you click and read the link above you will find #releases
If it gets completed early, it shows with a green checkmark on the same link.
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### Author:  [@Capacitron](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Capacitron)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2016, 6:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators-phase-1-rfc/21900/38 "2016-04-20T18:59:38Z")
Ok, so “Green Check” means that particular feature made an early appearance.
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### Author:  [@jomaxro](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jomaxro)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2016, 10:18am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators-phase-1-rfc/21900/39 "2016-04-21T10:18:46Z")
> [@Capacitron](#):
>
> made an early appearance
Not so much an early appearance, but in the current beta. Most Discourse sites follow the tests-passed development branch, and thus update fairly frequently as the developers add features. Unlike many pieces of software, Discourse development is constant and ongoing, not just a single large release every 4 months. So, right now this site, and many others are running Discourse 1.6.0.beta2, which has some features planned for Discourse 1.6. When a feature is developed, it is added to the site. Once all the planned features are added, and bugs squashed, then 1.6 is “released” to the stable branch, and those sites that don’t like the frequent updates get the new features. Make sense?
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### Author:  [@Freso](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Freso)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2016, 2:29pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators-phase-1-rfc/21900/40 "2016-06-11T14:29:23Z")
> [@jomaxro](#):
>
> Not developed yet. It is currently planned for release in 1.6.
Is this still the plan? @codinghorror removed it from the 1.6 release post on May 16th without a note to the revision explaining why. Was it removed in error? Is it being pushed a version and now scheduled for 1.7 instead? Is it being dropped entirely?
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### Author:  [@jomaxro](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jomaxro)
#### Post date: [June 11, 2016, 2:31pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-specific-moderators-phase-1-rfc/21900/41 "2016-06-11T14:31:00Z")
Jeff would need to answer this himself, but I can say that it is _not_ being dropped entirely. Features move between planned releases all the time, based on perceived interest level, need, and development time.
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