This guide explains how to set up and manage Discourse groups with different levels of access, membership requirements, and visibility settings.
Required user level: Administrator
Discourse groups can be configured to be closed, allow membership requests, or permit users to join freely. This guide will walk you through the process of setting up these different group types and managing their visibility.
Summary
- Create and configure closed groups
- Set up groups that allow membership requests
- Configure groups for free joining
- Manage group visibility and access settings
- Allow users to leave groups
- Update existing group settings
Creating a closed group
- Go to your site’s groups page (accessible from the hamburger
menu) - Click the “New Group” button
- Fill in the group name (other fields between “Full Name” and “Effects” are optional)
- Scroll down to the “Access” and “Visibility” sections
- In the Access section, leave all checkboxes unchecked
- In the Visibility section:
- “Who can see this group?”: Default is “Everyone”
- “Who can see this group’s members?”: Default is “Everyone”
With default settings, non-group members will see the group on your site’s groups page:
Clicking the group’s link will take them to the group members list:
To restrict member list visibility:
- Change “Who can see this group’s members?” to an option other than “Everyone” (e.g., “Group owners, members”)
To hide the group entirely:
- Change “Who can see this group?” to an option other than “Everyone”
Setting up a group with membership requests
- Create a new group as described above
- Add at least one group owner in the “Add Owners” section
- In the Visibility section:
- Set “Who can see this group?” to “Everyone” or “Logged on users”
- Set “Who can see this group’s members?” as desired
- In the Access section:
- Select “Allow users to send membership requests to group owners”
- Optionally, add a template for membership requests.
This configuration adds a “Request” button to the group’s listing and individual page:
When a user clicks the button, a form opens allowing them to send a membership request:
Group owners will receive the request with a link to accept or reject:
Creating a group that allows free joining
- Create a new group as described above
- In the Visibility section:
- Set “Who can see this group?” to “Everyone” or “Logged on users”
- Set “Who can see this group’s members?” as desired
- In the Access section:
- Select “Allow users to join the group freely”
- Select “Allow users to join the group freely”
This adds a “Join” button to the group’s listing and individual page:
Allowing users to leave a group
For any group configuration:
- Go to the group’s Access settings
- Select “Allow users to leave the group freely”
This adds a “Leave” button to the group’s page and listing:
Updating existing groups
To modify settings for an existing group:
- Go to the group’s page
- Click the “Manage” tab
- Edit Visibility settings via the “Interaction” link
- Edit Access settings via the “Membership” link
To manage group ownership:
- Go to the group’s “Members” tab
- Use the admin wrench next to a user’s entry to grant/remove ownership or remove the user from the group
FAQs
Q: How do users navigate to the groups page?
A: Users can access the groups page by clicking the “Groups” entry in the main hamburger menu, as long as the enable group directory setting is enabled (default).
Q: Does group visibility allow non-members to see group content?
A: No, group visibility only determines whether users can see the group in the directory. Access to group content is controlled by category security settings.
Q: How can I show users a preview of restricted categories?
A: You can use the Category Previews theme component to give users a glimpse of restricted content without full access.
Last edited by @hugh 2024-07-16T02:38:23Z
Last checked by @hugh 2024-07-16T02:39:18Z
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