On a Discourse instance I support, there is a category where only employees can create new topics but other registered users can read & reply. Those regular users can visit the category and click on “New Topic”, the editor appears. However, they cannot select a topic category since the category dropdown is empty, and thus they are unable to post their topic at all (neither in the category they are in, nor any other category).
When I visit e.g. the #blog category on Meta, the “New Topic” button is grayed-out and cannot be clicked (“forbidden” sign appears instead of mouse – though no explanation text appears on why I cannot click the button). I don’t know if the bug has already been fixed upstream or the category settings are different.
Category settings:
- everyone can read & reply
- employees can read, create & reply
System setup:
- category-oriented, topics cannot be uncategorized
- SSO with existing CMS, access restricted to logged-in users only
- 2 admins and no moderators (thus only 2 employees)
- users are auto-assigned TL1 upon first login
- self-hosted v1.4.3 install (tracking the stable branch)
To conclude, this report is about
- UX issue: lack of user-visible information on why s/he cannot create a new topic and/or a visual indicator and a message that s/he is not allowed to create a new topic in this category (similar to what I see in Meta’s #blog category)
- bug: category list may be empty / user is unable to select a topic category
Thank you & best regards!
. I’ll try and see if I can install a local