The discussion highlights a bug in the default composer category setting related to trust levels. Don reports that when a higher trust level category (e.g., TL3) is set as the default, lower trust level users see an empty category field in the composer, preventing topic creation unless they manually select a reachable category. pedrom9604 confirms the issue, noting that if a private category with a trust level restriction is set as default, users below that threshold cannot create topics without changing the category. The bug occurs on desktop (Windows 10, Chrome) and is categorized as low severity. The issue stems from the system not enforcing a fallback category selection when the default is inaccessible, suggesting a need for either forcing category selection or restricting the default to public categories.
I just notice today while I tested this feature more closely, if a higher trust level category selected in default composer category setting then the composer category selector will empty on lower trust level users.
For example:
I select the Lounge category which is accessible for TL3 users.
However the user have the ability to change the category but I think in this case it would be better to force the (Select a category before typing here) method… or restrict default composer category to use only public category.
Platform: Desktop, Windows 10, Browser: Google Chrome 107.0.5304.107
Description: If a private category is selected as a default composer category, users that try to create a new topic, but have a lower trust level than the one(s) defined in the category, will have an empty default category and won’t be able to create a new topic unless they select a category that is reachable to them.
Reproducible steps:
Create a private category: Delete “everyone” from Security Groups and select a higher than zero trust level from the “Add a group” option.
