After 1.5 year using discourse, I am puzzled regarding the difference between a private category that would be accessible/visible to only one group, and group messaging within that same group. Is there any?
Typically, for a group that want to discuss their private project, the PM board of that group list all topic titles very much like a category does and I find little advantage to creating a private category. So am I overcomplicating things if a private category is created only for one group?
The main difference is how the messages are displayed. In a category, everyone with permissions has visibility of every topic in the feed. PMs would be mixed up amongst an individual’s other PMs (if they had some).
That the PMs would be mixed amongst other messages, isn’t this also presented per group, avoiding the confusion you describe, like in my screenshot (mobile version):
Yup, it absolutely is – it’s just a little less visible/intuitive if you don’t know what you’re looking for.
主要区别在于，私信（PM）允许针对每个主题设置“权限”，而分类（categories）的权限则全局应用于所有主题。
私信（PM）是 Discourse 中唯一可以针对特定主题设置谁能看到该主题的“权限”的地方——通过将用户添加或移除私信来实现。
另一个（不可否认是主观的）区别是，分类界面比私信界面更好。
一个很大的区别是，如果你收到通知邮件，无法按主题进行定制：你可以收到所有私信通知的邮件，“或者”只在“离开时”收到所有私信通知的邮件，“或者”关闭所有私信通知的邮件。这使得私信群收件箱就像一个分类，你在“关注”每一个帖子，并可能收到每一个通知的邮件。
