RichardTE asks about the differences between Categories and sub-Categories in Discourse, beyond their organizational function. nolo explains that access settings are hierarchical, with sub-categories not being more permissive than their parent categories. Moin adds that topics in a sub-category are typically visible when viewing the parent category, but this can be adjusted in category settings. RichardTE thanks both users for their helpful responses.
I’m building my first Discourse forum. The software and its community are incredible, and it’s a lot to take in.
Just for edification, what are some differences between a Category and a sub-Category, internally or otherwise? Beyond the organizing function that we see, and the definition that a sub-Category has a parent Category, is there more going on here? Let’s say we have two Categories, “Yin” and “Yang”. We make Yin a sub-Category by moving it under Yang. Or, we make Yang a sub-Category under Yin. Is swapping their heirarchical location the only thing that is happening during these operations? Are there other (attribute) differences between a stand-alone Category, a sub-Category, and a parent Category (speaking in a general sense, not at the db level)? I assume that a parent knows who its kids are, and vice-versa.
Access settings have a hierarchical structure where sub-categories cannot be more permissive than their parent categories. You will get an error message when you attempt a configuration that goes against this:
Usually, when you look at all topics from a category, you also see the topics in the subcategories. For example, when you look at #announcements, you also see the topics in #announcements:blog. Of course, you can use the subcategory filter and select “no subcategories” to exclude them or change the category settings so that subcategories are hidden by default. But in general, a parent category can also work to group several subcategories, like for example Documentation does.
