Hi, does anyone know if there is a way to have MESSAGES displayed by default when entering a group rather than MEMBERS (which is the current default).
Generally when users go to a group that they are a member of, they are more interested to read and respond to the latest messages than to see who is in the group, so MESSAGES would be a be a better default landing area…
thanks!
Groups are collections of users. Categories are collections of topics. Groups are used to control access to categories.
There are no messages on a group.
You need to direct people to the category that (in your view) is the group.
I think that a theme component might be able to add a link to the category from the group page, but you really don’t want to try to display topics on the group page.
OK thanks for your help.
As I see it, currently in the default discourse installation, users of the platform can create groups which appear in the ‘Groups’ area. Users can join these groups and become members of the groups they join.
Once a group has been created, In the group page there’s a button next to the ‘JOIN’ button called ‘MESSAGE’. Clicking this ‘MESSAGE’ button creates what appears to me to create a new topic in the MESSAGES area of the group which members of the group can reply to, just like a normal topic in a category.
This UX makes total sense from a user perspective. there is a window for the group with a title, header, information about the group, with areas within that window for displaying a list of it’s members and for messages and topics of interest to the members of the group.
I think what you are saying that this ISN’T the way it’s designed to be used? That topics related to that group shouldn’t be in the group page but be posted by members of that group in a separate, but linked (by permissions) category… and that the UX (clickable) link between a group and it’s associated discussion categories can be established by a modification to the theme? Is that right?
So how do users who discover and join a new group know how to easily find the categories and discussions associated with the group they just joined. Using the modification to the theme? Can you point me to a particular theme component I should be looking for?
If a user wants to create a new group then I’m assuming they need to also create a new category and then set permissions of that category to groups members, so to do all that they would need be an admin.
I feel I must be missing something. This seems messy and fiddly to me. Why not just encapsulate the whole group UX, including the discussions between it’s members, within the same group area?
The message button in the group window seems to do this for me as it is currently, but I just wish that on entering the group window that the messages would be shown by default…
That’s not true. If enabled, (allowed) users can send messages to a group. Those messages / topics will be shown in the “messages” tab on the group page.
Remember that Discourse is not a social network. Users can’t create groups. Only admins can.
As @pfaffman said, groups are merely a collection of users. They are often used to control access to categories. But, like I said, they can also receive messages.
As for the question in OP, when users are members of some groups, they will see all the messages sent to all their group in their messages.
As an example, here’s what I see here on meta where I’m a member of both support and team groups
OK that’s a bit clearer, thanks!
If enabled, (allowed) users can send messages to a group. Those messages / topics will be shown in the “messages” tab on the group page.
makes sense, I guess mabye I should put in a FR to have an option to have the messages tab show by default…
Discourse is not a social network
Yes, but with the addition of the ‘discourse-follow’ component, it can start to look a little like one right? it’s not totally black and white I guess… it can be a place where people network and socialise!
when users are members of some groups, they will see all the messages sent to all their group in their messages.
this is useful
thanks for your help! 
Definitely.
I meant it in the way that Discourse does not work in the way most social networks do (especially regarding groups).
Hi David, how did it go? I want to do exactly the same.
