# Enabling public access **URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/enabling-public-access/298191 **Category:** Support **Created:** [March 6, 2024, 1:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/enabling-public-access/298191 "2024-03-06T13:47:45Z") **Posts on this page:** 6 **Page:** 1
### Author: ![Seth\_Godin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/seth_godin/32/119667_2.png) [@Seth\_Godin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Seth_Godin) #### Post date: [March 6, 2024, 1:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/enabling-public-access/298191/1 "2024-03-06T13:47:45Z")
I have a private Discourse and we’re now going to create a category that, like Meta, will allow our customers to get support via our Discourse. I’ve moved all the existing categories to be private with security to require a group members. And now I want the open categories to be readable by the public and to allow people to join the forum to respond or post. I got stuck here: I asked the bot, but it didn’t match what I could do… 1. **Enable Public Access to Topics and Categories** - Open the Discourse Admin panel by navigating to `/admin` on your site. - Go to “Settings” and then select the “Security” tab. - Look for the setting named `login_required` and ensure it’s unchecked. This setting controls whether users must log in to see the site’s content. Unchecking it will make your site’s content visible to the public. Alas, my settings don’t show that option. Thanks all ---
### Author: ![Moin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/moin/32/554653_2.png) [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin) #### Post date: [March 6, 2024, 1:53pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/enabling-public-access/298191/2 "2024-03-06T13:53:10Z")
Is the Forum hosted by Discourse? Note that the basic plan does not provide public access. ---
### Author: ![Seth\_Godin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/seth_godin/32/119667_2.png) [@Seth\_Godin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Seth_Godin) #### Post date: [March 6, 2024, 2:17pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/enabling-public-access/298191/3 "2024-03-06T14:17:25Z")
face plant thanks will fix ---
### Author: ![pfaffman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/pfaffman/32/120154_2.png) [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman) #### Post date: [March 6, 2024, 2:50pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/enabling-public-access/298191/4 "2024-03-06T14:50:14Z")
This is a fairly common occurrence. It’s hard to tell that the setting your looking for is missing. ---
### Author: ![Moin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/moin/32/554653_2.png) [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin) #### Post date: [March 6, 2024, 3:13pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/enabling-public-access/298191/5 "2024-03-06T15:13:57Z")
For instance, I encountered this issue when I was reading: ![The image illustrates a software interface option for automatically creating a new linked topic when an existing topic is auto-closed based on a post count setting. (Captioned by AI)](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/6/3/3/6335f120c3450dba37da16208eaf7fa90953f198.jpeg) I couldn’t find this specific setting on my hosted instance. This made me wonder how administrators are supposed to become aware of this limit. They might visit this forum to discover that others had the same problem\[1\] and might stumble upon a comment suggesting, “I believe the limit is 10,000,” which references a [post](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-megatopic-public-good-or-public-menace/85592/17) from 2018. However, this still leaves uncertainty regarding any changes to the setting since then. It would significantly improve user experience if settings that are not permitted to be altered were still visible. This way, users would be informed about their configuration and understand that these settings are fixed, rather than being left with the impression that they are unable to locate a specific setting. * * * 1. > [@Auto Close Topic by # of posts?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/auto-close-topic-by-of-posts/213404?silence=true): > > I’m looking for the site setting referenced in [this topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/linked-topics-splitting-and-managing-megatopics/168992). “auto close topics post count” I do see the setting for the merged feature, And above that, the setting that manages the max number of posts on private message topics …but I don’t see anywhere in settings where I can set it that topics should close after, say 5000 posts. I thought perhaps it needed to be defined by category but I don’t see anything there (that would be even more useful tbh). To be clear, I don’t want to set … ---
### Author: ![tobiaseigen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/tobiaseigen/32/539204_2.png) [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen) #### Post date: [March 7, 2024, 10:45pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/enabling-public-access/298191/12 "2024-03-07T22:45:04Z")
> [@Moin](#): > > It would significantly improve user experience if settings that are not permitted to be altered were still visible. Thanks, Moin! I appreciate you pointing this out. It’s actually on our list already to make this change and it helps to have the nudge! We are actively working on making it easier to understand which features are not available on your current plan and to upgrade to get features that you need.