# Feature allowing a Private Category to be seen, but topics remain hidden **URL:** \ **Category:** Feature\ **Created:** [2014年十月22日 18:34 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/feature-allowing-a-private-category-to-be-seen-but-topics-remain-hidden/21429 "2014-10-22T18:34:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![E20](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/e20/32/41263_2.png) [@E20](https://meta.discourse.org/u/E20)\ **Post date:** [2014年十月22日 18:34 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/feature-allowing-a-private-category-to-be-seen-but-topics-remain-hidden/21429/1 "2014-10-22T18:34:20Z")
Hello, We have setup a brilliant new forum for Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London E20. We love the software and I am pioneering many local organisations to run through it as ‘private’ sub-groups. I want to make them private, so that it doesn’t clutter the main feed and so there is some privacy… The only issue is that, **we want people to know that the groups exist** - so people can join them and the community sub-groups grow. Example 1: We have a Residents Association, we want potential new members to see that the ‘closed group’ exists so they can simply request to have access. (Currently it’s like it’s a secret club - people don’t know they are there unless they hear from a neighbour) Example 2: The local School PTA, have a closed group, same issue I want local people to see it exists as a group, without other public folks seeing the content. It’s all about having the option for people to see that there are closed groups that they can join. Can we have a feature added to allow a private category to be seen, whilst keeping the content private? It’s like dangling the carrot for people to join local clubs! Please visit: www.YONDER.london or [http://yonder.E20.org](http://yonder.E20.org) thanks Lee ---
**Author:** ![downey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/downey/32/166878_2.png) [@downey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/downey)\ **Post date:** [2014年十月22日 18:37 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/feature-allowing-a-private-category-to-be-seen-but-topics-remain-hidden/21429/2 "2014-10-22T18:37:47Z")
A workaround for short term could be to create a globally-pinned topic where you list out the groups and describe/link to them. ---
**Author:** ![E20](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/e20/32/41263_2.png) [@E20](https://meta.discourse.org/u/E20)\ **Post date:** [2014年十月22日 18:41 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/feature-allowing-a-private-category-to-be-seen-but-topics-remain-hidden/21429/3 "2014-10-22T18:41:03Z")
Don’t mind that idea! My issue is trying to make it about all of the local communities, it’s all getting a bit too East Village (this is where the athletes stayed during the olympics) … you see the outside communities, will be put off by the ‘new folks’ groups, being so highly focussed… May I ask @codinghorror Will my original request be something that we could pay for for be fast tracked? ---
**Author:** ![kpfleming](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/kpfleming/32/116414_2.png) [@kpfleming](https://meta.discourse.org/u/kpfleming)\ **Post date:** [2014年十月22日 18:41 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/feature-allowing-a-private-category-to-be-seen-but-topics-remain-hidden/21429/4 "2014-10-22T18:41:22Z")
I can’t find it quickly, but there was recently a thread about this very sort of thing, in the context of a category for which users had to pay to get access, so making the category visible was ‘advertising’. ---
**Author:** ![E20](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/e20/32/41263_2.png) [@E20](https://meta.discourse.org/u/E20)\ **Post date:** [2014年十月22日 18:44 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/feature-allowing-a-private-category-to-be-seen-but-topics-remain-hidden/21429/5 "2014-10-22T18:44:43Z")
@kpfleming - exactly! You’ve got it, it’s simply a form of advertising for the local community groups.. this is getting rather critical for me to get this right. (I’ve chosen Discourse over vBulletin - Infact I’m in a legal dispute as we spent £800 and put it in the bin, because Vbulletin is just so bloated and nafff..) I’m keen to find a professional solution as opposed to a hack. ---
**Author:** ![E20](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/e20/32/41263_2.png) [@E20](https://meta.discourse.org/u/E20)\ **Post date:** [2014年十月26日 21:07 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/feature-allowing-a-private-category-to-be-seen-but-topics-remain-hidden/21429/6 "2014-10-26T21:07:34Z")
@codinghorror — wondering what I can do here, it’s critical that I get this right as this needs to be potentially seen by 10k residents within London’s Olympic Park — Any way we can fast track this with funding? > [@kpfleming](#): > > I can’t find it quickly, but there was recently a thread about this very sort of thing, in the context of a category for which users had to pay to get access, so making the category visible was ‘advertising’. ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [2014年十月26日 21:23 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/feature-allowing-a-private-category-to-be-seen-but-topics-remain-hidden/21429/7 "2014-10-26T21:23:50Z")
You can email us at [team@discourse.org](mailto:team@discourse.org), but just to set a baseline, we would need an enterprise hosting package commitment for a year to purpose build things outside the normal schedule, ---
**Author:** ![rilla](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/rilla/32/121738_2.png) [@rilla](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rilla)\ **Post date:** [2016年六月5日 11:52 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/feature-allowing-a-private-category-to-be-seen-but-topics-remain-hidden/21429/8 "2016-06-05T11:52:22Z")
I’ve put together a plugin that addresses this in case someone is still interested. It’s probably full of ugly hacks but it does the job for the time being. Comments and PRs are super-welcome. [https://github.com/rilla/discourse-show-private-categories](https://github.com/rilla/discourse-show-private-categories) ---
**Author:** ![andreaspav](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3ab097/32.png) [@andreaspav](https://meta.discourse.org/u/andreaspav)\ **Post date:** [2018年三月7日 15:14 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/feature-allowing-a-private-category-to-be-seen-but-topics-remain-hidden/21429/9 "2018-03-07T15:14:36Z")
Hi everyone, I am thinking of setting up a Discourse forum and would love to know if this feature works, or whether it is something that is going to be implemented in the near future? (allow a Private Category to be seen, but Topics remain hidden) For the purposes of my forum, we want people to know the forum categories exist, but to only allow those who are members of the group to be able to sign up and see topics (as some of them might be about strategies which we do not want to be totally public etc). Any fixes are also welcome. Thanks Andreas ---
**Author:** ![mikechristopher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/mikechristopher/32/89135_2.png) [@mikechristopher](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mikechristopher)\ **Post date:** [2018年三月7日 15:40 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/feature-allowing-a-private-category-to-be-seen-but-topics-remain-hidden/21429/10 "2018-03-07T15:40:05Z")
Its not currently possible in the core product - the above plugin may not work also as was created 2 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![chapoi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/chapoi/32/537252_2.png) [@chapoi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chapoi)\ **Post date:** [2025年十二月4日 11:32 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/feature-allowing-a-private-category-to-be-seen-but-topics-remain-hidden/21429/11 "2025-12-04T11:32:29Z")