Good use cases for groups (to better understand groups vs categories)

[tophee (Christoph)]

Here is a technical comparison between groups and categories:

Start a New Topic via Email

Why use a group?

Using a group is useful if you want to set up a support-like workflow.
Sending an email to a group will create a message sent to all the members of that group.
These messages will appear in /my/messages.
Anyone can send an email to a group (since it’s just an email behind the scene)
Any member of the group may read, reply, delete or archive the message.
All member of the group have their own read tracking state.

Why use a category?

Using a category is useful if you want to simulate a mailing list.
Sending an email to a category will create a topic in said category.
Anyone with access to that category may read and reply using the web interface or via email.
Emails sent to a category must respect the category’s security settings.
Emails sent to a category must respect the email_in_min_trust_level site setting.
You may disable staged users on a per category basis.