Overview
Context
Continuing the discussion from Why isn't Discourse more frequently recommended as a "community platform"?:
previous post for context
Summary
Groups could be added as a step in the Setup Wizard to make it faster to set up, for communities that need walled categories (e.g. classes for education, and so on)
The admin can enter a list of names for groups to be created. Associated categories will be automatically created which are visible to only people in those groups.
When people sign up for an account, they can also be asked if they would like to join certain groups, if they’re publicly available. Or they can request to join groups, if the groups are available for requests to join.
This could be a precursor to templates for different community types (e.g. for education setups or interest-based based setups).
Mockups
Rough mockups to illustrate what I mean
Admin Setup Wizard
The admin enters what groups they’d like to have set up.
It will set the basic details of the group. (You could probably simplify the permissions – this is just an example.)
If the group is ‘request to join’, the admin can automatically be made an owner of the group at this stage.
Categories and Groups automatically created
New User
What a new user sees after they sign up:
(If the groups are available to join on sign up)
You could include the group avatar if there is one, alongside the group description, and also make the modal bigger too.
And if the group is request to join, the user will automatically send a PM for ‘request to join’.
Feel very free to make suggestions / changes.
