# Mark a Topic as members-only
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/mark-a-topic-as-members-only/53072
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [18.Ноябрь.2016 13:35:30 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/mark-a-topic-as-members-only/53072 "2016-11-18T13:35:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@AstonJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/AstonJ)
#### Post date: [18.Ноябрь.2016 13:35:30 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/mark-a-topic-as-members-only/53072/1 "2016-11-18T13:35:30Z")
This is a feature I have wanted on every forum I have ever run, a way to mark a thread/topic to be viewable by members-only.
I know we can create a members-only category, but there are often cases when this isn’t a good fit. We have a new section which is members only but where the bulk of topics would actually be good to have as public - it’s just overall, they need to be private (and in some cases, need to be checked before are made public).
Having a mark as members-only thread feature would be awesome - there are lots and lots of use cases; feedback, member’s personal threads, discussions about discussions elsewhere, etc. Anyone else agree?
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### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [18.Ноябрь.2016 13:46:57 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/mark-a-topic-as-members-only/53072/2 "2016-11-18T13:46:57Z")
> [@AstonJ](#):
>
> topic to be viewable by members-only
PMs?
> [@AstonJ](#):
>
> We have a new section which is members only but where the bulk of topics would actually be good to have as public
> [@AstonJ](#):
>
> it’s just overall, they need to be private
> [@AstonJ](#):
>
> need to be checked before are made public
To me a group PM, and using the convert to topic tool, cover this.
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### Author:  [@AstonJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/AstonJ)
#### Post date: [18.Ноябрь.2016 14:05:04 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/mark-a-topic-as-members-only/53072/3 "2016-11-18T14:05:04Z")
Thanks for the post Falco.
Not PMs tho, they are person (or group) specific and unfortunately off the main boards (so don’t show in latest lists etc). (Plus I’m not sure you could even do a group PM for all members and then every new member that joins afterwards?).
The feature would be handy for sporadic threads which we just want to restrict to members-only (but do not want put in any special section). They could have the same icon that appears when a topic is unlisted or in a private section.
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### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [18.Ноябрь.2016 14:23:53 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/mark-a-topic-as-members-only/53072/4 "2016-11-18T14:23:53Z")
I understand what you want, but I don’t think it’s gonna happen.
A category where tl\_0 can see/reply/create is the same thing.
Doing security at topic level would be a complexity burden for little gain at this point.
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### Author:  [@pfaffman](https://meta.discourse.org/u/pfaffman)
#### Post date: [18.Ноябрь.2016 15:32:20 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/mark-a-topic-as-members-only/53072/5 "2016-11-18T15:32:20Z")
Another solution is to just recategorize them. You could have sister or child categories and move between them. TL3 can recategorize topics, so it’d be fairly easy.