In a discussion about transitioning from the ‘Uncategorised’ quasi-category to a real ‘General’ category following Discourse’s 2.9.0.beta11 update, Jonathan5 asks whether existing forums need to adapt. pfaffman suggests creating a real category instead, though notes the default category setting is hidden. JammyDodger clarifies that the update only affects new sites, and existing forums can safely continue using their current setup — including renamed ‘Uncategorised’ — without changes. However, for those wishing to adopt the new model, steps include: creating a new General category, bulk-moving topics, setting it as the default composer category (now visible in admin settings), and disabling uncategorized topics. JammyDodger confirms categories can be renamed, and Don explains limitations of ‘Uncategorised’ — such as no security settings, no parent/child relationships, and no chat channel support — which real categories avoid. Jonathan5 concludes that, since he never liked the uncategorized setup and now sees it’s safe to change, he’ll migrate his forum to mirror the new standard. The main benefits highlighted are improved usability, clearer defaults, and enhanced features like chat channels for real categories.
Continuing the discussion from 2.9.0.beta11: Security fixes, New general category, Sidebar improvements, and more:
On my forum I had renamed and kept the old “Uncategorised” quasi-category (if that’s a word), and allow uncategorized topics is ticked.
Do I need to do anything as a consequence of the update quoted above? Thanks.
I don’t think so, but I would investigate creating a new real-category and using that instead. I find the quasi category confusing, especially if it’s renamed.
Will do. How would I set the default category then? (If I delete the old quasi-category and no “General” category has been created automatically either?)
Sorry. I think that is possible to do it, but for reasons I don’t understand, it’s hidden behind hidden settings.
Default Composer Category component might be a way. There recent commit that added a setting, but I couldn’t make sense of it
I think you might just go on like nothing has changed.
Thanks. I hope someone from the team sees this and can explain. Maybe it’s all been designed so that the best thing for existing forums is to keep the old non-category-category!
It is now visible in the admin settings. 
You can find it under default composer category
The #general category change has been implemented so it affects newly created sites and leaves existing ones as they are. You can happily continue using your setup as is and don’t need to do anything. 
(though renaming Uncategorised is a bold choice 
)
However, if you would like to mirror the new setup you can do this by:
#general category#uncategorised into #general (also consider temporarily toggling the disable category edit notifications admin setting)default composer category to #generalallow uncategorized topicsCan he rename general?
You can rename the pre-seeded #general category if you have one.
If you’re creating a new default category you can call it whatever you like - and if you already have an existing category that you’d like to use as a default one you can add that to default composer category (like we’ve done with #support here on Meta)
Let’s say I’ve already renamed my “uncategorised” quasi-category as “General”. What difference would there be after taking the steps above? Thanks.
I’m not 100% sure I’m following this question , but I think if you reverted your uncategorised back to ‘uncategorised’, following those steps would then allow you to retain a similar setup to what you have now without accidentally being caught out with any changes to the uncategorised category in future updates.
I just wondered what the benefit of the new setup is over the old.
I think it’s mainly a change for new sites to move away from the ‘uncategorised’ name. You were ahead of the game and made similar changes to your site manually already, so it may not seem that different from your point of view. New sites also get a default chat channel attached to the General category as well, which isn’t possible with uncategorised.
The main bonus I like is the new default composer category option.
I think uncategorized category is not a real category. It means, topics without category, just a topic holder until move it to a category. So there are some limitations what you can’t do with it.
For example:
But now with the new method you can select for example your most popular and/or important category to default to make topic creation faster and more understandable.
Thanks for the detailed replies. I never liked the uncategorised non-category in the first place so, now that it seems safe to do it, I will go ahead and change my forum to replicate the current position.