# Parent groups and sub-groups

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/parent-groups-and-sub-groups/119766>\
**Category:** Feature\
**Tags:** groups\
**Created:** [June 7, 2019, 9:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/parent-groups-and-sub-groups/119766 "2019-06-07T21:11:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 9

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**Author:** ![nathank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/nathank/32/290039_2.png) [@nathank](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nathank)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2019, 2:10pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/parent-groups-and-sub-groups/119766/9 "2019-11-26T14:10:43Z")

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Our group problems that need a solution:

1. We have a lot of groups (\>60); this is overwhelming
2. Many groups are effectively sub-groups of other groups
3. If in a sub-group, a user would always need to be included in the larger group.
4. It is an administration headache to ensure that everyone is in all the groups they need to be in; and that the categories have all of the sub-groups in them (especially with sub-categories)

While there is room to tidy up and hide many of our groups, it would certainly simplify things for us if we had sub-groups.

In Active Directory, this makes maintaining the group structure and the veracity of the people in them enormously easier - especially with a larger organisation. But it is also likely pretty curly to implement and will break many things (such as plug-ins). It has certainly taken our Microsoft colleagues about a decade to sort out!

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