# Private categories padlock icon
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/private-categories-padlock-icon/102733
**Category:** UX
**Created:** [November 25, 2018, 10:21pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/private-categories-padlock-icon/102733 "2018-11-25T22:21:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ChameleonScales](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ChameleonScales)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2018, 10:21pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/private-categories-padlock-icon/102733/1 "2018-11-25T22:21:58Z")
Rebooting this closed topic:
> [@Alternatives to lock icon for categories](https://meta.discourse.org/t/alternatives-to-lock-icon-for-categories/24815):
>
> Quite a bit later, but I still find the lock quite startling and confusing, it just feels like its a category that can not be posted into cause it was shut down. I really wish we could have a different icon there, even if its not the group icon.
I recently had a message from a TL3 user who told me he never clicked on the private categories because he thought the padlock meant he didn’t have access there. I was also confused the first time I saw that.
I really liked this icon, as there is just no way to misunderstand it:
> [@On another topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/124815/11):
>
> **Lock is _universally_ understood as permissions required** ,
I beg to diffeeeeeer 🎶 🎵
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### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2018, 10:26pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/private-categories-padlock-icon/102733/2 "2018-11-25T22:26:51Z")
Nothing is stopping you using CSS to change it on your own personal instance.
There are far too many interpretations of ‘man in jacket with raised collar, hat and glasses’, are they a spy? a private investigator? a rogue agent? what’s their intent? The name FontAwesome uses is in itself cryptic, how do secrets apply to something that ranges from sensitive, private or just non-public.
In comparison there’s only one for a lock. There may be better, but I don’t think that’s it. Objects are always good, they serve a particular purpose, people on the other hand are much more vague and open to interpretation.
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### Author:  [@ChameleonScales](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ChameleonScales)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2018, 10:36pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/private-categories-padlock-icon/102733/3 "2018-11-25T22:36:37Z")
How about a good ol’ mask?
> [@Stephen](#):
>
> Noting is stopping you using CSS to change it on your own personal instance.
Nothing is stopping the Discourse developers to make default settings that are less confusing either.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2018, 10:39pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/private-categories-padlock-icon/102733/4 "2018-11-25T22:39:14Z")
I would hold off on anything here till the font awesome 5 upgrade is merged … there are more possible icons to choose from. I don’t see us changing core though any time soon.
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### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2018, 11:26pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/private-categories-padlock-icon/102733/5 "2018-11-25T23:26:22Z")
> [@sam](#):
>
> I don’t see us changing core though any time soon.
From my perspective that’s good news, there are already significant numbers of deployments and huge numbers of users who have become acquainted with the current convention. As I said above there may be better options, but it’s almost too late in the day to bother with an incremental gain which has any potential to cause more fallout than benefit.
There are people who never seen nor used floppy disks yet click that icon every day to save their data. Most computers don’t include optical drives as standard now, let alone 3.5", but it’s still very much the norm. I use certain tablet apps which bear the trusty floppy disk icon, despite the two technologies never having intersected.
If the perfect icon which requires zero explanation appears that’s a different matter entirely, but let’s worry about perfect tomorrow, for now _good enough is good enough_.
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### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2018, 11:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/private-categories-padlock-icon/102733/6 "2018-11-25T23:47:16Z")
I had one instance where we changed the icon to [https://fontawesome.com/icons/unlock-alt?style=solid](https://fontawesome.com/icons/unlock-alt?style=solid) which was the default in the home page.
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### Author:  [@Stephen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Stephen)
#### Post date: [November 26, 2018, 12:17am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/private-categories-padlock-icon/102733/7 "2018-11-26T00:17:18Z")
That’s a great example of tweak which eradicates any suggestion that the content is locked away from the user, without introducing additional uncertainty.
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### Author:  [@downey](https://meta.discourse.org/u/downey)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2021, 9:09pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/private-categories-padlock-icon/102733/8 "2021-04-26T21:09:02Z")
Apparently this is still a problem for at least some percentage of non-old-timers. The Discourse defaults still have this conflict in iconography:
- 🔒 **Closed Topic:** You **don’t** have access and **can’t** post here.
- 🔒 **Available Category:** You **do** have (special) access and **can** post here.
… and I’ve had a few reports recently about people confused by the two separate meanings for the same glyph.
Is there any easy way to bulk-change these icons (for revealed categories) to the unlocked icon?
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### Author:  [@nathank](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nathank)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2021, 2:24am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/private-categories-padlock-icon/102733/9 "2021-11-18T02:24:48Z")
> [@downey](#):
>
> Is there any easy way to bulk-change these icons (for revealed categories) to the unlocked icon?
This Theme component does that nicely:
> [@Category Icons](https://meta.discourse.org/t/category-icons-component/104683):
>
> warning This theme component is deprecated and should no longer be used. Its features are now in Discourse Core (see: [Bringing popular features to Discourse](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bringing-popular-features-to-discourse-header-search-welcome-banner-and-category-icons-emoji/359169)). For private category icon customization, refer to [this topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/new-aliases-for-replacing-lock-icons-on-closed-topics-and-restricted-categories/373778). discourse2Summary Category Icons allows category badge links to have icons next to the category name.eyeglassesPreview [Preview on Discourse Theme Creator](https://discourse.theme-creator.io/theme/Discourse/category-icons)hammer_and_wrenchRepository Link [https://github.com/discourse/discourse-category-icons](https://github.com/discourse/discourse-category-icons) …
It seems much better. Why not change this in core?
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### Author:  [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2023, 11:10am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/private-categories-padlock-icon/102733/10 "2023-05-19T11:10:55Z")
Closed to focus discussion in [Alternatives to padlock icons on secured categories](https://meta.discourse.org/t/alternatives-to-padlock-icons-on-secured-categories/265530)