# Structure and Functionality for Public and Private Forums

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/structure-and-functionality-for-public-and-private-forums/59566>\
**Category:** Product Support\
**Created:** [March 20, 2017, 5:55pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/structure-and-functionality-for-public-and-private-forums/59566 "2017-03-20T17:55:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![cklester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/cklester/32/121144_2.png) [@cklester](https://meta.discourse.org/u/cklester)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2017, 5:55pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/structure-and-functionality-for-public-and-private-forums/59566/1 "2017-03-20T17:55:41Z")

</div>

Let’s imagine I’m setting up a site for readers that will allow its members to create reading groups. I have my own login system (via Laravel’s Auth system), so I’ll need Discourse to recognize that (which I think is possible via SSO).

Members of the site will be able to create their own groups, which I’ll want to then use an API to create the group forum in Discourse.

I’ll want to have some public forums, as well as provide for the private forums of the member groups. The structure might look like this:

Books (public)  
± Fiction (public)  
± Non-fiction (public)  
Support (public)  
My Groups (private to the logged-in user)  
± Grandma’s Book Club (private to the logged-in user)  
± Weekend Warriors Book Club (private to the logged-in user)

Is this sort of structure and functionality possible with Discourse?

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