What can user groups be used for?

[roemer (Ronja Römer)]

Hi everyone,

I understand that I can create user groups and configure the visibility and the access of this group. Can these users then have an internal private communication thread?

Is there an overview for which purposes the user groups can be used?

We are looking for a solution to allow users to communicate with the administrator outside our public categories and topics.

Thanks a million

[ondrej]

@roemer

Can these users then have an internal private communication thread

Hello there @roemer!

Yes they can. You will have to create a category and then select the group to create/reply/see

This is explained by the link below

Understanding groups and category permissions (security settings)

See this video tutorial for an example of how to use these features: Create a private category with limited access for a certain group The Security tab on the category edit page is used to control both the visibility of categories and what users can do in a category. This is done by defining an access list of groups that associate a group name with an access level. The default permission for a new category is that the group everyone can Create/Reply/See. This means that a…

@roemer

overview for which purposes the user groups can be used

Groups can be used for a wide range of things from generally sorting users to to category security levels etc.

[osioke (Osioke Itseuwa)]

Hello @roemer

@roemer

Can these users then have an internal private communication thread?

Yes. Either using group messages or private categories only accessible by the group members.

To better understand group messages, see Allow groups to be mentioned and sent messages

To set up private categories, see Understanding groups and category permissions (security settings)

@roemer

Is there an overview for which purposes the user groups can be used?

I will link to 2 topics where these has been discussed.

• Good use cases for groups (to better understand groups vs categories)
• Categories vs. Groups?

[roemer (Ronja Römer)]

Thank you @ondrej & @osioke, this is SO helpful. I already came accross the private category but somehow I cannot add the user group to a new category. It does not display in the drop down menu. Maybe it is something due to our settings? I may find out once I read through your valuables sources

[nolo (Manuel)]

Often you just need to re-load the page from the browser window. Some changes (like a new group) are not being updated when you navigate within Discourse only.