# What does "who can see this group" mean?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-who-can-see-this-group-mean/82411
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [March 7, 2018, 12:01pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-who-can-see-this-group-mean/82411 "2018-03-07T12:01:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@carlokok](https://meta.discourse.org/u/carlokok)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2018, 12:01pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-who-can-see-this-group-mean/82411/1 "2018-03-07T12:01:39Z")
there’s a setting on the groups page; “Who can see this group”; if I set that to public; my group messages will still be hidden right?
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### Author:  [@mikechristopher](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mikechristopher)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2018, 12:27pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-who-can-see-this-group-mean/82411/2 "2018-03-07T12:27:41Z")
Yes the category security is something different.
All this means is that people can see the group exists on the group page here: [Discourse Meta](https://meta.discourse.org/groups)
They can also see who is a member of it etc.
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### Author:  [@tophee](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tophee)
#### Post date: [March 7, 2018, 1:22pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-who-can-see-this-group-mean/82411/3 "2018-03-07T13:22:04Z")
It might be worth adding that the setting “Everyone” has a different meaning depending on whether the forum is public or private. In public forums “Everyone” basically means “the whole world”. In a private forum (i.e. which require users to login to see anything), it means “all logged in users”.
See also:
> [@More nuanced group visibility (based on group membership)](https://meta.discourse.org/t/more-nuanced-group-visibility-based-on-group-membership/77129):
>
> Continuing the discussion from [Hidden Group Membership](https://meta.discourse.org/t/hidden-group-membership/62884/27): How about more than the current four visibility levels? Probably the most frequent use case for this would be to allow group members to apply for membership in sub-groups without having to make those sub-groups public. So let’s say you have a group for all members in an association, then those members (and only those) should be able to see various thematic working groups or what have you, either as a matter of transparency or in order to m…
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### Author:  [@gordon\_mrmoco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/gordon_mrmoco)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2020, 9:21pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-who-can-see-this-group-mean/82411/4 "2020-03-24T21:21:27Z")
I have 40 odd members in trust level 1. Group visibility has been set to everyone, but they cannot see each other. Why is this?
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2020, 10:13pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-who-can-see-this-group-mean/82411/5 "2020-03-24T22:13:54Z")
That’s an automatic group – automatic groups do not have the same rules or behavior as manual groups.
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### Author:  [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [June 8, 2024, 12:37pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-does-who-can-see-this-group-mean/82411/6 "2024-06-08T12:37:06Z")
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