Channels and feed topics

Split your community into channels with their own feed, members, About page and topics — and decide who can join each one and who can post.

A channel is a space inside your community with its own feed, member list and About page — one for each program, cohort or topic. Every community has a Main channel that everyone is in; you can add up to 20 more.

Channels are managed in Settings → Community Settings → Channels. The list shows each channel's members and how many requests are pending. Drag channels to reorder them.

Before you start

• You need the Channels & categories permission (the community owner has it) — see Community roles & permissions.
• To gate a channel by tags or level, the tags or levels must exist first — you set them in a rule, not on the channel.

Creating a channel

1. Click New Channel.
2. On the General tab, fill in:
   • Channel Name, and optionally a Channel Badge and Channel Description.
   • Channel External Links, shown with the channel.
   • Visibility switches: Active Channel (off hides the channel without deleting it), Hide Feed Composer (members can read but not start posts) and Hide Stories.
3. On the Membership tab, decide how people get in (below).
4. On the About page tab, write About Channel — with separate Member View and Non-Member View versions.
5. Click Create.

Who can join a channel

On the Membership tab:

• Auto-approve member requests — anyone who asks is let in.
• With auto-approve off:
  • Auto-approve members if they have these tags — CRM tags that skip the queue.
  • Enable questions — ask up to 3 questions before a request is sent.
• Enable Legal Agreement — people must accept an agreement before the channel opens. Give it an Agreement Title and upload the Agreement PDF File.

Requests that need approval show up in Settings → People → Join Requests — see Members & join requests.

Who may see a channel at all is set with a rule: in Settings → Community Settings → Rules, choose Access to … | channel as the action and the level or tags required. See Badges, rules & paid access.

Feed topics

Inside a channel, topics sort the feed. Open the channel and go to Feed Topics:

1. Click New Topic and enter a Topic Name.
2. Set Permissions:
   • Anyone can post, anyone can view
   • Only admins/mods can post, anyone can view — good for announcements.

Who can post where

Three settings decide it together:

• the topic's Permissions,
• the channel's Hide Feed Composer,
• an Able to post in group rule, which limits posting by level or tags.

Editing the Main channel

The Main channel is always there and open to everyone. You can change its Channel Name, Channel Badge, Hide Feed Composer and Hide Stories, and manage its Feed Topics — nothing else.

Deleting a channel

Open the channel and click Delete channel, then confirm. If you're currently in that channel, switch to another one first.

Things worth knowing

• 20 channels at most, not counting Main.
• Each channel has its own sidebar widgets and menu — set them with Manage Widgets on its feed and in Navigation. See Look, navigation & about page.
• Courses, resources and videos can be shown in specific channels with their Available in channels field.