Aurora: Make a category or board private

In addition to public categories and boards, you can create categories or boards that restrict access to selected community members. You might set up a private category or board to be used exclusively by administrators and moderators or to test changes to your community behind the scenes. You might also use a private category to archive unused boards or create a private board for VIP members.

Restricted access is what makes a category or board private, as opposed to the Hide [place] posts in content widgets and search and Hide [place] in place widgets, place picker menus, and search settings, which make the category or board invisible to everyone except administrators. You control access to a private category or board by creating and assigning roles with selected permissions.

To make a category or board private:

1. Open the Account menu and go to Settings > Community Structure.
2. For the place you want to hide, open the Settings menu and click Edit.
   
3. Under Display Settings, turn on Hide [place] posts in content widgets and search (for boards only) and Hide [place] in place widgets, place picker menus, and search (for boards and categories).
   
4. Go to the [Place] Permissions page.
5. Beside [Place] Permission Defaults, click Edit.
   
6. (For boards) Under Boards, set See [content type board] to Deny.
   (For categories) Under Boards, set See boards to Deny and under Categories, set See categories to Deny.
   At this point, administrators are the only ones able to access this private board or category.
7. As necessary, create and assign roles to members that permit them to see the board or category. Their roles must have permissions with See boards and/or See categories set to Grant at the appropriate level of the community.
8. If at any point you want to make the place public:
1. (For boards) Turn off Hide [place] posts in content widgets and search.
   (For boards and categories) Turn off Hide [place] in place widgets, place picker menus, and search.
2. Change the [Place] Permission Defaults to Grant for the following permissions:
   (For boards) See [content type board].
   (For categories) See boards and See categories.

Related topics:

• Create a role
• Add members to roles
• Permission descriptions
• Hide places and content from lists, menus, and search