Discussion spaces, the members in them, and what they post.
A space is a room
Every post lives in one space. A space has a type (Discussion, Announcements, Q&A, Events) and a visibility (Public, Members, Private). The only way to remove one is Archive: it disappears from the directory, nobody can open it, and its posts are kept. There is no screen to bring an archived space back.
Who can get in
- A Public space is open to everyone, signed in or not. Tier gates are ignored on a public space.
- Members and Private behave the same: only an active member gets in, and if the space has tier gates, the member's tier must be one of them. "Private" does not mean staff-only or invite-only.
- A visitor who types the address of a space they cannot enter sees "Members only" or "For members with … access", not a not-found page. The space is hidden only from the directory and lists.
When someone says they cannot see the community, check in this order: is the space archived; is the person signed in (the sign-in lasts 7 days and the emailed link 30 minutes); is the membership active, not Pending or Banned; does their tier match the space's gates.
Membership mode
Community Settings → Membership mode decides how a new member starts. Open (the default): active at once. Approval required and Invite only: Pending until staff approve. Invite only behaves exactly like approval required; there is no invitation feature. Changing the mode does not touch existing members.
A Pending or Banned member can still receive a sign-in link and a session, but every write is refused, and the portal does not explain why. On an open community an empty approval queue is correct.
Tiers are labels
A tier has a name, a key and a sort order. It has no price and no checkout, and nothing else in the platform reads it. A member's tier changes only when staff set it on the Members screen. Use tiers to gate spaces, not to sell access.
Ban, approve, and no unban button
Ban keeps the member's record and posts and removes their ability to take part; their profile disappears. The ban reason is never asked for. To reverse it, press Approve: that also sends the member the "you are in" email.
What the community does not have
No accepted-answer action (the "Answered" badge means at least one reply). No report button, spam filter or captcha. No "hide" action, so the Hidden filter is always empty. Members cannot edit or delete their own posts and comments, and there is no sign-out. Staff cannot see or delete comments from the admin screens; they can delete a whole post. The Welcome message setting is not shown to members anywhere.
Members and customers
Every post and comment belongs to a member. A member either joined with a signed-in customer account, or with an email and a one-time link. Only customer-linked members get in-app notifications; link-only members get the approval email and nothing for replies.
Notifications
Staff get a bell entry when someone joins as Pending. A member gets an email when approved. Nobody is notified of a ban, a moderation action, a reaction or a new post.