Groups are member-driven "micro-communities" within your larger Vanilla community. They provide focused spaces where members can connect around shared interests, roles, or projects, enabling more intimate and targeted conversations outside your main public discussions.
Groups can be public, private, or secret, and, depending on the permissions you configure, can be created and managed not only by administrators but also by staff or regular members. Group Owners and Leaders can moderate posts and manage the content within their space, giving them autonomy to run their Group while still operating within your broader community environment.
NOTE: You must enable the Groups and Events addon to leverage the Groups feature in your community. See Groups and Events to learn how.
NOTE: The Groups and Events addon also makes it possible to create events. To learn about events, see Create & Manage Events.
This article provides an overview of the Groups feature, including Group:
- permissions,
- global settings,
- notifications,
- and your community's main Groups landing page.
Group permissions
If the Groups and Events addon is enabled, the GROUPS section is added to a Role's permissions, with the following four available:
- Users with the
Group > Add permission can create Groups.
NOTE: We recommend reserving the ability to create Groups to Administrators and (possibly) Moderators to prevent too many Groups from being created. It's generally better to have a smaller, curated list of Groups with active participation than to allow numerous Groups to cause participation to become too segregated.
- The
Groups > View permission is required for users to access Groups. This permission allows users to view the Groups Directory (which lists all Public and Private Groups they are eligible to join) and the content of all Public Groups. It also enables them to see Events from Public Groups on the community-wide Events page. - The
Moderation > Manage permission allows users to manage the members and content of ALL Groups, regardless of their membership status for said Group. This permission is typically reserved for Administrators and Moderators. - By default, Group Owners, Leaders, and managers can invite users to join Groups by searching and selecting registered usernames. The
Email Invitations > Add permission allows these users to also invite users to join Groups via email addresses. (Read more) While both options allow you to invite existing community members, the email option allows you to invite people who are not yet members of your community to join a Group.
What can Group Owners & Leaders do?
By default, Group Owners (creators) and Leaders can perform the actions listed below.
| Manage Group Members | Invite users to join | Post content | Edit Groups | Delete Groups |
|---|
Owner | X | X | X | X | X |
|---|
Leader | X | X | X | X | |
|---|
NOTE: Admins can grant Group Owners and Leaders additional abilities via Global Group Settings. Refer to the Global Group Settings section below to learn more.
Differences between Owners and Leaders
- Owners can demote and remove Leaders
- Leaders can demote and remove other Leaders
- Leaders cannot demote or remove Owners
Who can post content in a Group?
You must be a Group Owner, Leader, or member OR have the Group permission: Moderation > Manage.
Who can post Events in a Group?
By default, Group Owners and Leaders can create events for their Groups; however, Admins can also allow Group members to create events, if needed.
NOTE: Refer to the Global Group Settings section below to learn more.
Global Group settings
On the Dashboard > Settings > Posts > Groups page, you can configure several global Group settings that impact all of your community's Groups.
NOTE: If your community is configured to use Legacy Group Layouts, the Group Settings page is accessed differently:
1. Navigate to Settings > Addons > Addons.
2. Locate the Groups and Events addon in the list, and then click its Settings button.
- Allow Leaders & Owners to Curate Group Content: Enables Owners and Leaders to:
- delete posts
- close posts
- merge posts
- accept or reject answers to questions
- change idea statuses
- Allow Leaders & Owners to Moderate Group Content: If the Community Management Dashboard is enabled in your community, toggle this on to allow Owners and Leaders to access the Reports and Escalations Dashboards. Note, however, that data in these dashboards will be limited to reports and escalations associated to Groups the user owns or leads. They can manage content in these dashboards as follows:
- Dismiss or escalate reports
- Assign escalations
- Remove posts
- Restore posts that have been removed
- Comment on escalations
- Change an escalation's status
- Allow members to add events: Enables Group members to create events for Groups they belong to.
- Configure Member Directory Settings: Use the dropdown to choose which user profile fields appear on a Group's Members tab. In the field below, you can drag and drop the profile fields to reorder them. The fields available here are pulled from your community's Dashboard > Settings > Membership > User Profile page. See Custom Profile Fields to learn more.
NOTE: The Configure Member Directory Settings option is only available if your community is configured to use Custom Group Layouts.
NOTE: Profile field visibility settings (Public, Internal, or Private) determine whether members can view them.
Group notifications
When you join a Group, you'll automatically Follow it, and the default notification preferences you've set from your profile will be applied. Of course, you're free to update these defaults at the time of joining or at any point in the future.
In this section, you'll learn everything you need to know about managing these Group-based notifications.
Notification relevant to Group Owners & Leaders
If you're a Group Owner or Leader of a Private Group(s), you'll want to consider enabling the Community Tasks > Group Membership Requests notification on your profile's Notification Preferences page. This notification ensures you're alerted when new users are requesting to join.
Admins - Set global default preferences
Admins can configure global, Group-based defaults for users across their community that will be automatically assigned to:
- all new users and
- existing users who have not yet set their own preferences.
NOTE: These global defaults will not override preferences existing users have manually set for themselves.
These global defaults help ensure your users are more likely to receive updates about content they're interested in.
- Access the Dashboard.
- Navigate to Settings > Membership > User Preferences.
- Click Edit Default Notifications.
- Click the Groups tab and set your desired global defaults.
Users - Set your default notification preferences
You can configure your default notification preferences from your profile, on the Notification Preferences page.
From here, check or uncheck the boxes in the Groups section to be notified when:
- new announcements, comments, and/or posts are made
- new events are created or updated
- your invited to a Group
- your membership request has been approved
Set individual Group preferences
You can manage how notifications are handled for each Group you belong to, either from its individual page or from the main Groups Home page. To do so, click the bell icon and indicate whether you want to include Group content in your email digest and/or be notified of new Group content.
With the Notify me of new content box checked, you can then granularly choose what Group content you do and do not want to be notified about:
- comments,
- posts,
- announcements,
- events.
The Groups page
To access your community's main Groups page, click Groups in your community's Navigation Bar.
TIP: Keep an eye on this page over time to see what Groups are forming and growing the most.
The layout of the Groups page will be different depending on the Group layout version set for your community: Legacy or Custom.
Your chosen layout impacts how your community's Group pages look and function, as well as how their content and members are managed.
IMPORTANT: For the best Groups experience, we strongly recommend using custom Group layouts. These layouts provide the latest features for your staff and community members and enable you to create fully custom layouts for your Group Directories and Home pages.
Legacy Group layout
The Legacy Group layout has three sections:
- My Groups lists the Groups you've created or joined.
- New Groups lists all recently created Groups.
- Popular Groups lists the Groups that have the most members, from newest to oldest.
TIP: Not all Groups will show in each section; click their associated "see all" link to view all Groups in each section.
Custom Group layout
The default Custom Group layout for your Group Directory displays the full list of public and private Groups in your community. This page organizes Groups in the My Groups and Groups sections:
- The My Groups section displays the Groups each user belongs to, making it easy for your users to quickly access their Groups.
- The Groups section allows users to to browse Groups they are eligible to join or request access to.
TIP: Not all Groups display at once; click the page-selection buttons at the bottom of the page to view more Groups.
Customize with Layout Editor
Because this is a custom layout, it can be modified using Layout Editor.
Sort & filter Groups
Use the Sort and Filter options above the list to quickly locate Groups you're a member of or Groups you may be interested in joining.
Click Sort by to access the following sort options:
- Newest lists all recently created Groups.
- Oldest lists the oldest Groups by creation date.
- Most Popular lists the Groups that have the most members, from newest to oldest.
- Most Active lists Groups with the highest user engagement (new posts).
Click Filters to display the Filter Groups dialog, where you can filter the Groups list by:
- Group Filter: Select either All Groups or My Groups (the Groups you've created or joined).
- Search Groups: Use this search field to quickly locate Groups by their name or description.
- Tags: Select one or more Tags to view all of the Groups associated to them.
- Match All Tags: If multiple Tags are selected, a Group must have all of them in order to display.
With your filters and/or search text in place, click Apply to update the list.
Post types available in Groups
The post types available in your Groups depends on the Create Post layout version configured for your community.
Legacy layout
If set to Legacy, your Groups have the following post types (this cannot be changed):
- Discussions
- Questions
- Polls
- Events
Custom layout
If set to Custom, you can freely control what post types are available. By default, your Groups will have:
- Discussions
- Questions
- Ideas
To learn more about managing these default types and creating custom ones, see Custom Post Types.
Set custom Post Types for your Groups
Custom Post Types let you define additional kinds of posts beyond the default Discussions, Questions, and Ideas, and control where they’re available by limiting them to specific Categories and Roles.
Because Groups use the same posting system and support all Post Types, assigning a custom Post Type to the Social Groups Category makes it available inside Groups, so members can choose it from the New Post menu when publishing Group content. This makes it easy to tailor structured workflows and data collection to the unique needs of your Groups.
NOTE: Assigning Custom Post Types in this way makes them available globally across all of your Groups; there is no way to assign specific Post Types to specific Groups.
Let's walk through how to make a custom Post Type available in your Groups.
1. Access the Dashboard.
2. Navigate to Settings > Posts > Post Types.
3. Create or edit (pencil icon) a Post Type.
4. Click the Categories dropdown and select Social Groups.
5. Click Save to apply this change.
This Post Type is now available to all of your Groups.
NOTE: The Post Type's Creation Permission applies (see image above): if Roles have been selected, users in Groups must belong to one of them in order to post with it.