> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://learn.nexudus.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Discussion Groups > How to use discussion groups and discussion boards to control who can see and join conversations, and how notifications are delivered. ## Overview The **discussion board** is a community space on the members portal where customers start conversations, follow threads, like replies, and share files. Two pieces work together: * **Discussion boards** hold the conversations (threads) themselves. * **Discussion groups** are named subsets of customers that control *who can see and contribute* to a board. Use groups to scope a board to a relevant audience — for example, members of a particular plan or a specific cohort — and to decide whether outsiders can read it, reply to it, or both. ## How to access Navigate to **Community → Discussion Groups** for the groups themselves, and **Community → Discussions** for the boards and their threads. ![content community groups](https://mintcdn.com/nexudus/Pe3pLOykvGoZdleH/images/platform/content/content-community-groups.png?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=Pe3pLOykvGoZdleH\&q=85\&s=3f76d812e765ef7d2f8d1053b0dc5574) ## Key concepts * **Group.** A named set of customers you define. Groups are created by admins and applied to boards. * **Access level.** Each group has an access level (**Public**, **Restricted**, or **Private**) that determines who can see the board and who can post to it. See [Setting the access level](#setting-the-access-level). * **Following and muting.** Customers follow threads to get notified of new replies, and can mute threads they no longer want to hear about. See [Notifications](#notifications). ## Creating a group **1. Open Discussion Groups** Go to **Community → Discussion Groups** and click **Add group**. **2. Fill in the details** Set the **Location**, give the group a **Name** that reflects the audience (e.g. "Wellness members"), and add a short **Description**. Assign an **Administrator** — the group's admin can always post to the group and invite other users to it. **3. Choose the access level** Pick **Public**, **Restricted**, or **Private** — see [Setting the access level](#setting-the-access-level). **4. Add members** Where the access level requires it (Restricted or Private), add the customers who belong to the group from the **Members** list. **5. Save** The group is now available when creating or editing a board. ## Setting the access level Each group has an **Access level** that decides who can see the board and who can post to it. It sits in the **Access** section of the group form. | Level | Who can see the board | Who can post | | - | - | - | | **Public** | Everyone with access to discussion boards | Everyone with access to discussion boards | | **Restricted** | Everyone with access to discussion boards | Only members of the group | | **Private** | Only the selected customers | Only the selected customers | Notes: * **Restricted** and **Private** expose a **Members** picker so you can choose exactly who is covered. **Public** does not need one. * The group's **Administrator** can always post to the group and invite other users to it, regardless of the access level. * Change the access level at any time to widen or narrow the audience. > [!TIP] > > Name groups by audience, not by topic ("Office 2 members" rather than "Parking talk") — the topic lives in the thread title, the group defines who's allowed in. ## Discussion boards A **discussion board** is where the conversations happen. Threads on a board inherit the access level of the group the board belongs to, so choosing the right group is what scopes the conversation. ### Starting a discussion Customers (and admins who have a customer profile) start a discussion from the members portal: **1. Go to the board** Open **Community → Discussions** on the members portal. **2. Start a discussion** Click **Start discussion**. **3. Write the message** Add a **Subject** (this becomes the thread title) and your **Message**. **4. Choose the audience** Under **Send to**, pick **Everyone in this group** or specific customers. Select the **Group** the discussion belongs to — this is what applies the group's access level. Leave it on the general board for a public conversation. **5. Organise and deliver** Add up to **three tags** to help people find the post, attach up to **five files** (each up to 10 MB), and enable **Instant delivery** if you want people notified as soon as you post rather than in the daily digest. **6. Publish** Click **Start discussion**. > [!NOTE] > > Admins also need a customer profile in order to post messages to discussion boards. ### Joining a discussion On the board, customers can search by keyword or filter by group, inbox, or tag. To take part, open a thread, click **Join this discussion**, add a comment, and click **Send reply**. Participants are then notified according to their notification settings. ## Notifications Discussions surface to customers in a few ways: * **Daily digest.** Once a day (around 8 a.m.), every customer who is part of at least one thread gets a digest summarising new conversations and replies since the last notification. * **Instant delivery.** If you turned on **Instant delivery** when posting, people are notified straight away instead of waiting for the digest. * **Mentions.** Anyone @mentioned in a message gets a push notification (via the Passport app, if they use it) and an email. Being mentioned also means they automatically start following the thread. * **Every message.** Customers who switch on **Receive every message** in their notification settings get a notification for every message posted to a thread they can access. Within a thread, customers can: * **Like** a message — this does not trigger a notification. * **Follow** a thread — they get notified of every new reply. * **Mute** a thread — they stop receiving notifications about it, even if someone mentions them. About 30 seconds after the last reply on a thread, the poster and everyone following it receive a summary of the recent conversation by email, plus a push notification via Passport if they have the app. ## Related * [Announcements](https://learn.nexudus.com/platform/content/announcements.md) — one-way notices, as opposed to two-way discussions * [Members](https://learn.nexudus.com/platform/operations/members.md) — the customers groups are built from This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.