Topic permissions

Topic membership, edit access and more

Updated over a week ago

Slab offers a versatile permission system that controls discovering, viewing, and editing abilities for both topics and the posts within them.

In this article, you will learn how Slab's topic permission works and how it affects the posts inside the topic.

Types of membership within a topic

Teammates and groups added to a topic will have one of two roles: a topic owner or a topic member.

  • Topic owners can freely edit a topic and its posts regardless of the permission set on a topic.

  • A topic member's ability to edit a topic and its posts depends on the permissions set for the topic.

✏️ Note: Admins can use their privilege to join any topic except for Secret topics.

Types of topic permission settings

There are two permission settings within a topic. These settings control who has access to a topic and who can edit the topic and its posts:

  • Who can access: controls the visibility of the topic and its posts in your Slab organization.

  • Members can edit...: controls the type of members who can edit a topic and its posts.

The Who can access setting

The Who can access setting controls the visibility of the topic and its posts to non-topic members. A topic member can always see the topic and its posts.

The Who can access setting also affects the types of subtopics allowed under a parent topic.

There are 4 different access permissions a topic can have:

  • Open

    • All standard users and admins can see the topic and its posts regardless of whether they are members of the topic.

    • It can have any type of subtopic.

  • Private

    • All standard users and admins can see the topic's existence but must request access to view its content.

    • It can only have private and secret subtopics.

  • Secret

    • Non-members cannot see the topic's existence.

    • It can only have secret subtopics.

  • Public

    • All standard users and admins can see the topic and its posts. Additionally, anyone with the topic URL can see the topic and posts without needing to log into Slab.

    • It can only have public subtopics.

Members can edit... setting

Topic owners can always edit the topic itself and its posts. The Members can edit… setting controls if a topic member can edit a topic and its posts;

The Members can edit… setting does not affect subtopics; you can freely set subtopic edit permissions as needed.

There are 3 different edit permissions a topic can have:

  • All: Members can edit the topics and their posts.

  • Posts: Members can only edit posts on the topic, and not the topic itself.

  • None: Members can only view posts.

Edit permission details

Below is a list of editable actions for a topic:

Topic edit permission enables:

  • Modifying the name, description, banner image, and "Organize under..."

  • Modifying the topic permission settings.

  • Reorganizing the subtopics.

  • Deleting the topic.

  • Pinning posts or reordering pinned posts.

  • Adding or removing members.

  • Editing topic membership inheritance.

Topic edit permission does not restrict:

  • Adding or removing a post from the topic. The posts themselves specify which topic they are organized in.

  • Adding or removing subtopics. The subtopics themselves specify which topic is its parent, not the other way around. Note this means an editable subtopic can be added to an uneditable topic.

  • Promoting to owners or demoting owners. Owners always have this permission, and members always do not have this permission.

Post edit permission enables:

  • Modifying the post title and contents.

  • Deleting the post.

  • Adding or removing topics (must also be able to edit the topic).

Post edit permission does not restrict:

  • Commenting on the posts.

Inheritance

By default, newly created subtopics will inherit their parent's topic members. Topic owners can remove this inheritance (or add it back). Click here to learn how to remove or add inheritance.

Groups

Groups can be added to a topic as owners or members. All the teammates in a particular group will share the topic membership role and permission within a topic. Click here to learn how to add a group to a topic.


Did this answer your question?