Learn about the access for visitors, members and admins to your community.
Community Visibility
Will your community be visible and accessible to visitors, or only to logged-in members?
Open communities are indexed and discoverable by visitors and Events, Tools and Content can be viewed by anyone who lands on the community homepage. Community members, engagement in Channels, and registering for an event are all protected behind a login screen, so users must sign up or log in to view People, Messages, and Channels.
This option is best if you'd like your community to be discoverable and for visitors to get a taste of your community and its contents when they navigate to your community domain.
Here is an example of an open community and what a visitor can see when they land in the community.
Private communities are not indexed and are only accessible by members who are logged in. When a visitor lands on the community domain, they are prompted with a login screen and cannot see anything within the community.
This option is best if you'd like your community to remain hidden and undiscoverable to visitors.
Decide how you'd like members to sign up or create accounts in your community.
Open Sign-Up allows anyone who visits the community to sign up and access the community. Once they've signed up (by providing their email address, name, company, and title), an account is created. They are sent a magic link to sign in and they have access to the full community immediately.
The user's account is created in the dashboard in real-time and admin(s) can manage their access levels from there.
Application Sign-Up prompts visitors to complete an application to sign up and access the community. The user will complete the application but will not have access to the full community until their account is created by an admin.
Account admin(s) will need to create the external application form and link it in settings. They will also need to take action on account creation from the data provided in the form and communicate with the members when their account has been created, to encourage them to log in and complete their accounts.
Private Sign-Up does not prompt visitors to sign up at all, and members must be invited to join. Account admin(s) will create all accounts and communicate with the members when their account has been created, to encourage them to log in and complete their accounts.
There are various levels of account administrator access that you can delegate from your dashboard.
Account Administrators have the highest level of access and full permissions to the community dashboard and its contents. They have access to everything from high-level community settings & member information to events and content details.
Collaborators can be granted controlled access to ONLY the creation and management of events and content within the community. They are granted access to a unique community dashboard and can be further limited by permissions at three different tiers.
