Looking to add a private Category only visible to those users I add I add after they register. I have created a new custom data type as the category name. When I try to assign this a Privacy rule, there is no way to create a rule to make only visible to specific users. What would be the easiest way to accomplish this?
Also, if a Category has a privacy rule, does it act as a parent so that all topics are private to those specific users as well?
@tkevitch I am new here but not new in this. I just want to say that To make a category visible only to specific users after they register, you can use Discourse’s Group functionality.
First, create a new Group and name it whatever you want. Then, add the users you want to give access to this private category to this Group.
Next, create a new Category and set the “Security” option to “Group”. Select the Group you just created as the allowed Group, and set the permission level to “Watching”. This will make the category visible only to the members of the Group and they will automatically be set to “Watching” the category.
Regarding your second question, if a Category has a privacy rule, it only applies to the Category and not to the Topics within it. Therefore, you will need to set the privacy rules for each Topic individually if you want them to be private to the same set of users. Alternatively, you could create Subcategories within the main Category and apply the same privacy rule to all of them. This would make all Topics within those Subcategories private to the same set of users.
Hello @tkevitch,
Apologize for the delayed response. 
One way to achieve this is to add a yes/no field to your user database and use it to control access. For example, you can add a field called “isPrivate” with a Yes/No data type.
If the current user’s “isPrivate” field is set to “yes”, then the element is visible to them. You can also set up workflows to add or remove users from this category as needed. I hope this helps!
Best regards,
Gulce