# Groups: sub-communities with their own admins

**Category:** [Community](https://help.totalctrl.app/hc/totalctrl/totalctrl-help-center/en-US/categories/community-1)
**Updated:** 2026-10-04

## A Group is a Space, with membership rules on top

Every community already has Spaces — a general discussion board, an announcements channel, and so on. A **Group** is the same thing with two extra ideas layered on: who may see it, and who may join it. If you never touch either setting, a Group behaves exactly like the Space you already know — every active member sees it and can post in it, and nobody needs to be added to anything.
### Three visibility levels

- **Community** — the default. Every active member sees and can post in it.
- **Private** — listed to everyone, so people know it exists and can ask to join, but the content itself is only visible once a request is approved.
- **Hidden** — invisible everywhere unless you are already a member. It will not appear in the Groups directory, the sidebar, or the home feed for anyone who has not been added. There is no “request to join” button for a Hidden group, because there is nothing on the page to click — you cannot ask to join something you do not know exists.

### Creating a Group

From the community admin area, open **Groups** and choose *New Group*. Creating a Group is admin/moderator-only, the same as creating any other Space — but once it exists, you can hand day-to-day running of it to someone else.
### Group Admins

Any member can be made a **Group Admin**, scoped to that one Group only. A Group Admin can manage that Group's membership and settings without needing full community admin or moderator rights — useful for an alumni chapter, a regional chapter, or a course cohort run by someone who should not also be able to touch the rest of the community. A community admin or moderator can always manage every Group, Group Admin or not.

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## Related Articles

- [Track community analytics](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/track-community-analytics)
- [Registering for an event, and the waitlist](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/community-events-registering)
- [Moderate posts and comments](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/moderate-posts-and-comments)
- [Community events you can subscribe to](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/community-webhooks-and-api)
- [Adding members to a Private or Hidden group](https://help.totalctrl.app/en-US/articles/community-groups-membership)

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