---
title: "Communities"
description: "Find or start a community, decide who can find and join it, and understand what joining does and doesn't give access to."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.sureshake.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Communities

A community is a room with a profile that people can find and ask to join. It has the same members and messages as any other room. In the sidebar, go to **Connect › Communities**. You need to be signed in to see communities.

> **Note**
>
> Joining a community never grants access to the reports, documents or analyses
> referenced inside it. Each of those keeps its own permissions.

## Find and join a community

Browse **Discover** or search by name or summary. **Mine** lists the communities you belong to. Open one to see its profile: name, summary, category, tags, member count and whether a person, company or organization runs it.

What you can do next depends on the community:

| Joining             | What happens                                                                                                                                                      |
| ------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Open to join**    | Choose **Join community** to become a member straight away. If the room's access review finds resources you can't read, joining is blocked until that's resolved. |
| **Request to join** | Add a note if you like, then choose **Request to join**. An owner or admin reviews your request.                                                                  |
| **Invitation only** | You can't join on your own. An owner or admin has to invite you.                                                                                                  |

Once you are a member, **Open room** takes you to the messages and resources.

## Start a community

1. **Open the form**

   Go to **Connect › Communities** and choose **Start a community**.
2. **Name it**

   Enter a **Name**. Sureshake suggests a **Handle** from it, which becomes the
   address `/communities/your-handle`. A handle must be unique and use at least
   3 lowercase letters, digits or hyphens.
3. **Describe it**

   Add a **Summary**, a **Category** and comma-separated **Tags** so people can
   find it.
4. **Choose who can find and join it**

   Set **Discovery**, **Joining** and **Member list**. New communities default
   to discoverable, request to join and members only.
5. **Create it**

   Choose **Start community**. You become the owner, and you can change these
   settings later.

## Who can find it

| Discovery                          | Who can see the profile                                                    |
| ---------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Private (members only)**         | Members only. To anyone else, the handle looks as if it doesn't exist.     |
| **Unlisted (link only)**           | Anyone signed in who has the link. It isn't listed in **Discover**.        |
| **Discoverable (signed-in users)** | Anyone signed in, through **Discover**.                                    |
| **Public profile**                 | Today this works like **Discoverable**: people still need to be signed in. |

**Open to join** works only in rooms that use private security mode, which is the default for a new community.

## Manage a community

Owners and admins see **Community settings** on the community page. From there you can change the handle, summary, category, tags, discovery, joining and member list setting.

Everything else, such as members and invitations, is handled in the room itself. To close it, open the room and choose **Close room**. A closed community disappears from **Discover** and **Mine**, and **Reopen room** brings it back.

Source: https://docs.sureshake.com/start/communities/index.mdx