Help › Spaces · 3 min read
Finding and joining a Space
What public and private mean, the three ways to join, and what a pending request looks like.
You find Spaces through Explore, search, or a link. Whether you can walk in depends on two settings the Space owner chose.
Visibility and joining
Visibility decides who can see the Space's content:
- Public — anyone can read the Space's posts, articles and events, including people who are not signed in. Its member list and its chat channels are for members either way.
- Private — only members see the content. Everyone else still sees the Space's card, and anyone signed in can read its rules, so a link to it is never a dead end.
Joining decides how someone becomes a member:
| Join mode | What happens |
|---|---|
| Open | You join immediately, if the Space is public |
| Request | Your request waits for a moderator |
| Invite only | You need an invitation |
The two are set separately, so a public Space can still be invite-only. A private Space never lets people walk in, though: set to open, it takes requests instead, because instant membership would hand over members-only content.
Join a Space
- Open the Space and choose Join or Request to join.
- If the Space has published rules, read them. The button becomes Accept & join or Accept & request to join: joining is accepting them.
- When you request to join, you can add a short message for the moderators. Some Spaces also ask a few questions; answer the required ones to send the request. The moderators see your answers with it.
If the rules cannot be loaded, Novagora refuses to join rather than joining you to rules you never saw. Try again.
While a request is pending
The Space shows Request sent and tells you a moderator will review it. Choose Cancel request to withdraw it. You are not a member yet: member-only tabs stay locked, and you see the same card and rules as before.
An approval arrives as a notification. A decline usually does too, but the moderators can choose not to send one, and no reason is given. Either way the Space offers Request to join again, and you can ask again 24 hours after a decline.
Following instead of joining
Following a Space brings its public posts into your feed without making you a member. It is a good fit for a public Space you want to read.
Only a public Space can be followed. A private Space's content stays with its members, so membership is the only way in — and when a public Space is made private, everyone following it stops following it.
When the rules change
If a Space republishes its rules, members are asked to accept the new version and have a week to do it. A week after publication, a member who has not accepted is limited to read-only in that Space — you keep your access to what is there, and you cannot add to it. A banner in the Space takes you to the new rules to review and accept them. See Space rules.
Leaving
Leave Space is under the Space's settings. Leaving takes away access to member-only content and channels, and is confirmed first. You can rejoin under whatever join mode the Space has. While you are in a timeout you cannot leave; the option returns when the timeout ends.
An owner cannot leave: transfer ownership or delete the Space first. See Space settings, ownership, and deletion.
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