Groups, forums and rooms

# Public or private groups

Choose whether your group's content is public or stays with members.

-   Anyone can see the public content of a public group.
-   In a private group, only members can see the private content and member details. Its posts and content stay on the group's own server and are never copied to other servers. People from other servers can still be members.

An explicitly public channel in a private group follows its own public access rule.

![Riverside Garden profile with a garden header, a plant avatar, a description and the member directory, which lists Maya Chen, Sam Rivera and Alex Morgan as admins.](https://welley.com/assets/media/group-about-1440.2097dd03.webp)

Riverside Garden's community profile shows its description and member directory.

![The Welley Help information panel labels the group Public and Visible.](https://welley.com/assets/media/public-help-visibility-736.415529e2.webp)

The info panel of the public Welley Help group shows that it's currently public and visible. The group settings editor isn't shown here.

![The privacy menu of a group with Public selected, Private available, and Secret group shown as a disabled choice.](https://welley.com/assets/media/group-privacy-demo-1264.37841699.webp)

A group can be public or private. The secret group option is shown, but it isn't available yet.

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