Community Types serve two important purposes:

They categorize similar communities, which helps to keep them organized.
They easily apply default sets of settings and permissions to communities that are based on them.

When a community is being created, a Community Type has to be selected as its "template." The community inherits the Community Type's pre-set, default configurations, such as:

settings, e.g., which Features are available for use in the community and
permissions, e.g., who can view and join the community.

Change a Community's default settings

Super Admins and Community Admins can:

edit an individual community's Settings in order to change the defaults that were inherited from its Community Type.
change an individual community's Community Type.

To learn more, see Create and Manage Your Communities.

Change a Community Type

A Community Type can be edited to change any of its existing settings (as described in this article).

NOTE: Making changes to a Community Type does not retro-fit the settings and permissions of the communities that are based on it. The new settings and permissions are applied only to those communities that are created and based on the Community Type after the changes are saved.

Access your Community Types

The Community Types list page is where you manage (create, edit, delete) Community Types for your account.

In the Admin Toolbar, click Admin.

Navigate to Community > Communities > Types.

TIP: On list pages, click a column header to sort on that column; click again to reverse the sort order. Click the columns count below the list to add and remove columns in the current view.

Create a Community Type

Click the plus sign icon to the right of the page title.

In the overlay dialog, configure the default settings for all communities that are assigned this Community Type. Refer to the tables that follow for descriptions of the configuration settings.
Click Save at the bottom of the dialog to create the Community Type.
Review the list and verify that the new Community Type is listed.

The Community Type settings are described in the tables that follow.

Community Type settings - Description

PURPOSE: Use this section to provide high-level information about the Community Type.

Setting	Description
Name	Specify a name that clearly indicates the types of communities that will belong to it.
Description	Provide additional, explanatory information about communities of this Type. NOTE: This is for administrative purposes only; it doesn't display in a community.
Integrated OR Higher Logic-managed	This is automatically set per your site configuration. For example, if your site is not integrated with an AMS/CRM database, this is automatically set to Higher Logic-managed. See Understanding How Communities Are Managed to learn more.
Text to Show When Creating a New Community of this Type	Specify the text to display when creating a community of this Type. For example, explain the types of communities that should be assigned this Type. NOTE: This is for administrative purposes only; it doesn't display in a community.

Community Type settings - Features

PURPOSE: Use this section to enable the Features that you want to be available for communities of this Community Type.

Check the box next to a Feature to enable it. When a Feature is enabled:

communities of the Type don't automatically have the Feature; rather, the option to have the Feature is enabled for those communities.
the feature is available in the Features list when creating and editing communities of this Type on the Community > Communities > List page.

TIP: These settings can subsequently be managed, per community, on each community's Settings page.

Setting	Description
Website	Communities of this Type can have their own independent Microsite. When enabled: Click the dropdown to select which site to use as the model for Microsites. Newly created community Microsites will use a copy of the selected model site. See Create a Community Microsite to learn about Microsites, including how to establish models and create Microsites.
Discussion	Communities of this Type can have a discussion.
Workspace	Communities of this Type can have a Workspace. NOTE: Available only if your organization licenses the Workspace module.
Library	Communities of this Type can have a resource library.
Ideation	Communities of this Type (in addition to the main site) can have Ideation, which is unique to each community. If enabled for a community, the community will be available for selection when an idea is created. See Community-Specific Ideas, in Ideation Settings, for information.
Calendar	Communities of this Type can have an event calendar.
Members can create Events	Members of communities of this Type can create events. When creating and editing communities of this Type, Super Admins and Community Admins can decide who can create events: only Admins or Admins and community members.
Community Admins can download member roster	This setting determines whether Community Admins can access the community-specific reports (in Settings > Reports).
Support Tickets can be created from this community	This setting enables Super Admins to generate support tickets (in your organization's Zendesk Support account) directly from threads in your community via the Create a Support Ticket from this Thread button that gets added to discussion threads across your site. NOTE: This setting is available only to customers who have a Zendesk Support account. Only Higher Logic can enable this setting.

Community Type settings - Emails

PURPOSE: Use this section to manage Community Admin emailing capabilities for communities of this Community Type.

The Add Community Type dialog initially displays only the first setting below, Enable Community Admins to send emails to members. If the box for this setting is checked, the section expands to display additional, related settings.

Setting	Description
Enable Community Admins to send emails to members	Check the box to allow Community Admins of communities of this Type to send emails to their members from the Settings menu on their community's Home page. Learn more in Email Community Members.
Limit the number of emails sent to members	Check the box to set the maximum number of email messages that Community Admins can send to community members per month for communities of this Type. NOTE: Available only if your organization licenses Group Manager.
Enable sending meeting invitations	Check the box to allow Community Admins of communities of this Type to include invitations in the email messages that they send. NOTE: Available only if your organization licenses Group Manager.
Enable sending attachments	Check the box to allow Community Admins of communities of this Type to include file attachments with the email messages that they send. NOTE: Available only if your organization licenses Group Manager.
Community Representative Role	Click the dropdown to select which Community Role should be the "representative" for communities of this Type. TIP: On the Community Dashboard, you can click the Rank Block widget to view the Leaderboard page which displays each community's representative.

Community Type settings - Display Options

PURPOSE: Use this section to manage where in your community to display the names of the communities of this Community Type.

Setting	Description
Show in Community List	Check the box to include communities of this Type in lists on: your site's list of available communities (for users who have the appropriate View permissions); users' Profiles list of communities (My Connections > Communities); and any widgets. NOTE: This setting is also available as Show communities of this type in the Communities List in the Preview Panel when you select a Community Type. This setting is reflected in the Visible column of the Community Types list.
Represent Meetings/Events	Communities that have Discussions and Libraries for events (conferences, annual meetings, etc.).
List membership as an Activity on Profile Page	NOTE: This setting is no longer used and will be deprecated in the future.
Home Page Code (advanced)	If you specify a Home page code for this Community Type, communities that belong to it will direct to the page that has this page code. This enables communities that belong to specific Community Types to have a custom Home page. EXAMPLE: You want your Committees (Community Type) communities and your Regional (Community Type) communities to have different community Home pages and different sets of widgets. So, you create two unique Home pages and then, in this field, assign the respective Home page code for the Community Type.
Dashboard Page Code (advanced)	The Dashboard page code determines the page in the CMS that should be used for this Community Type's Group Manager dashboard.

Community Type settings - Permissions

PURPOSE: Use this section to:

set defaults for viewing, joining, and moderating user-generated content for communities of this Community Type; and
enable/disable community actions for users, members, and Community Admins for communities of this Community Type.

Setting	Description
Users can join	Check this box to allow users to join communities of this Type, provided they have the necessary View and Join permissions. A Join button displays on your site's community listing pages for users who are eligible.
Users can leave	Check this box to allow users to leave communities of this Type via the Leave Community option in the Settings panel on the community's Home page.
Members can invite others to join	Check this box to allow Members (as defined in Understand Community Permissions) of communities of this Type to invite others to join the community. The Member Invitations option now displays when communities of this Type are created and edited, so that you can manage this per community. Members can click the Add or Invite Others button (in Community > Settings; see above image) in order to generate the invitation.
Members can create new communities of this type	Check this box to allow Members (as defined in Understand Community Permissions) of communities of this Type to create communities of this Type via the Create a New Community button on the All Communities page.
Allow Community Admins to add members without invitation	Check this box to allow Community Admins to bypass the invitation process and just add users to communities of this Type. TIP: Enable this for communities in which you want Community Admins more involved in managing the community's members.
Group admins can create subgroups of this type	Check this box to allow Community Admins to create sub-communities of communities of this Type. TIP: This applies to Nested Communities.
Members can work collaboratively on library entries	Check this box to allow Members of a community to collaborate on Library Entries (in communities of this Type); by default, version control is enabled when this is. Community Admins can manage this feature at the community level as described in How to Enable Version Control. NOTE: If this is not enabled, version control is not enabled and Community Admins cannot enable it at the community level.
Default View Permission for New Communities	Select a View permission as the default for. Invitation Only - Users can view communities of this Type only by invitation from an Admin or a Member (if community members are allowed to invite). Members Only - Restricted to users who belong to an IsMember Security Group. Authenticated - Any logged-in user can view communities of this Type, irrespective of their Member status. Public - Communities of this Type are visible to all visitors, whether logged in or not. Members of Immediate Parent Community (applicable only to Nested Communities.) - Restricted to Members of the community's parent community.
Default Join Permission for New Communities	Select a Join permission as the default for communities of this Type. Invitation Only - Users can join communities of this Type only by invitation from an Admin or a Member (if Members can invite others to join is enabled). Members Only - Restricted to users who belong to an IsMember Security Group. "Joining" occurs by default as a result of being in the Security Group. Authenticated - Any logged-in user can join communities of this Type, irrespective of their Member status. Members of Immediate Parent Community (applicable only to Nested Communities) - Restricted to Members of the community's parent community. Request to Join - Users must manually submit a request which a Super Admin or Community Admin can either approve or reject. Requests are managed per community. See Request to Join Communities to learn more.
Add Roles (applicable to HL-managed communities only)	Click the dropdown to select which Higher Logic-managed Community Roles can be applied to users who are Members of communities of this Type. For example, you could include the Committee President role for your Chapter Committees (Community Type) communities but not for your Regional (Community Type) communities. NOTE: If your site is AMS-managed, your roles are managed and assigned in that external, integrated database.

Manage your Community Types

The out-of-the-box Community Types are listed on the page, along with any that have been created. All Community Types can be managed as described in this section.

Edit a Community Type

Select a Community Type and click Edit to manage its settings.

NOTE: The settings are described in the Community Type settings tables above.

Delete a Community Type

If you want to remove a Community Type, select it and click Delete.

NOTE: You cannot delete a Community Type if any communities are associated with it. The Delete button is disabled for these Community Types.

Search and filter

At the top right, use the search and filter features to manage what displays in the list.

Click the magnifying glass icon to expand the search field to search on the Name column.
- The list automatically updates with each typed character and displays all records (visible and hidden) that contain a match.
- Click the X to clear the search field and restore the original list.
Click the filter icon to filter the list by Auto-subscription type (Real Time, Daily Digest, Topic Community Digest, and Topic Community Hybrid); click Apply.
- If the filter icon is solid orange (i.e., filled in), the list is refined by an active filter.
- Click the filter icon and click Clear Filter and Apply to restore the original list.

Next steps...

Now that you have created Community Types, you can create communities and base them on your Community Types.

See Create and Manage Your Communities

You can also create hidden Community Types which you can use to hide and archive communities.

To learn how, see Hiding and Archiving Communities