They still show up in the journal (User has created "Secret Group Name."
Also, on the user's profile page the Secret Group is displayed.

That is correct, however you can not view the group profile without being invited.

What if the group is being used for illegal activities and the creator does not want anyone to see it but only it's members. Only the members of the group should be able to see the group anywhere (Journal, Profile and Group List). Any posts made in those gOups should not be visible in My Topics (User's Topic) as well.

Suppose  a student want's to create I hate "Teacher's Name" or Dope Smokers Unite! He won't want other people to see it when anyone visit's his profile, right? Why would anyone create a secret (Private) group in such a case?

I think there is a difference between "Private" and "Secret". If your users want to discuss illegal topics, a public social network might not be the best place.

Posted By Ben on 13 Mar 2009 05:13 PM
I think there is a difference between "Private" and "Secret". If your users want to discuss illegal topics, a public social network might not be the best place.

I guess, there is a difference. I have no intention of allowing people to start illegal groups (then who am I to judge what's illegal and what's not?). Whether we like their purpose or not,  social networking sites are the places where people group together. All we provide is the means. And I would like to provide that.

So there is no way we can make a private group secret as well?

I can see a need for this too. To me a "private" group is indeed private. On our site, we have a lot of teams who might not want other people to see that they are even there.

Posted By Ben on 13 Mar 2009 05:13 PM
  If your users want to discuss illegal topics, a public social network might not be the best place.

That was not my point...

I think there is a difference between "Private" and "Secret".

On the other hand

here are the options while I create groups:


Open - anyone can view and join 
Closed - anyone can join but membership must be approved.
Private - group is hidden and members must be invited

As per your theory

The second one (Closed) is a private group
The third one (Private) is a secret group.

And, what's the point of hiding the "Private" Group in the Group list but making it visible everywhere else?

I agree - Private group info should not be shown at all.

Private groups are not supposed to be in the group listing. Will knows about this issue though.

I am not sure about having the group creation note showing up in the journal. Like I don't know if there is a way to filter it out based on group type.

Posted By Ben on 16 Mar 2009 05:23 PM
Private groups are not supposed to be in the group listing. Will knows about this issue though.

Private Groups are not in the Group listing because they are treated as secret groups. If they are secret then why display them anywhere else or to anyone else (unless your the member of that group) If you are not a member, it just does not exist for you.

I currently have a couple groups setup with the setting as Closed. For instance "Admins" and "Moderators". The groups show up in the group list, but cannot be viewed. This one I did not understand.

I want those groups closed for membership, but I want them to be viewed by all users. My goal is to allow viewing of the groups to give users a way of contacting specific site personell by going to the group page.

Any suggestions?

Hi Jeff,

Did you ever find a workaround for that?

Regarding the idea that Will knows about this, but clearly has not corrected this issue. I have often seen the term used in support tickets that "this will be sent to the developers" or "the developers are fixing it" .. cannot an easy filtering scenario such as this be given to said developers for correcting as clearly this is an unintended "feature" of AS?

Drew, This post is almost 2 years old. Many things have changed since then...including how this topic applies to the current product. In this particular case it doesn't apply at all. So as far as your comment, "...Will knows about this, but clearly has not corrected this issue." I have to say you are wrong. The security model works the way you configure it. If you decide to set "Everyone" as your journal default then journal items are open to everyone, which includes private groups.

Locking this topic because it is not accurate for the current product.