Groups vs. Communities
Communities are broad — they bring together everyone interested in a shared topic or identity. Groups are focused — smaller spaces designed for tighter collaboration, specific projects, or concentrated discussion within a larger community context.
Think of a Community as the town square and a Group as the committee room. Both serve important functions, but they operate at different scales and with different levels of depth.
What Groups Are Used For
Groups work best when there's a specific purpose that benefits from a contained space. Common uses include:
Project collaboration — A team within a community working toward a specific deliverable, where conversation needs to be focused and searchable rather than mixed in with broader community activity.
Event planning — Organising a community event, coordinating logistics, and keeping planning conversations separate from general discussion.
Interest subgroups — A community for African entrepreneurs might have a Group specifically for Lagos-based members, or one for those in the tech sector, where more specific conversations can happen without dominating the broader community feed.
Leadership or moderation teams — A private space for community leaders and moderators to coordinate decisions and manage the community behind the scenes.
How Groups Differ in Practice
Groups are typically smaller and more conversational than the communities they sit alongside. Members tend to know each other better, participation expectations are clearer, and the signal-to-noise ratio is higher. A well-run Group feels like a working team rather than a general audience.
For this reason, Groups are particularly valuable when you need people to actually do something together, rather than just consume content or stay generally informed.
Creating and Joining Groups
Groups can be created within a community by its leaders, or as standalone spaces. Joining a Group typically requires either an invitation from the Group's creator or a request that gets approved. This keeps Groups focused — not everyone in a Community necessarily needs access to every Group within it.
