Every space in your community has a type: Feed, Article, Gallery, Radio, Chat, Q&A, or Course. The type decides how the space's content looks, what members can post, and which features the space offers. You choose it when you create the space, and it can't be changed afterward, so decide what the space is mainly for first.
Who can do this: Community owners and admins create spaces. · Where: Web. · Plan: Chat, Q&A, Radio, and Course Spaces, and how many spaces you can have, depend on your platform plan.
Compare the seven space types
| Space type | Choose it for | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Feed Space | Discussions where members start posts and reply to each other | The most flexible type. If you're not sure, start with a Feed Space |
| Article Space | Long-form articles, like a blog: team news, columns, tutorials | Works best when a few people write and everyone else reads and comments |
| Gallery Space | Photos and videos in a grid: portfolios, photo challenges, video libraries | Every post needs a photo or video |
| Radio Space | Podcasts and audio shows | Every episode needs an audio file |
| Chat Space | Real-time group chat, like a channel in Discord or Slack | Messages are members-only. No events or live sessions |
| Q&A Space | Questions and answers that stay easy to find later | Answers are upvoted, and one answer can be accepted |
| Course Space | A course with sections, lessons, and progress tracking | Starts as a draft. Publish it when the lessons are ready |
Article, Gallery, and Radio Spaces were previously called blog, media, and podcast spaces. To create any of them, see Create a space.
Pick a space type by how members will use it
Choose a space type by what members will do in the space, not by its topic. Two topics that are both discussions can each be a Feed Space.
- Members talk with each other: a Feed Space. For quick, real-time back-and-forth, a Chat Space.
- You or your team publish, members read and comment: an Article Space for long reads. For short announcements, a Feed Space where only admins and moderators can post. See Control who can post, reply, and react in a space.
- Members ask questions that need an answer: a Q&A Space. Answers there are easier to find later than in a feed.
- Content is mostly photos or videos: a Gallery Space. Mostly audio: a Radio Space.
- You teach something step by step: a Course Space. See Create a course.
Feed, Chat, or Q&A: tell similar space types apart
Feed, Chat, and Q&A Spaces all hold conversations, but they keep them differently:
- Feed Space: each post is its own topic with its own replies, shown in a timeline. Good for discussions people come back to over several days.
- Chat Space: one continuous stream of messages that only members of the space can read and send. Good for quick talk, but older messages are harder to find.
- Q&A Space: each question needs a title and has a status: Open, Answered, or Closed. Answers are sorted by votes, and the accepted answer stays at the top. The person who asked, community owners and admins, and the space's admins and moderators can accept an answer. Members can filter questions by status or sort by Unanswered First, so the space builds up a searchable knowledge base. See Run a Q&A space.
What you can change after creating a space
A space's type is permanent. To switch types, create a new space of the type you need, then archive the old one. Archiving keeps its content, and you can restore it later. See Archive, restore, or delete a space.
Everything else about a space can be changed later:
- Name, description, icon, and category: in the space's Manage panel, under Basics & branding. A Course Space's description is edited in Course Settings instead.
- Privacy: Public, Private, or Secret. You pick one when you create the space and can change it later in Access Policy. One exception: a Chat Space can be Public only if you choose that when you create it. See Set a space's privacy and join policy.
- Events and live sessions: these are features, not space types, so there's no "event space" or "live space". Turn them on in the space's Features. Feed, Article, Gallery, Radio, and Q&A Spaces support them. Chat Spaces don't, and Course Spaces have no Features section. See Turn on events and live streaming in a space.
Space types that depend on your platform plan
Feed, Article, and Gallery Spaces are available on every platform plan, up to the number of spaces your plan allows. Other types depend on your plan:
- Chat, Q&A, and Radio Spaces: if your plan doesn't include one, its card shows Upgrade when you create a space. The Chat Space card also shows Chatroom limit reached when you've used all the chat spaces your plan allows.
- Course Spaces: whether you can create courses, and how many, depends on your plan.
- Events and live sessions: whether a space can turn these on depends on your plan.
Chat Spaces and Course Spaces have their own limits, separate from the limit on other spaces. Check your plan and what you've used in Admin → Billing → Plan & Usage. See Check plan usage and limits.
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