Roles decide who can manage your community and how much of the admin console they see. Every person has one community role: Owner, Admin, Mod (moderator), billing admin, or Member. Spaces have their own roles on top of that, and you can build custom roles for your team in Team & Roles.
Who can do this: Only the community owner can change roles, unless the owner gives someone a custom role that includes Manage roles. · Where: Web (admin console). · Plan: How many admins and moderators you can have, and whether custom roles are available, depend on your platform plan.
Built-in community roles and what they can do
| Role | What they can do |
|---|---|
| Owner | The person who created the community. Everything an admin can do, plus changing roles, Team & Roles, Billing → Add-ons, and View as this user (a read-only view of the community as a member). There is one owner, and the owner's role can't be changed here. |
| Admin | Full access to community settings: members, spaces, content, moderation, monetization, appearance, and settings. Admins can't change anyone's role, and can't suspend, ban, or edit other admins. |
| Mod (moderator) | Manages content and reports. In the admin console, moderators see only Content, Community, Moderation, and Courses. They can't open Members, Settings, or Analytics. |
| Billing admin | A finance role for your team, with only two permissions: view billing and manage billing. In the admin console, they see only Billing. In the community, they appear as a regular member. |
| Member | The default role. Members take part in the community and don't have admin console access. |
In posts and profiles, members see an Admin or Mod badge next to staff names. The owner appears as Admin.
Change a member's role
- Go to Admin → Members → All Members. Search by name or email, or filter by role.
- Either open the row's actions menu and choose Set as Member, Set as Moderator, or Set as Admin, or open the member's page, click the actions menu, and choose Change role….
- In Update Member Role, confirm with Update Role if you started from the row menu. If you started from the member's page, pick the new role and click Save.
Saving signs the member out of every device. The new role applies when they sign in again. You can't change your own role.
You can also choose a role when you invite someone by email. Inviting someone as Mod or Admin takes Manage roles too, and the invitation can be accepted only while a seat for that role is free. See Invite members.
If you see Admin limit reached or Moderator limit reached, you've used the admin or moderator seats in your platform plan. See Check plan usage and limits.
The Update Member Role dialog offers Admin, Mod, and Member. The billing admin role and custom roles aren't in this dialog, and the admin console currently has no other place to give them to a member.
Space roles and space moderators
Each space has its own roles, separate from the community role:
- Space admins manage the space's settings and members.
- Space moderators manage content and moderate members in that space only. Topics and collections are managed by space admins.
- Space members take part according to the space's permission settings.
Use space moderators when someone should look after one space without community-wide power. Community owners and admins can manage every space. See Add space moderators.
Create custom roles in Team & Roles
Custom roles let you give a team member exactly the permissions they need, for example a "Course Operator" who can view content but not members.
- Go to Admin → Settings → Team & Roles. Built-in roles are listed as System and are read-only; click View to see their capabilities.
- Click New role.
- Enter a Name and Description, then tick the Capabilities the role should have. They cover the dashboard, members (such as View members, Invite members, Manage access groups, Ban members, Export members), content, moderation, billing, and Manage roles.
- Click Create role.
Events, gamification, analytics, AI, and site settings aren't in the capability list. Access to those comes from the built-in roles. You can only grant permissions your own role holds. Deleting a custom role removes its capabilities from everyone who has it, and asks you to confirm.
If Team & Roles shows an upgrade page, custom roles aren't included in your platform plan.
Roles vs. access groups
Roles decide what someone can manage. Access groups (previously called member tiers) decide which spaces and content a member can open, for example a paid "Pro" group. A paying member can have wide access with no admin power, and a moderator doesn't need an access group to moderate. See How access groups work.
Related articles
Was this guide helpful?