You can close a community temporarily by pausing it, or remove it by deleting it. Both are done from the community's Overview in the creator dashboard (app.mateflow.com). A deleted community can be restored until a deadline shown on the page. Pausing a community isn't the same as pausing billing for your platform plan.
Who can do this: Pause and resume: the workspace owner, admins, and members. Delete and restore: the workspace owner and admins only. · Where: Web (creator dashboard). The admin console has no pause or delete option. · Plan: Available on every platform plan.
Pause a community
Pausing closes the community to everyone until you resume it. No data is deleted.
- Go to Dashboard (app.mateflow.com) → Communities, open the community, and go to Overview.
- In the Community management card, click Pause community.
- In Pause community? (Members lose access until you resume. No data is deleted.), click Pause.
You see Community paused. In your Communities list, the community shows Suspended.
While a community is paused:
- anyone who opens it on the web sees This community is temporarily closed with the note The owner has temporarily closed this community. Please check back later.;
- the community's admin console is closed too, so make any admin changes before you pause;
- members can't get in, so they also can't cancel their subscriptions themselves until you resume;
- your platform plan keeps renewing and billing as usual.
While the community is paused, members' subscriptions bought on the web aren't charged. Their billing resumes from the next billing cycle after you resume the community. Your Mateflow platform plan is still charged.
Resume a paused community
- Open the community's Overview.
- Click Resume community.
- In Resume community? (Members will regain access immediately.), click Resume.
You see Community resumed.
Resume a community paused for billing
A community can also be paused by Mateflow, for example when the free trial and its grace period end without a subscription, or a payment problem isn't fixed. You can't reopen it with Resume community. Instead, the Overview shows Resolve billing to reactivate, which opens Billing. It's shown to people who can see billing: the workspace owner and teammates with Finance access.
If you try to resume it anyway, you see: This community was suspended by the platform or for billing and can't be reactivated here. Contact support or resolve billing to restore it. See Troubleshoot billing and plan problems.
Pausing a community vs pausing billing
| Pause community | Pause billing | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | Creator dashboard → community Overview | Admin → Billing → Overview → Cancel subscription, offered as Pause billing |
| Community | Closed to members | Stays online |
| Your platform plan | Keeps billing | Billing stops for the months you choose |
| Members' web subscriptions | Not charged while paused | Charged as usual |
To stop paying for a while and keep the community open, see Change or cancel your plan. To show visitors a maintenance page while admins keep working, use Maintenance mode in Admin → Settings → General.
Delete a community
Deleting schedules the community for removal. It isn't removed immediately.
- Open the community's Overview.
- In Danger zone, click Delete community.
- In Delete this community?, type the community's name exactly as shown and click Delete.
You see Community deletion scheduled. The community is then unavailable to everyone, and your Communities list shows Pending deletion.
If something blocks deletion, you see Can't delete this community yet and a list under Resolve these first:, with a Resolve link where one is available. As the delete dialog says, If billing, ownership, or compliance checks block it, no data is removed.
Cancelling your platform plan doesn't delete a community. Deleting is a separate step.
Restore a community scheduled for deletion
A community scheduled for deletion shows Scheduled for deletion on its Overview, with the date it will be permanently deleted.
- Open the community's Overview.
- Click Restore community before the date in You can restore until [date].
You see Community restored., and the community is active again. After the restore deadline, it can't be restored.
Related articles
Was this guide helpful?