Hubs and Community Setup

Hubs are the operating container for events, members, chat, and trust history.

End-to-End: Set Up a New Hub

Create your hub from Create Hub.
Configure identity:
- Name,
- Description/tagline,
- Logo/banner,
- Visibility and join policy.
Configure governance:
- Assign ADMIN users,
- Assign MANAGER users for event operations,
- Keep OWNER count intentional.
Configure onboarding:
- Decide open/request/invite-only join policy,
- Set terms/rules where needed,
- Create first share links and invites.
Create your first draft event and run an internal dry run before external promotion.

Join Policy Decision Guide

Policy	Best for	Tradeoff
Open join	Fast growth, low friction communities	Lower pre-join vetting
Request to join	Trust-sensitive or curated communities	Admin approval overhead
Invite only	Private teams, controlled membership	More manual invite management

Hub Settings

Use Hub -> Admin -> Settings to control how the hub presents itself and how people join it.

Hub Settings Basic Info

Set the hub name, URL, and short description clearly.

Keep the name stable once members are joining regularly.
Choose a short URL slug you are comfortable sharing widely; changing it later is possible, but it creates avoidable cleanup once links are in use.
Use the description to explain what the hub is for in plain language.
On the create page, Name and URL are the only fields you must fill in before you can create the hub. Everything else can be refined later in Hub Admin.
Treat this as the headline summary members see first.

Hub Settings Branding

Branding controls the visual identity of the hub.

Theme colour affects key surfaces across the hub.
Banner and logo are used on hub pages and in related surfaces.
Different hub surfaces and screen sizes can show different crops of the same banner.
Treat banners as background art rather than a place for text or precise layout.
Keep important subjects near the centre and away from the edges when possible.
Upload the hub banner first if you want to reuse it on the join page.

Hub Settings Profile and Links

Use this for the public-facing context around your hub.

Add a short tagline.
Add your website, contact email, and social links if they help people verify the hub.
Review the non-member visibility toggles if the hub is private.

Hub Settings Access and Join Policy

This is where you decide who can discover the hub and how they get in.

Visibility controls whether the hub itself is public or private.
Join policy controls whether people join instantly, request access, or must be invited.
Member-created share links should only be enabled if that matches your moderation posture.
Private hub overview pages do not expose About/contact/social sections to logged-out visitors.
Public event links can still exist for events marked public, but those event pages do not turn a private hub into a public hub destination.

Use this as the practical rule: a hub must be public before it behaves like a public destination.

Private hubs do not have a public hub profile page and should not be treated as something people will find through normal search results.
Public hubs can be shared directly and may start appearing in search results over time, but that usually takes time and is never guaranteed.
A public event inside a private hub does not make the hub itself public. People can open the public event page, but that does not turn the private hub into a public browse destination.
If discoverability matters, keep the hub slug stable, use a clear hub name, and write a short description that explains what the hub is for in plain language.
Add website, contact, and social links when they help people verify that the hub is real before they join.

When someone shares a public hub link in chat or social apps, the preview usually comes from the hub’s public metadata.

The social sharing card typically uses the hub name, short description, and a main image such as the banner or logo.
Choose a banner or logo that still reads well in a wide preview crop.
Avoid putting important text near the edges of the artwork, because the social sharing card may crop differently from the hub page itself.
If the preview looks weak, improve the hub name, description, banner, or logo rather than relying on the post text to fix it.

This setting controls whether regular MEMBER users can generate tracked hub share links from the hub share flow.

When enabled, members can create reusable share URLs that let your team see which member created the link and which joins or requests came through it.
Owners and admins can always create tracked share links. This setting only affects regular members.
This setting does not let members grant staff or admin access, and it does not let them bypass your join policy.

How it behaves by join policy:

Open: a tracked member share link can lead to an immediate join, and the member who shared it is still recorded as the source.
Request: the link still tracks who shared it, but the recipient must still submit a join request. It does not auto-approve or auto-join.
Invite only: member-created links are forced to view-only, so members can share the hub page but cannot create a join-granting invite path.
Private + Invite only: regular members are blocked from creating tracked share links entirely, even if this toggle is on.

When to turn it on:

Trusted ambassador-style communities where members regularly bring in the right people,
Open or request-based hubs where you want attribution without routing every share through admins,
Cases where you want to see which members are actively distributing the hub link.

When to leave it off:

Tightly curated or safety-sensitive hubs where all live join paths should stay admin-controlled,
Hubs where you want every share link to be created deliberately with admin-set expiry, limits, or labeling,
Periods where moderation load is already high and you do not want wider member-led distribution.

Operational implication:

If you enable this, review Hub -> Admin -> Invites periodically so you can see which member-created links are active and whether their join outcomes still match the hub’s moderation posture.

Hub Settings Join Page Appearance

Use this to shape the first impression for people opening your join page.

Choose whether the join page uses the default gradient, the main hub banner, or a dedicated join-page banner.
Join-page banners also crop differently across screen sizes, so keep important subjects near the centre.
Preview before sharing public or invite links.
Treat join-page banners as background art, not as a precise information layout.

Hub Settings Rules

Rules are for behaviour guidance.

Use them to explain how people should participate.
Turn on “show on join page” when you want members to see expectations before joining.
Keep rules short, direct, and easy to scan.

Hub Settings Terms and Conditions

Terms are for acceptance, not just guidance.

Use this when people must explicitly agree before joining.
Keep the title simple and the content current.
Do not require terms until the content is actually ready to publish.

From your active hub admin area (Hub -> Admin -> Invites), you can:

Create tracked share links,
Set expiry and usage limits,
Send role-targeted invites by email,
Add join messages for recipient context,
Review invite usage outcomes (joined, pending, no longer member),
Revoke links and invites when needed.

Operational notes:

Admins can allow/disable member share-link creation from Hub -> Admin -> Settings.
Multi-use invites remain valid until the configured max-use limit is reached.
Re-opening the same invite as the same account is idempotent (it does not consume another use).
If join requires sign-in, share/referrer attribution in the join URL is preserved after login.

Private Hub Guest Surfaces

If a hub is private, treat the guest-facing surfaces as narrow entry points, not as public profile pages.

The main hub overview does not advertise About/contact/social information to logged-out visitors.
Public albums are not promoted from the private hub overview page.
The hub photo index and timeline are not general browsing surfaces for non-members, even if a specific public album URL is shareable.
Direct URLs to specifically public resources can still work when policy allows, but they should not be treated as general browsing entry points into the hub.

Public Hub Photo Browsing

If a hub itself is public, the photo surfaces can be a legitimate discovery path for non-members.

PUBLIC albums can be browsed by logged-out visitors and by logged-in accounts that have not joined the hub yet.
Logged-in non-members should still see the hub as public-but-not-joined, not as a signed-out viewer.
Member-only or otherwise restricted albums remain hidden from the general photo index and timeline.
Direct links to restricted albums stay unavailable until the viewer has the right membership or event relationship.

Email Invites

Use email invites when you know exactly who should be brought in.

Choose the target role carefully before sending.
Add a join message when recipients need extra context.
The Bypass join request/application flow toggle only appears for request-gated hubs, and it defaults on there.
Use event staff invites when access should be tied to one event workflow.

Pending Email Invites

This list shows invites that are still live and waiting to be used.

Check expiry dates.
Revoke invites you no longer want active.
Use the copied invite link if you need to resend it manually.

Invite History and Usage

Use these views to understand what happened after sending or sharing access.

Invite History shows completed, expired, or otherwise non-pending invites.
Invite Usage shows whether someone joined, is still pending, or is no longer a member.
Review this after campaigns, ambassador pushes, or moderated onboarding periods.

Share links are useful when you want a reusable tracked join path instead of a one-person email invite.

Set expiry or max-use limits when you want tighter control.
Use view-only links when people should be able to view but not join.
Review creator totals in Share Tracking if multiple admins or members are distributing links.
If member-created tracked share links are enabled, remember that creator attribution is part of the point: admins can see which member created the link and what happened after it was used.
The Share Links list shows use counts per link, and each link now has a Usage action that shows current joined members and pending requests attributed to that link.
Share Tracking shows creator totals such as links created, direct joins, current joined members, and pending requests.
Each creator row in Share Tracking also has a Usage action so admins can inspect joined members and pending requests across all links that creator has issued.

Join Requests and Approvals

Use Hub -> Admin -> Approvals when your hub uses request-based access.

Review pending requests promptly so people do not sit in limbo.
Expand request details before approving if your hub uses a request intro or application form.
Keep approvals consistent with the hub’s published join policy.

Role Snapshot

OWNER: full control shared with the other owners, including owner-role changes, full-handoff ownership transfer, and destructive controls.
ADMIN: full admin except owner-role changes and ownership transfer.
MANAGER: event/ticket operations and day-to-day channel setup, not full governance.
MEMBER: standard participation.

Full matrix: Roles and Permissions.

Hub Chat and Support Channels

Use hub chat for long-lived community discussion, and keep event-specific coordination inside the event.

/chat can now start direct messages, private groups, hub channels, and event channels from one creator.
Hub -> Chat and Hub -> Admin -> Chat reuse that same creator with the current hub already selected.
Use Hub -> Admin -> Chat when you want to manage the durable hub roster: create channels, rename them, and decide whether they are for all hub members, invite-only groups, or an intentionally open space.
Put temporary event coordination in Event -> Admin -> Chat instead of filling the hub with one-off event channels.
Decide your default support path before launch, for example a broad General channel plus a smaller staff or ops channel for the organising team.

Door-check details

For selected communities, Hubbaly can enable this advanced workflow. If the hub then turns it on, members can maintain private door-check details for events that use it.

Open Hub -> Verification to save your legal name and, if useful, an optional private photo.
Changing those details can move a previously reviewed record into Needs re-review until someone checks it again.
Owners/admins can review those records from Hub -> Admin -> Verification, and events can choose whether scanner operators can reveal them at the door.

Pre-Launch Checklist (Before You Invite Members)

Join policy is intentional and tested.
Core admin team and escalation owner assigned.
Terms/rules (if used) reviewed and published.
First event drafted with ticket and forms strategy.
Alert and chat channels ready for member support, including any first event-specific channels.

Common Setup Mistakes

Too many owners too early

Keep ownership limited. Multiple owners are valid, but use ADMIN for most trusted operators and reserve OWNER for the few people who truly need equal control.

Publishing invite links before policy is finalised

Set join policy and governance first so early members enter the intended experience.

Blurring manager and admin responsibilities

Use managers for event execution and day-to-day channel operations, not hub governance and role control.