Give your free download, course, video, or event its own community channel

You can now limit a community channel to people who have one of your products. Pick a course, downloadable, video, or event, and only the people who have it can access the channel.

What changed

When you create or edit a channel, the new Who can access this channel section lists every access rule in one place:

• Everyone sets what all students in your community can do.
• Memberships give people on a membership more access.
• Products give more access to people who have a specific course, downloadable, video, or event.

Each rule has a clear access level: Read only, Read and react, Read, react, and comment, or Full access. If more than one rule applies to someone, they get the highest level.

Built for free products too

Free products are one of the best ways to grow your audience, so channels handle them as well. For free products, access is based on what people actually did:

• Courses: people who started the course
• Downloadables: people who downloaded the file
• Videos: people who watched the video
• Events: people who signed up to attend

Paid products work the way you would expect. Anyone who bought the product, was given it, or got it through a bundle or membership gets access.

Why it helps

Say you offer a free resource pack. You can now create a "Resource pack readers" channel where everyone can read, but only people who downloaded the pack can post and comment. Then you can share tips, answer questions, and point them to your next product in a channel built for them.

The same approach works for:

• A channel for one course's students
• A Q&A space for a live event's attendees
• A members' corner for people who bought your premium workbook

Easier to understand at a glance

The channels table now shows a single Who has access column, like "Everyone: read only" plus the number of memberships and products with more access. You can see how each channel is set up without opening it.

Tell us what you think

This is a new way to organize your community, and we're still improving it. If there's a product type or access rule you'd like us to add, let us know through the live chat.

Availability

Product-based channel access is available now on all plans that include community channels.