2016-12-22 23:26:11 +01:00
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# About streams and topics
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In Zulip, conversations are organized by conversation **streams** and
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**topics**.
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## About streams
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On Zulip, users communicate with each other in group chats by sending messages
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to streams, which are similar to conversation threads.
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Streams are either:
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* **Public** - Public streams are for open discussions. All users can subscribe
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to public streams and discuss topics there. Any Zulip user can join any public
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stream in the realm, and they can view the complete message history of any
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2016-12-22 22:44:33 +01:00
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public stream without joining the stream.
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2016-12-22 23:26:11 +01:00
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* **Private** - Private streams are for confidential discussions and are only
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visible to users who've been invited to subscribe to them. Users who are not
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members of a private stream cannot subscribe to the stream, and they also cannot
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read or send messages to the stream.
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Users are subscribed to specific streams in the realm by default, such as the
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[#announce](the-announce-stream) stream. Users can easily
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[view messages](/help/view-messages-from-a-stream) from a specific stream; in
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addition, they can [browse](/help/browse-and-join-streams#browse-streams) their
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stream subscriptions using the Zulip stream browser.
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If they wish to read messages from a stream that they're not subscribed to,
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users can choose to [join](/help/browse-and-join-streams#subscribing-to-streams)
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a stream. Similarly, if they are not interested in the topics being discussed in
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a stream, users can choose to [unsubscribe](/help/unsubscribe-from-a-stream) from a
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stream.
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Users can also customize their stream settings; they can
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[pin](/help/pin-a-stream) or star important streams,
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[change the colors](/help/change-the-color-of-a-stream) of streams, and enable desktop
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notifications or muting for streams in order to create a better Zulip
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environment.
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If enabled by the realm administrators, users can
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[create](/help/create-a-stream) streams and [invite](/help/add-or-invite-someone-to-a-stream)
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other users to a stream.
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Only realm administrators can make edits to a stream, such as
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[renaming](/help/rename-a-stream), [deleting](/help/delete-a-stream), changing the
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description of a stream, [removing users](/help/remove-someone-from-a-stream) from a
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stream, or changing the accessibility of a stream.
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2016-12-22 22:44:33 +01:00
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## About topics
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In each stream, messages are sorted by topics. Topics are
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specific, fine-grained subjects that fit with the overall subject of the
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stream that they're sent to. Topics ensure sequential messages
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about the same thing are threaded together, allowing for better consumption
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by users.
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The best stream topics are short and specific. For example, for a bug tracker
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integration, a good topic would be the bug number; for an integration like
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Nagios, the service would serve as a good topic.
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2016-12-27 22:53:31 +01:00
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Users can easily [change the topics](/help/change-the-topic-of-a-message) of the messages
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that they sent if they sent the message to the wrong topic or if some
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messages in a topic have gone off-topic.
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