mirror of https://github.com/zulip/zulip.git
67 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
67 lines
2.9 KiB
Markdown
# About streams and topics
|
|
|
|
In Zulip, conversations are organized by conversation **streams** and
|
|
**topics**.
|
|
|
|
## About streams
|
|
On Zulip, users communicate with each other in group chats by sending
|
|
messages to streams, which are similar to conversation threads.
|
|
|
|
Streams are either:
|
|
|
|
* **Public** - Public streams are for open discussions. Any Zulip user can
|
|
join any public stream in the organization, and they can view the complete
|
|
message history of any public stream without joining the stream.
|
|
* **Private** - Private streams are for confidential discussions and are
|
|
only visible to users who've been invited to subscribe to them. Users who
|
|
are not members of a private stream cannot subscribe to the stream, and
|
|
they also cannot read or send messages to the stream.
|
|
|
|
Users are subscribed to specific streams in the organization by default, such as
|
|
the [#announce](the-announce-stream) stream. Users can easily
|
|
[view messages](/help/view-messages-from-a-stream) from a specific stream; in
|
|
addition, they can [browse](/help/browse-and-join-streams#browse-streams) their
|
|
stream subscriptions using the Zulip stream browser.
|
|
|
|
If they wish to read messages from a stream that they're not subscribed to,
|
|
users can choose to [join](/help/browse-and-join-streams#subscribing-to-streams)
|
|
a stream. Similarly, if they are not interested in the topics being discussed in
|
|
a stream, users can choose to [unsubscribe](/help/unsubscribe-from-a-stream) from a
|
|
stream.
|
|
|
|
Users can also customize their stream settings; they can:
|
|
|
|
* [pin a stream](/help/pin-a-stream)
|
|
* [change the color of streams](/help/change-the-color-of-a-stream)
|
|
* [enable desktop notifications for stream](/help/configure-desktop-notifications)
|
|
* [muting notification for streams](/help/mute-a-stream)
|
|
|
|
If enabled by the organization administrators, users can
|
|
[create](/help/create-a-stream) streams and [invite](/help/add-or-invite-someone-to-a-stream)
|
|
other users to a stream.
|
|
|
|
Only organization administrators can modify a stream, like:
|
|
|
|
* [renaming a stream](/help/rename-a-stream)
|
|
* [deleting a stream](/help/delete-a-stream)
|
|
* changing the description of a stream
|
|
* [removing users from a stream](/help/remove-someone-from-a-stream)
|
|
* [changing the accessibility of a stream](/help/change-who-can-join-a-stream)
|
|
|
|
## About topics
|
|
|
|
In each stream, messages are sorted by topics. Topics are
|
|
specific, fine-grained subjects that fit with the overall subject of the
|
|
stream that they're sent to. Topics ensure sequential messages
|
|
about the same thing are threaded together, allowing for better consumption
|
|
by users.
|
|
|
|
!!! tip ""
|
|
The best stream topics are short and specific. For example, for a bug
|
|
tracker integration, a good topic would be the bug number; for an
|
|
integration like Nagios, the service would serve as a good topic.
|
|
|
|
Users can easily [change the topics](/help/change-the-topic-of-a-message) of the messages
|
|
that they sent if they sent the message to the wrong topic or if some
|
|
messages in a topic have gone off-topic.
|