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