Discourse Group User Status

A simple Discourse plugin that allows forum administrators to restric the user status feature to specific user groups.

Overview

By default, Discourse allows all users to set a custom status with an emoji and description. This plugin gives administrators fine-grained control over which groups can use this feature.

Features

• Group-based permissions - Restrict status setting to selected groups (trust levels, custom groups, or both)
• Admin override - Admins always retain status permissions regardless of group selection
• Automatic cleanup - Removes statuses from users when they lose permission (via setting changes or group removal)
• UI integration - Hides status controls from unauthorized users

Installation

Follow the standard plugin installation guide.

Configuration

Enable the core user status feature:

• Navigate to Admin > All site settings and search for user status
• Enable enable_user_status
• In the user_status_allowed_groups setting, select which groups can set user statuses
• Leave empty for default behavior (all users can set statuses)

Behavior

Permission Changes

When you modify the user_status_allowed_groups setting:

• Users who lose permission will have their existing status automatically cleared
• Users who gain permission can immediately set a status

Group Removal

When a user is removed from an allowed group:

• If they're not in any other allowed groups, their status is cleared
• This applies whether removed via /admin/groups or /admin/users (or if they leave voluntarily)

Admin Users

Admins bypass all restrictions and can always set/update their status, even if they're not in any selected group.

Notifications

This plugin only affects user status, not notification settings:

• The “pause notifications” option in the status modal is a separate feature
• If a user’s status is cleared by this plugin, their paused notifications remain active
• The paused notification indicator stays on their avatar until the duration expires or they manually unpause
• Users who lose status permission keep their notification pause state unchanged

Discourse Calendar Integration

If you have the Discourse Calendar plugin installed:

• Holiday statuses set by the Calendar plugin are preserved by this plugin
• Rare edge case: If a user manually overwrites their holiday status, and an admin removes their group from user_status_allowed_groups during their scheduled holiday, the manual status will be cleared
• The Calendar plugin automatically resets holiday statuses every 10 minutes, so any cleared status is restored at the next scheduled run
• Users cannot manually set or edit statuses if they're not in an allowed group and have a scheduled holiday status

Example Use Cases

• Limit to staff members only, category moderators, etc.
• Grant as a perk to supporters or patrons or sellers (custom group)
• Prevent user status abuse by less trusted members
• Let only your admins get coffee breaks!

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Discourse Meta Topic: https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-group-user-status/393748

Support: For issues or feature requests, please post in the Meta topic or start a PR on this repo.

To hire me or buy me coffee: visit me here: Lilly@Discourse Meta.