Target release	Q2 2020
Epic	https://mattermost.atlassian.net/browse/MM-11670
Edition	E20+
Document status	99%

Document owner	Dennis Kittrell (Deactivated)
Designer	Michael Gamble (Deactivated)
Tech lead	Scott Bishel
Technical writers	Justine Geffen (Deactivated)
QA	Rohitesh Gupta (Deactivated)
OKR	Improve Team/Channel Administration
Request (CR)	https://mattermost.atlassian.net/browse/CR-9
Request (other)	UserVoice
Design Spec	Design Spec - Channel Moderation Settings
Technical Spec	[WIP] Tech Spec - Channel Moderation Settings
Test Plan	Test Plan - Channel Moderation Settings
Documentation	Documentation
Targeted Personas	Amber Johnson (CCO) David Maldonado (System Admin)

Objective

By adding business value in the form of channel restrictions we enable new use cases that are in high demand from customers and enable growth. This feature also enables the highly requested “Read Only/Announcement Channels” toggle and we expect this to substantially advance user expansion for enterprise customers.

Channel restrictions created that are set per channel in System Console (only channel admins can post, add/remove members, or @mention the channel). Any number of channels can have these restrictions enabled. Each channel setting can be toggled individually in the System Console.

Background

Both the “Member add/remove restriction” and the “Channel Mention restriction” derived from customer interviews and internal discussions about “nice-to-haves” regarding channel restrictions

This is a high-impact feature for some very large customers

Success metrics

Goal

Metric

Solve channel moderation use-cases demanded by customers

read only channels
restrict add/remove members
restrict Channel @Mentions

At least 50% of customers requesting “Read Only Channels” in in CR-9 confirm that this meets their basic expectations (must-have requirements).

Handle a large number of users in the channel at the same time without performance issue

A read only channel (where only channel admins and above can post) can handle at least 1000 concurrent active users without a measureable performance impact.

User Scenarios

Announcement channels (e.g. public, employees, guest users, etc)
Bot only channels
Lunch Channels
Work-around for some use cases of Ethical Walls/Information Barriers

Assumptions

Phases & Milestones

Design

Develop

QA

Launch

High Fi Designs

iOS App

Android

Phase I

Phase II

Phase III

QA

Marketing

Documentation

Areas Touched

Permissions
Mobile UI
Web/Desktop Chat-Facing UI
System Console UI (Channel Configuration page and permissions)

Requirements

	Requirement	User Story	Importance	Phase	Jira Issue
1	Make this channel Read Only (only channel admins can post) Posts by Channel Admins Only Handle a large number of read-only users in the channel at the same time without performance issues Disallow pinning of posts Bots need to retain the ability to post in read only channels	As a System Admin, I want the ability to restrict posting/interacting to channel admins and higher in specified channels, so that I can create announcement channels.	HIGH	I	MM-20997
2	Setting to disallow reactions for guests and members
3	Deprecate setting: "ExperimentalTownSquareIsReadOnly": false"	N/A		I	MM-21363
4	Allow members to add and remove other users Only admins can add/remove members in the channel If this setting is turned on after members exist, they will remain, but only admins can modify Remove toggle when group sync is turned on	As a System Admin, I want the ability to restrict the adding and removing of other members in a specified channel, so that I have better control over important channels.		II	MM-20999
5	Disable channel @mentions (e.g. Channel, Here) Only channel admins can @Mention members within the channel using the @all, @channel and @here commands Even when toggled to “off” @Mentioning specific users will still be allowed	As a System Admin, I want the ability to disable channel mentions, so that I have better control over important channels.		III	MM-21005
6

Open Questions

Question	Answer	Date Answered
How does "Member Management" work with the Permissions schemes in the case that Users are not able to "Manage Channel Members" under the Public and Private channel permissions? Is this feature still available to be enabled or is it in a read-only state?
What happens when user tries to mention the @Channel and the setting is disabled?

Out of Scope

Chat-facing page for Channel Admins and above to adjust settings
Members choosing reactions from pre-selected emoji
Toggle allowing post pinning
LHS icon to identify read-only channels
CLI Commands for management of settings
Filter on channel listing that displays channels with moderation enabled

Decision Log

Channel Moderation Settings