diumGlossary
What is a profile type?
A profile type is a custom role in a community, such as speaker or mentor, that sets what its members can see, create and join.
In more detail
Most community tools give you a short fixed list of roles: admin, moderator, member. That is enough to keep order, but it does not describe who people are. At a conference, a speaker, a sponsor and an attendee all need different things. In a cohort program, mentors and students do.
A profile type sits on top of the base role. The base role says how much power someone has over the community (can they moderate, invite, change settings). The profile type says what they do in it: which kinds of threads they can start and how many, which pages they can create or join, and where they can reply.
Limits are the useful part. A speaker who can create five sessions and one speaker page is set up to succeed. A sponsor who can create a booth page but not announcements keeps the feed from turning into ads.
Example
Speaker profile type
- Can start up to 5 session Waves and 10 question Waves
- Can create 1 speaker page and join any number of pages
- Can reply on discussions, questions and sessions
- Cannot invite new members
Based on the permission shape Dium uses. Your numbers will differ.
Good practice
Small habits that make the difference.
Start with two or three types
Every type is something to explain and maintain. Add more only when a real group needs different rules.
Name types after what people do
"Mentor" and "Sponsor" are clear. "Tier 2" is not.
Use limits, not just on and off
A cap of five sessions is often better than yes or no.
Invite into the type directly
A signup link that assigns the type saves you from fixing roles by hand later.
How Dium handles it
In Dium, owners set up profile types per Flow, each with its own permissions for Waves and Pages, and can share an invite link that assigns the type when someone joins.
Related terms
Moderation ladder
A moderation ladder is a set of steps, from a light nudge to a ban, that moderators climb only as far as a problem needs.
Read definitionCommunity of practice
A community of practice is a group of people who share a craft or problem and improve by learning from each other.
Read definitionLive Q&A
Live Q&A is a session where an audience asks questions in real time and a host or panel answers them on the spot.
Read definition