Feature Spaces for New Members

You can choose which spaces to highlight so new members start where you want them, instead of a near-random list. Featured spaces show up first in the Spaces directory and in the new-member welcome flow.

Why use it

On a new community there are no member counts or activity yet, so every automatic “popular” or “suggested” list is close to random, exactly when a newcomer most needs steering. Featuring a handful of spaces fixes that:

You decide the starting point. The spaces you feature lead the directory and onboarding, so a new member’s first click is one you chose.
It follows them across the site. Featured spaces lead the directory sidebar on desktop, a strip at the top on mobile, the onboarding “Spaces” step, and get a nudge in the suggestions members see in the feed.
No setup trap. If you have not featured anything but you auto-join new members to some spaces, those become the featured set automatically, so the section is never empty for no reason.

How it works (site owner, in the admin)

Everything is under BuddyNext > Spaces > Directory.

Featuring a space

From the “…” menu on any space row, choose Feature (or Unfeature). Featured spaces show a Featured badge, and a Featured (n) filter shows just them.
You can feature up to 6 spaces. Trying to feature a 7th tells you to unfeature one first.
Select several rows and use the bulk action to feature or unfeature them together.

Ordering them

The Featured spaces section at the top of the Directory shows your featured spaces in order. Drag to reorder, or use the up/down buttons, and remove one with the ×. Type a name in Add a space to search and add another. Changes save as you make them.

The order matters: it is the order members see, top to bottom.

What members see

Desktop / tablet: a Featured card at the top of the Spaces directory sidebar.
Phone: a horizontal Featured spaces strip above the directory list (the sidebar is hidden on small screens).
New members: your featured spaces lead the “Spaces” step of the welcome flow (open spaces only there, since that step is one-click join).
In the feed: featured spaces a member has not joined get a gentle boost in their suggested spaces, behind their strongest personal matches.

Good to know

Private and secret spaces stay private. You can feature them, but they are only shown to people who can already see them. A featured secret space never appears to someone who should not know it exists.
Archived or deleted spaces drop out of the featured lists automatically.
It is your data, not a setting. “Restore defaults” on the Spaces settings never clears your featured list.
Featured spaces are not pinned into the main directory grid or its sorts; they lead the discovery surfaces above, and the grid stays as-is.