---
term: conversation
category: social
status: canonical
authority: social.elonn.local
---

Conversation

A titled, threaded discussion anchored to a visibility scope. Conversations are the primary social object for group discourse. Every conversation has a creator, a visibility setting, and zero or more replies.

Visibility scopes:
- public — visible to any member within the discovery graph
- community — visible to members of the linked community
- private — visible only to named participants

Allowed:
- public conversation
- community conversation
- private conversation
- conversation thread (informal; acceptable in UI copy only)
- reply to a conversation

Forbidden:
- thread (reserved for message and Social DM containers; qualify it)
- chat (implies real-time; not the model)
- post (connotes a feed item; not the model)
- topic (ambiguous)
- discussion (acceptable in UI prose but not as a technical noun)

Notes:
- Events have an attached conversation for their discussion. This is an event conversation, not a standalone conversation.
- One-to-one communication uses a thread, not a conversation. Open Messages belong to Messages; Social DMs belong to Social.

Related:
- reply
- message
- social-dm
- community
- event
- visibility