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

Visibility

The access scope of a social object. Visibility determines which members can see a given conversation, community, event, presence record, or activity entry.

Values (social service):
- public — visible to any member within discovery reach
- community — visible to members of the linked community (conversations only)
- circle — visible to inner circle members (presence and activity only)
- private — visible only to named participants or the owner

Allowed values by object:
- conversation: public / community / private
- community: public / private
- event: public / private
- presence: public / circle / private
- activity: public / circle / private

Forbidden values:
- followers (removed in migration 004; replaced by circle)
- friends (never existed in this system)
- unlisted (not a supported scope)

Forbidden uses:
- Applying circle to conversations or communities (not supported)
- Applying community to events or presence (not supported)
- Using visibility interchangeably with permissions (visibility controls read access; permissions control write access)

Notes:
- The followers visibility value was removed in migration 004_authorization.sql. Any code or migration referencing followers as a visibility value is incorrect.
- Surface and find services have their own visibility concepts (public/private) that do not include circle or community. Those are social-specific.

Related:
- circle
- community
- discovery
- relationship (block affects visibility indirectly)