Wow... Really Mattermost? This should be basic functionality. Without this very basic permissions control it makes your whole server software unusable and not worth my time... even if it is free. Ridiculous. This is only a way to try to get people to pay.

Is there a way to make this restriction via the command line

Not sure how preventing public channels would be considered an "enterprise feature". This seems like very basic functionality (call it a feature if you want).

This is a complete deal breaker for me and my team. We've been setting up our server stack on GitLab, and planned to use Mattermost for our chats as it's bundled in.. But the fact that this incredibly basic feature isn't just not implemented, but is actively disabled by developers is just completely beyond me and everyone I've spoken to.

Slack is your main competitor and even with their aggressive pricing strategy they offer this feature for free. Because it's important! Having a basic level of control over channels is essential for keeping a clean and moderated environment. Allowing users to clog the server with private chats is counter-intuitive to open-source development where open and non-private chats should be encouraged as much as possible. Encouraging people to discuss projects in private channels discourages new developers/designers from joining in.

I sincerely hope Mattermost reconsiders this utterly bizarre decision, but for now, Mattermost has been nuked off our server and we'll be using Slack for the foreseeable future as their base tier is actually usable.

This is very important for what I'm planning to do with Mattermost.

I want to have an open server where anyone can join, but not having this option will allow users to grief easily by spamming create and delete channels.

Hipchat and Slack are also targeting the same use case, and both of those tools allow restriction of new rooms to admins.

+1 we don't like mess

+1 For at least a basic configuration item that allows the creation of channels only to the team administrators. In my scenario, Channels are the "form" you give to your internal company (sales, developers, support ...).

https://mattermost.uservoice.com/forums/306457-general/suggestions/15287856-admin-should-be-able-to-protect-more-than-just-the

we should at least have the ability to protect our communications. that's what mattersmost to me

There's definitively a strong need to restrict the creation of new channels to a subset of the team or, at least, to the Team Admins.

Definitely need a way to only allow certain users (like admins) to create Channels and Private Groups. For Private Groups, they should be able to assign an "owner" of that group who can add/remove people from it.

I get the whole "teach them to use it right" but there are too many over achievers out there who try to be self sufficient and end up causing a lot more work for admins in the future.

Since no-one followed up with the requested use-case, I guess I'll throw ours forward -- the current lack of ability to restrict this is considered one of the major "blockers" to our adoption of Mattermost.

We have a multi-chapter non-profit organization, where we currently use slack (free-tier) for communication and coordination across the organization and between chapters. We're pushing 500+ members, all told. With this many "cooks", someone is always thinking they need something new/different -- We need the ability to protect & manage the structure, lest we end up with 10 different project/event-specific teams/channels under various names by different individuals.

Restricting channel creation to Team Admins puts members in the mode of asking rather than acting first, and allows a bit of thought and consideration, and authorization, before creating new channels.

Similarly, restricting private group creation to admins (or a certain privilege level...) would be a very similar type of restriction, that I can see some groups needing. We currently do not limit this ability, but we do limit channel creation to admins under slack -- this has proven to be a good balance.

(FWIW, we provide an "I need an adult..." channel where members can request assistance, creation of channels for events/projects/..., etc.)

Another +1 - It's easier to set a rule than to enforce a gentleman's agreement in some organizations. However, please make separate toggles for public channels and private groups.

+1 on this. We'd like to use mattermost in a community with many members and allowing everyone to create channels and private groups makes this very difficult to deal with

II can see some overlapping between this request and:
https://mattermost.uservoice.com/forums/306457-general/suggestions/9982719-add-restricted-users

The main idea is to assign the ability to create new channels (public or private) only to a subset of the team members.
In this way the number of channels would be under the control of a selected number of users. In some agencies is important to keep the channels under control, to both avoid distractions and and to have a better, and clean, chat/communication system.

Hi Ron, hi Hugh, hi Annonymous,

Appreciate your feedback. Can you help me understand more about your use case?

In most teams, our assumption is there is a leader who sets the expectations of usage--they might ask the team to refrain from creating channels, except for certain people, the same way they would ask that conversation be civil, or ask people who are over-posting or posting inappropriate material to change their behavior.

It sounds like you're seeing a "mess" and it's surprising to use.

We're curious to hear more feedback.

Can you share more about your needs?

Allowing all members to create channels and private groups causes a total mess very quickly and is a serious reason to drop Mattermost as communication software.

yes it's a mess when everyone and anyone can create channels and groups!

I suggest that it's an option to restrict channel creation.

Some of the key features for our use case is that we could create new channels to break off into more niche topics, while only pestering those who need to know.