Uncategorized (cid -1)

Availability: >4.0.0

When categories are created, they are assigned a numeric category id (or cid). NodeBB's initial setup populates four categories, which take up cids 1 through 4.

Additionally, there is a pseudo-category present in the UI with the cid -1. This is the "uncategorized" pseudo-category that does not strictly exist in the database as an editable category.

How it is used

It is used by the ActivityPub integration to automatically slot received content that was not addressed to a specific category. Due to its rather free-for-all nature, content in cid -1 is also subject to regular pruning.

How it can be used

There is no restriction on the usage of cid -1. You may post topics into that category just like any other; by passing in -1 to the cid property when calling api.topics.create.

N.B. As content pruning only applies to topics with no engagement from local users, any topics created by local users are automatically exempt from pruning.

This can be a useful construct for plugins that wish to take advantage of the pre-existing structure of topics and posts, without having to create their own data structures from scratch.

For example, a plugin exposing the capability for users to self-journal could utilise the existing internal API and post journal entries (aka topics) into cid -1. In that scenario, the only thing required would be to maintain a list of journal entries (tids) by user, as opposed to building out the entire model and controller for saving journal entries into the database.