Every pool on OfficePoolGolf has a visibility setting. The commissioner picks it during setup, and it controls two things: whether the pool shows up on the public browse page, and what a visitor has to provide to join. Three modes are supported — public, unlisted, and password-protected — and the choice shapes how the room finds its way in. This guide walks through each mode, what it does, and how to pick.

Public pools are listed on the browse page; unlisted pools are link-only; password-protected pools are link-plus-password. Most office pools should default to unlisted.

The three modes at a glance

Every pool generates a share link automatically when the commissioner publishes it. The link is the same shape regardless of mode — what differs is whether the pool also appears on the browse page, and whether a password gate sits in front of the join screen.

Public — listed on the browse page

A public pool is discoverable. It appears on the platform's browse page, where any signed-in user can find it, read its rules, and join up to the entry cap. The commissioner does not need to share a link; the listing does the work.

Public mode fits a few specific shapes:

A community pool open to anyone interested. The commissioner is not running a tight office group; the goal is to fill the field with whoever wants in. The browse page is the right surface.

A demo or beta pool run by the platform itself. Public pools are how new users find an active leaderboard to look at before they start one of their own.

A larger paid pool where the commissioner deliberately wants the room to grow past their immediate circle. A regional or cross-firm group that does not care who else joins as long as the pool fills.

Public pools are NOT the right default for office groups. The room you want is the room you already have; opening the browse page to strangers introduces a coordination problem you do not need.

Unlisted — link-only access

Unlisted is the default and the right choice for almost every office pool. The pool does not appear on the browse page. The only way in is the share link, which the commissioner sends to the group through whatever channel they already use — email, group chat, a Slack DM, a text thread. Anyone with the link who is signed in can join up to the entry cap.

This mode mirrors the social shape of an office pool exactly. The room is the people the commissioner invited; the link is the invitation. Nobody outside the chain ends up on the page, but anyone the commissioner forwards the link to can join without an additional gate.

Unlisted pools assume the commissioner trusts the group not to forward the link beyond the intended audience. In practice that is fine — link sprawl is rare in office groups, and the entries-per-person cap and total-entries cap put a ceiling on damage if a link leaks. For the unusual case where leakage is a real concern, password protection is the next step up.

Password-protected — link plus password

Eagle and Albatross pools can add a password gate on top of the unlisted link. The link itself is open, but the join screen prompts for a password before showing the wizard. The commissioner sets the password during setup; it is stored as a bcrypt hash in the database and never displayed back, not even to the commissioner.

Password mode fits two specific shapes:

A company pool posted in a wide-channel Slack room or company-wide email. The commissioner shares the link broadly but only the intended audience gets the password through a separate channel. The password keeps casual passersby from joining.

A multi-tier corporate pool where the commissioner runs separate pools at different price points and wants to keep the high-stakes pool gated against accidental sign-ups from the low-stakes audience.

For most office groups, password protection is more friction than help. Unlisted mode with a link sent through the group's normal channel covers the same use case with no additional step at join time.

How visibility interacts with invites and late entry

Visibility controls who can find and join a pool. It is independent of three other concepts.

Invites. Every pool, regardless of visibility, has a share link. Eagle and Albatross commissioners can also manage an invite list — a roster of email addresses the platform tracks invitations for. Unlisted and password-protected pools work fine without the invite list; the share link is the invite.

Late entry. Eagle and Albatross pools can allow entries after the lock deadline. Visibility does not change late-entry behavior; a public pool with late entry enabled allows joins from the browse page right up to the late-entry cutoff, and an unlisted pool with late entry enabled allows joins via the share link in the same window.

Co-admins. Co-admin access is gated by tier, not visibility. A public pool can have co-admins; an unlisted pool can too. The co-admin gets the same access regardless of how the pool is configured to be found.

For how to send the invite once visibility is picked, read Inviting Your Office. For the broader host workflow, read The Commissioner Guide. Ready to host? Sign in and pick the visibility on the first wizard screen.