Allow user to choose if thread is public or private to members only

[Ludachris]

There are some topics that a user might want to keep private to be viewed by just the members. And though there is an option to have them post it in a private forum, that only really works if the private forum gets used. A more elegant and useful solution would be to allow the member to choose if the thread should be viewable by everyone or just members when they post it. This would be very useful in some of the off-topic subforums, and other forums where information being posted is a little more sensitive.

From a forum owner perspective, I wouldn't necessarily want people doing this in every forum - as I want most topics being discussed publicly so that the community benefits from it, so having a setting in the node options that specify if this is allowed would be important, so that I could restrict it to certain forums only, and maybe limit how often it can be used. I see this mainly as a way to keep personal info from being seen by guests and bots.

 

[briansol]

I like this idea.

Would also like to add that this should have an admin-defined limit, eg, you can make 2 private threads per month. That way it's not abused.

 

[GrnEyedDvl]

Is this what private messages are for? Especially since you can invite people into a conversation, and they work nearly identically to threads.

 

[Ludachris]

Is this what private messages are for? Especially since you can invite people into a conversation, and they work nearly identically to threads.

I don't think the PM system is designed for this, but I suppose you could try and make it work. The simpler user experience though would be a checkbox that asks the user if they want the thread to be viewable to all, or just members of the site when posting the thread - similar to the way users on FB can limit the viewing of their posts to just their friends or everyone.

 

[chillibear]

There are a few options you might explore to see if they meet your needs:

Firstly there are two "hide" BBCode add-ons, that provide BBCodes that let users hide content with various conditions, such as membership of the board, etc.

K

[MMO] Hide Bb-Code Content System

May 3, 2020

Add-on for hiding content

• kick
• Add-ons [2.x]

[XenConcept] Hide BBCode

Dec 8, 2018

This addon gives users the ability to hide their content using BBCode.

• XenConcept
• ajax bbcode hide reactions reply
• Add-ons [2.x]

Then there is this add-on that extends the functionality in the existing Conversation / Private Messaging system which may make that better suited to your needs:

X

Conversation Essentials

Sep 29, 2018

Vital functions and features for viewing and managing personal conversations.

• Xon
• conversations the essentials
• Add-ons [2.x]

Finally one I've wondered about a few times:

[XB] Private Threads

Nov 24, 2017

Create threads only invited members can view in XenForo 2

• Painbaker
• Add-ons [2.x]

Which might be much closer to what you want. The only reason I've not tried it is that there were some limitations in the permissions model I think, although I've not looked at it in some time.

Finally if it's entire threads you could roll your own as a hack with a custom thread field and some template modifications I'd think. However the limitation there would be things like "recent threads" lists and so forth that would leak some of your thread.

Anyhow, hope something there might be of some use.

 

[Ludachris]

There are a few options you might explore to see if they meet your needs:

Firstly there are two "hide" BBCode add-ons, that provide BBCodes that let users hide content with various conditions, such as membership of the board, etc.

K

[MMO] Hide Bb-Code Content System

May 3, 2020

Add-on for hiding content

• kick
• Add-ons [2.x]

[XenConcept] Hide BBCode

Dec 8, 2018

This addon gives users the ability to hide their content using BBCode.

• XenConcept
• ajax bbcode hide reactions reply
• Add-ons [2.x]

Then there is this add-on that extends the functionality in the existing Conversation / Private Messaging system which may make that better suited to your needs:

X

Conversation Essentials

Sep 29, 2018

Vital functions and features for viewing and managing personal conversations.

• Xon
• conversations the essentials
• Add-ons [2.x]

Finally one I've wondered about a few times:

[XB] Private Threads

Nov 24, 2017

Create threads only invited members can view in XenForo 2

• Painbaker
• Add-ons [2.x]

Which might be much closer to what you want. The only reason I've not tried it is that there were some limitations in the permissions model I think, although I've not looked at it in some time.

Finally if it's entire threads you could roll your own as a hack with a custom thread field and some template modifications I'd think. However the limitation there would be things like "recent threads" lists and so forth that would leak some of your thread.

Anyhow, hope something there might be of some use.

I appreciate all those suggestions. I'm going to go the simple route for now and just set up a private member-only subforum and see if it gets used. This suggestion was more just for the purposes of putting it out there for XF devs to consider and community to upvote, or not. I think it's a good idea. Maybe others don't.

 

[GrnEyedDvl]

If you just want to hide it from Guests then disable them from viewing it. You are overthinking this.