How to create Private thread

[the100yen]

Hello, I would like to create private thread and only allow users with that address link can access it.
I want to allow all users and guest to have access to that thread, however I want to hide it from the forum list...is this something possible to accomplish?

 

[Kevin]

One individual thread, no, but you could create a forum node and turn off the option "Display in the node list" so that it doesn't show anywhere. Anybody could still reach it by going to the URL though (depending on your usergroup permissions applied to the node).

 

[PeteUK]

One individual thread, no, but you could create a forum node and turn off the option "Display in the node list" so that it doesn't show anywhere. Anybody could still reach it by going to the URL though (depending on your usergroup permissions applied to the node).

When I tried this messages posted in the private forum were returned in Search results and in Profiles. Unless there's some easy way of turning this off it's hard to see what use this feature is.

 

[Kevin]

When I tried this messages posted in the private forum were returned in Search results and in Profiles. Unless there's some easy way of turning this off it's hard to see what use this feature is.

Modify the nodes in question and then click on the "Forum Options" tab at the top of page. On that page you can turn off options like "Include threads from this forum when users click "What's New?". As far as the profile page, no getting around that one I am aware of. It is, afterall, still a public node so vestiges of it will be visible in some spots.

 

[PeteUK]

Modify the nodes in question and then click on the "Forum Options" tab at the top of page. On that page you can turn off options like "Include threads from this forum when users click "What's New?". As far as the profile page, no getting around that one I am aware of. It is, afterall, still a public node so vestiges of it will be visible in some spots.

So as I said before, it's hard to see what use this feature is.

 

[Kevin]

So as I said before, it's hard to see what use this feature is.

And as I said before, you can disable the posts from showing up in what's new at least.

If it is a public node that you want viewable by guests then there are certain trade-offs for that ability. If you truly want it private then make it a node only viewable to registered accounts and you can changes permissions all you want on it. It is a bit unrealistic to have content that is viewable by guests and then expect it to be completely hidden.

 

[PeteUK]

So it's not really any use then.....

 

[Kevin]

So it's not really any use then.....

When your expectations are realistic, it is totally useful, hence the reason it exists.

 

[PeteUK]

I think my expectations are completely realistic, but clearly whoever designed this feature had something else in mind. Any idea what it was?

 

[Kevin]

I think my expectations are completely realistic, but clearly whoever designed this feature had something else in mind. Any idea what it was?

Well, "clearly" the designer had something in minds that seems to work fine for everybody else but you. I'm sure with your attitude you'll get lots of other people jumping in here to help you out with your goal though so good luck.

 

[Teapot]

I think my expectations are completely realistic, but clearly whoever designed this feature had something else in mind. Any idea what it was?

The concept of turning off displaying forums in the node list is for things that are linked elsewhere, like the navigation bar, that aren't necessarily suitable for the main node list. It's not designed to be used for making it semi-private.

 

[PeteUK]

Thank you, Teapot - a sensible answer at last. I've found members of the XenForo community to be extremely helpful up to now, so was a little bemused by today's experience.

Maybe in 1.2 the note in the ACP "If unselected, users will not see this node in the list. However, if the URL is known, it will still be accessible" will be reworded to make the useage a little clearer.

 

[Liam W]

Thank you, Teapot - a sensible answer at last. I've found members of the XenForo community to be extremely helpful up to now, so was a little bemused by today's experience.

Maybe in 1.2 the note in the ACP "If unselected, users will not see this node in the list. However, if the URL is known, it will still be accessible" will be reworded to make the useage a little clearer.

I doubt it, and you were being quite rude - how do you expect people to be polite to you if you're rude to them?

However, there is no way to do this natively. You'll need an addon.

 

[PeteUK]

I doubt it, and you were being quite rude - how do you expect people to be polite to you if you're rude to them?

I was persistent, which is hardly the same thing as being rude. I want to find out as much as I can about what this software can (and can't) do before adding more licenses to the two I've already bought - isn't that why this forum exists?

 

[Paul B]

When I tried this messages posted in the private forum were returned in Search results and in Profiles. Unless there's some easy way of turning this off it's hard to see what use this feature is.

That's because it wasn't a private forum.
What Kevin explained how to do was just to remove it from view, which is a completely different thing.

What are you trying to do?

 

[Kevin]

What Kevin explained how to do was just to remove it from view...

... and I gave that explanation because of the topic of the thread by the OP (content not listed by still accessible by guests if the URL is known). I even mentioned in post #6 that if they want a truly "private" forum then it could be done with the normal usergroup permissions but then it wouldn't be viewable by guests, somebody just wasn't happy that response.

 

[PeteUK]

Apologies if I went 'off topic' but my first post seemed very relevant and things just went on from there. I do know how to set up private forums, but I was trying to avoid using permissions....

What are you trying to do?

Thanks, Brogan. My first forum (still in beta) is designed to operate in parallel with a website I've been running for almost a decade and which has over 90,000 users, about one-third of whom have been active recently. Users in the existing website have privileges based on their participation, and I wanted to give the higher achievers access to an exclusive area of the forum simply by giving them a link.

Subsequently we've figured out that we can achieve what we want almost as easily by adding a custom user field, providing a code to qualifying members of the existing website, and promoting forum members who have entered that code to a new user group. So at the end of the day we will be using private forums to implement this particular feature.

However I'm still intrigued as to the purpose of hidden nodes. Teapot kindly suggested one possible use, but the text in the ACP hints that there are others. Maybe if I came from a forum background I'd know the answer, but I stopped using bulletin boards over 20 years ago; most people using XenForo seem to have graduated from other forum software - I came straight to XenForo because of something that Stuart at AVForums said.

 

[Paul B]

Hidden nodes can be used for a variety of purposes.

I used to use a Page node as my home/landing page and as I didn't want it to appear in the node list, I just set it to not be displayed.

Some people automatically move all spam to a Spam forum.
Again, it's not something you really want to see on the forum list so just set it to hidden.
You can still access it manually via the URL.

I'm sure there are other implementations used.

 

[optrex]

Sounds to me like user group promotions are more what you want. Hit a target, get promoted, see additional content? These will automate your process.

 

[PeteUK]

Thanks, as I mentioned above I am using user group promotions, but it isn't quite as simple as that because forum members are being rewarded for their contributions on a different website.