How to make a XenForo forum private (no guest access)

[Sim]

Sim submitted a new resource:

How to make a XenForo forum private (no guest access) - Detailed instructions on how to make a site private with no guest access to content

I run several private websites where you must be a registered and approved member to view the forum content and post. There are several approaches for setting up a site for private use - the purpose of this tutorial is to explain the differences and describe my preferred approach.

The example I will use for this is the REBAA member forums I run for the Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia - a not-for-profit industry association. The forums are for current members to share and...

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[Sim]

Note - I have updated some of the instructions in this tutorial to also hide menu items and widgets from users without a valid user_state to ensure that users who have registered but aren't yet approved can't see these items.

The Private Site addon has also been updated to hide the What's New and New Posts buttons from users without a valid user_state.

 

[cdub]

Do you know how to make it so the new posts widget shows the new threads in the forums for the guests but not the content if they click on them?

 

[Sim]

Do you know how to make it so the new posts widget shows the new threads in the forums for the guests but not the content if they click on them?

I know this is a rather late reply - but you should be able to do this with the following settings for the Unregistered / Unconfirmed user group:

• View threads by others: Yes
• View thread content: No or Never

I haven't tested this, but it should work.

 

[cdub]

I know this is a rather late reply - but you should be able to do this with the following settings for the Unregistered / Unconfirmed user group:

• View threads by others: Yes
• View thread content: No or Never

I haven't tested this, but it should work.

I think I tried this and it didn't work. I ended up getting a custom widget made for it.

 

[Sim]

I'm glad I took the time to write this tutorial - I'm just setting up another private site and this saved me a heap of time because I had forgotten which settings needed to be changed

 

[Sim]

I think I tried this and it didn't work. I ended up getting a custom widget made for it.

Ahh - yeah, this would work if they can see the forums themselves, but the New Posts widget probably hides threads you can't actually read, which would make sense.