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To add, you can subject users to 'first post moderation'. This allows you to review all first posts by users before letting them post what they like. Although the post will show up in the forum, it will only be visible to you until you have approved it. To enable this, make sure that whichever usergroup you want to check has 'Can Bypass First Post Moderation' unchecked in the permissions associated with them.
As Andy has said, you can keep the forum private if you like. It's just a case of set up as you'd expect with any plugin. All forums are going to be more complex than the average plugin, there will always be a learning curve, but try not to let that put you off.
To elaborate a bit - you could create two forums (from the admin panel Forum > Forums > Create New Forum) call them 'members forum' and 'guest forum' with the intention of having one open and one private.
You could then set up two usergroups (from the admin panel Forum > Usergroups > Create New Usergroup) one called 'members' and the other 'guests'.
Then you could create two permission sets (from the admin panel Forum > Permissions > Add New Permission Set) say one called 'access' which is open and allows most options (up to you how far you take that) and repeat with one called 'no access' which is strict, and in the case of privacy has everything unchecked.
Then navigate to Forum > Forums > Manage Groups and Forums, find 'members forum' and click 'Add Permission'. Here you can select the usergroup 'guests' in the first dropdown, and select the permission 'no access' in the second dropdown.
You can then do the same for members by adding another permission and choosing 'members' from the first dropdown, and 'access' from the second.
You can do the same for the 'guests forum', but in this case both usergroups want the permission 'access'.
This will basically make it so members can view all forums, but guests are restricted to the 'guests' forum. This is just a basic example on setting up privacy, and although it might look daunting it should only take 20 minutes or so to set up, and once you have experience with it, you can start working with more usergroups and permission levels.
Ref post #6
It's hard to recommend which plugins you would find most useful as it's different for everyone and as Andy has pointed out, you haven't really given us an idea of what you want to be able to do / control. Things like how many users you have / expect to have, and what you are using your forum for really dictate what plugins you will find most useful, although a few basic plugins that might help you get started are:
'Admin Bar - Post Control' - Invaluable really - Only displaying to admins it adds a control to the top of the forum itself which allows you to monitor every new post made on the forum. When the admin bar is open you can view posts without having to visit threads. There are a few controls to reply, mark as read, delete etc.. Also the admin bar offers Akismet support (spam plugin) if you run that on your WP site. More info.
'User Warnings and Suspensions' - This plugin is really useful if you want a little more control over undesirable users / posts. More info.
'Forum Post Captcha' - Really useful spam prevention plugin, adds a drag and drop captcha which can't really be beaten! You can add it to the registration page to, to deal with spam signups. More info.
'Report Post to Admins' - Again really if you like the idea of having a little more control over what goes on, this plugin will allow users to report posts directly to you. More info.
'Subscriptions - Topic and Forum' - Pretty useful for most forums.. Simply allows users to subscribe to topics or entire forums and receive email updates upon replies. You can customise this plugin through the WP admin - see Forum > Components > Subscriptions. More Info.
'Preview Forum Posts' - Another invaluable one, adds a 'Preview' button when making posts. Unless it's just a quick reply most people like to preview their posts before they submit.
'Private Messaging' - Does what it says basically! Pretty useful for people to get in contact with you as an admin if you think that would be something you'd find useful, if not other members have the option to privately talk to each other. You can restrict the use of the PM system through permissions, and also through the Private Messaging tab that will appear in your WP forum page once the plugin has been activated. More info.
There are others that are incredibly useful, I've just tried to pick out the ones that will help you keep the forum clean / up to date / spam free.
Hope this helps!
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Yellow Swordfish said
The forum does NOT rely on another plugin to be private and that is not what I said, I said that if you need to control and approve site registrations then you would need a plugin for that. And that has, as I said, nothing to do with the forum. That is under the control of WordPress.We have many, many users who have private forums - some part private. And on this forum here there are some forums you can not see which are dedicated to the SP team members. One of the main strengths of SP is exactly that - the granular and effective permission control.
And as you have not said what options you have 'installed that do not work' I can't really help or give advice. I can only answer the questions you have asked.
What plugins might be useful is a difficult question as it really odes depend on what your forum is for and how it will be used. I would recommend the tinyMCE editor. And if you are planning on allowing your users to use Gravatars I would recommend the gravatar cache plugin as that will speed operations up quite a not.
Probably the most popular after that is the Subscriptions plugin that allows your users to subscribe to forums and/or topics and receive notifications when new posts arrive.
What is the difference between a membership site and a private site? I want to limit access to certain people and keep the site invisible from search engines. Are you saying that without a membership plug-in, I cannot restrict who joins?
If I need a membership plug-in to restrict who joins, then will you please suggest another one because the one you suggested was not user friendly.
Also, I had a friend test sign in. He signed in, entered name and email, and was told he would receive an email with a password. He now shows on the back end as a member. But he has received no email. Am I supposed to assign a PW and send him an email? If not, how is he supposed to get it?
Thank you for the information on the plug-ins. Now I need to know how to get those downloads. There are long pages of instructions with no clear and easy spot that I could find just to download the plug-ins without studying 5,000 words of instructions.
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Ike said
To add, you can subject users to 'first post moderation'. This allows you to review all first posts by users before letting them post what they like. Although the post will show up in the forum, it will only be visible to you until you have approved it. To enable this, make sure that whichever usergroup you want to check has 'Can Bypass First Post Moderation' unchecked in the permissions associated with them.As Andy has said, you can keep the forum private if you like. It's just a case of set up as you'd expect with any plugin. All forums are going to be more complex than the average plugin, there will always be a learning curve, but try not to let that put you off.
To elaborate a bit - you could create two forums (from the admin panel Forum > Forums > Create New Forum) call them 'members forum' and 'guest forum' with the intention of having one open and one private.
You could then set up two usergroups (from the admin panel Forum > Usergroups > Create New Usergroup) one called 'members' and the other 'guests'.
Then you could create two permission sets (from the admin panel Forum > Permissions > Add New Permission Set) say one called 'access' which is open and allows most options (up to you how far you take that) and repeat with one called 'no access' which is strict, and in the case of privacy has everything unchecked.
Then navigate to Forum > Forums > Manage Groups and Forums, find 'members forum' and click 'Add Permission'. Here you can select the usergroup 'guests' in the first dropdown, and select the permission 'no access' in the second dropdown.
You can then do the same for members by adding another permission and choosing 'members' from the first dropdown, and 'access' from the second.
You can do the same for the 'guests forum', but in this case both usergroups want the permission 'access'.
This will basically make it so members can view all forums, but guests are restricted to the 'guests' forum. This is just a basic example on setting up privacy, and although it might look daunting it should only take 20 minutes or so to set up, and once you have experience with it, you can start working with more usergroups and permission levels.
Ref post #6
It's hard to recommend which plugins you would find most useful as it's different for everyone and as Andy has pointed out, you haven't really given us an idea of what you want to be able to do / control. Things like how many users you have / expect to have, and what you are using your forum for really dictate what plugins you will find most useful, although a few basic plugins that might help you get started are:
'Admin Bar - Post Control' - Invaluable really - Only displaying to admins it adds a control to the top of the forum itself which allows you to monitor every new post made on the forum. When the admin bar is open you can view posts without having to visit threads. There are a few controls to reply, mark as read, delete etc.. Also the admin bar offers Akismet support (spam plugin) if you run that on your WP site. More info.
'User Warnings and Suspensions' - This plugin is really useful if you want a little more control over undesirable users / posts. More info.
'Forum Post Captcha' - Really useful spam prevention plugin, adds a drag and drop captcha which can't really be beaten! You can add it to the registration page to, to deal with spam signups. More info.
'Report Post to Admins' - Again really if you like the idea of having a little more control over what goes on, this plugin will allow users to report posts directly to you. More info.
'Subscriptions - Topic and Forum' - Pretty useful for most forums.. Simply allows users to subscribe to topics or entire forums and receive email updates upon replies. You can customise this plugin through the WP admin - see Forum > Components > Subscriptions. More Info.
'Preview Forum Posts' - Another invaluable one, adds a 'Preview' button when making posts. Unless it's just a quick reply most people like to preview their posts before they submit.
'Private Messaging' - Does what it says basically! Pretty useful for people to get in contact with you as an admin if you think that would be something you'd find useful, if not other members have the option to privately talk to each other. You can restrict the use of the PM system through permissions, and also through the Private Messaging tab that will appear in your WP forum page once the plugin has been activated. More info.
There are others that are incredibly useful, I've just tried to pick out the ones that will help you keep the forum clean / up to date / spam free.
Hope this helps!
Ike,
Thank you. That was helpful. I had already set the user restrictions to members only having access. For now, this is a small group and we want total privacy without others having access. Maybe the first post idea would work. I just can't tell if those without the restricted access are able to see the site. Also, I want to approve those who join. This particular forum will not be open to the public.
I'm still confused about how to know whether someone has registered (see question above). Sorry I would have replied all in one but I didn't see your answer at first.
Thank you for any feedback. I thought this was going to be plug and play without a significant learning curve. So I guess I was wrong, which is a bummer. But thank you for the encouragement.
Tina
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Yellow Swordfish said
The forum does NOT rely on another plugin to be private and that is not what I said, I said that if you need to control and approve site registrations then you would need a plugin for that. And that has, as I said, nothing to do with the forum. That is under the control of WordPress.We have many, many users who have private forums - some part private. And on this forum here there are some forums you can not see which are dedicated to the SP team members. One of the main strengths of SP is exactly that - the granular and effective permission control.
And as you have not said what options you have 'installed that do not work' I can't really help or give advice. I can only answer the questions you have asked.
What plugins might be useful is a difficult question as it really odes depend on what your forum is for and how it will be used. I would recommend the tinyMCE editor. And if you are planning on allowing your users to use Gravatars I would recommend the gravatar cache plugin as that will speed operations up quite a not.
Probably the most popular after that is the Subscriptions plugin that allows your users to subscribe to forums and/or topics and receive notifications when new posts arrive.
Now I am not sure why in this forum I am no longer seeing a "reply to post" option, rather than quote, but anyway.
Here's what I do not understand. If I can restrict user permissions, where a member is the only one who can see some forums, BUT anyone can become a member, how is that helping me? This is only a WordPress issue bc it is not built into the forum software, as surely it could be? Unless I am misunderstanding something, limiting users to varying levels of access is meaningless unless you can also restrict users.
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This is only a WordPress issue bc it is not built into the forum software,
Let's start at the beginning. You say you are experienced in WordPress. If that is the case then you will know that WordPress itself does very little. The bulk of functionality is added with plugins. Simple:Press is a forum plugin for WordPress. That is what it is.
Why on earth would we want to spend weeks creating registration/membership control when (a) the basics are built into WordPress itself which will ALWAYS ultimately handle user registration, login etc., and (b) there are some excellent membership plugins already available? This is what the WordPress plugin system is all about. If you want a standalone forum that has all of those extras built in to the one application then you need to abandon WordPress and go use phpBB, Simple Machines or vBulletin.
As to membership plugins I do not believe I suggested any. I mentioned the 'Theme my Login' plugin simply because I know it allows you to approve new members via email before they can access the website - which is what you asked for. I believe I also implied that it was an entry level plugin. On this site we use 'WishList Member' which is quite possibly the most comprehensive one available. There are several others in the middle but I have had no personal experience of any of them.
Exactly the same thing applies to email production. Simple:Press does not send emails. WordPress sends out emails. When Simple:Press needs to send an email (and user registration is NOT one of them of course) then we pass the details off to the WordPress email functions to process. Sadly, as a quick trip to the WP support forums will attest, WP is notoriously bad at getting this right. For those people with a problem sending WordPress emails (and incidentally we have that issue on our website as well) we usually recommend a plugin named HGK SMTP but only after double checking all of the email settings both in WP and in SP just to make sure they are correct.
A forum is actually a rather complex application. We have deliberately positioned Simple:Press - as far as WP forum plugins go - towards those users that want to be able to run private or semi-private forums, who want a high level of control of what they want their users to be able to do and who demand a high level of functionality and customisation opportunities. And like life itself, what you get out it is in proportion to what you put in to it. If you want 'plug and play' and something more basic that needs very little setting up then perhaps the bbPress plugin would be a good option.
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YELLOW
SWORDFISH
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Well I think the plug-in has many good features. I am an experienced WordPress user (have built over 100 sites and taken a course). I never utilize the feature allowing others to sign into my site. Obviously I understand that this is a plug-in, but the community is not private without the use of another plug-in. I think that is a significant and frustrating limitation. If guests with certain user levels are able to register, then what is the point of having the limited access? There is complete access for anyone who wants to register, which is the opposite of privacy.
I do not want to switch to another now that I have paid for this one. The Theme My Plug-in options were not easy to use. They had instructions that were not user friendly (none related to membership sign on). I have used many plug-ins and believe I know the difference.
Can you suggest a plug-in that is easy to use involving membership?
What email settings do I need to check to verify why this person would not receive an email? I'm assuming I have not set something properly, but I do not know what that is.
Thank you.
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This is particularly true given that you advertise that Simple Press allows private communities, which it does not, without using another plug-in.
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Tina Willis said
This is particularly true given that you advertise that Simple Press allows private communities, which it does not, without using another plug-in.
Yes it does. Please, please for the last time.
If you want to check users before they are allowed on your website you need some sort of plugin. You have repeatedly said you want to do this.
If you do not want any Tom, Dick or Harry to register on your website you need a plugin. You have repeatedly said you want to do this.
If you do NOT want the above then fine - you don't need a plugin and Simple:Press can ensure your forums are as private as you want. And now I am just repeating myself over and over and over again.
As I have already said I have no personal experience of other membership plugins.
For email check (1) that your own email set in WordPress is correct. (2) that your email server recognises the domain you are sending from.
Also WordPress sends ALL of the emails out as coming from 'WordPress'. Most users do not like this so (3) on the forum admin > options > email settings we have set up overrides that can be used instead. WordPress has filters for these. Ensure they are set correctly. If all else fails join the club. But the plugin recommended does the trick for us and other users we have talked to.
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YELLOW
SWORDFISH
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As I keep repeating, if anyone can register, then the site is not private.
Since you advertise the forum has this functionality, that is misleading.
That would be like saying this plug in offers pop-ups, then telling me I need a plug-in for pop ups.
This isn't about my email settings, another user has tried to register, been told he would receive an email, and not received it. I think he is experienced enough to know how to receive emails if they are sent.
So I guess I have a non-private forum unless and until I find and learn another plug-in for membership. I just tried one that is simple, but requires me either to choose private for *each* page or *each* category. That is unworkable with this plug-in. That also might be the reason for no emails (the fact that I have a membership plug-in now installed per your instructions). I have no idea. That's why the lack of integration is not user-friendly. I'm willing to learn. I don't see anyone teaching me how to make this private, which is what you advertise.
How do I make this private, so that no one on planet Earth can view the forum without my approval? If I can't do that, how is this plug-in private? It isn't.
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