BuddyPress.org

I think what you’re saying is that, for example, in Forum posts: if you’re a logged in member of a private/hidden group, you should see private/hidden posts in the overall Forum Index, and obviously, nonmembers would see the same Index minus the private posts. I agree that this seems like it should be the logical default in BP. On my site, keeping private/hidden posts it creates a “parallel universe” effect where users of private/hidden forums have to visit a special place to see that protected content. As a result, private/hidden forums get less usage than they should.

I have no idea if this is planned for BuddyPress, but I would put in a strong vote for it. In the meantime, it could be handled by a plugin or rewrite of code.

It really depends what you mean by “customization”. If you mean that each group should be able to load its own background/header/color scheme, then it’s definitely possible. I don’t know of a plugin that does it, but it wouldn’t be all that hard to write something that allowed group admins to switch between a number of admin-selected color schemes, or to upload images in addition to the avatar.

Is there some other meaning of “custom network” that I’m missing out on here? Something that “private/hidden” doesn’t already cover?

I mean it’s not possible to have totally separate BP networks running on separate subdomains but using the same installation of BuddyPress.

If you take my suggestion, you can make groups either Private or Hidden. If a group is private, the only people who are able to read or contribute to the group are those who have either had a membership request accepted, or those who have been invited. Hidden groups are the same, but they don’t show up in group directories, and thus it’s impossible to request membership to them – you can only join by being invited.

In this way, the activity that happens in a hidden group is only viewable by members of that group. Users of the site, however, could be members of multiple groups, and could interact with each other outside of those groups, through the profile pages and private messaging (assuming that you enable these features). From my point of view, this is the best of both worlds.

Progress is good. There are two more bugs to figure out and then a little new CSS to add and then I’ll set it free for testing. I don’t want to say when that will be as I’ve missed a few of my self-imposed deadlines, but I do look to get it out very soon so that it can be tested with BP 1.2.4 in anticipation of the big impending WP 3.0 / BP 1.3 release.

I appreciate the offer of assistance. Several people have graciously done so. Once this version is out, I would love to see a group of people begin to help support and update it. It is too important of a component to let a single person control. At that point, I’ll convert my private repository over to an Open Source repository for those involved.

You could probably use this snippet in your theme’s functions.php file:

https://buddypress.org/forums/topic/how-to-make-a-private-community/page/2#post-44729

If you attempt to access the site and you’re not logged in, you will be redirected to the register page.

@Mike, thought my post was deleted. Just edited. Sorry Andy!

FYI – I really respect all the work you put into BP Andy and others. I submit patches whenever I find something. I can’t speak for WPMU DEV but our members are very happy to have the instant support we provide and always updated plugins/themes.

People who are trying to put together a professional site see the worth in paying a relatively small fee (compared to hiring a private dev) to get support and plugins they can depend on not to break with each WP/BP update. Professional work costs money, and people who want it know that. Nothing wrong with giving people that options.

It furthers BP and it’s popularity even more!

Here’s what I’m thinking in terms of user stories, assuming 2 groups (A and :

“I’m a user of Group A, so on the main blog, I see all Posts tagged A. I don’t see Posts tagged B.”

“I’m a user of Group B, so on the main blog, I see all Posts tagged B. I don’t see Posts tagged A.”

“I’m a user of Groups A and B, so on the main blog, I see all Posts tagged A and B.”

It will use blog tags, not blog categories.

It will support normal, private, and hidden forum types.

Assuming a post is tagged with A and B, the permissions are as expected:

“I’m a member of group A. I can see the post tagged A and B.”

“I’m a member of group B. I can see the post tagged A and B.”

I never said you shouldn’t optimize your site for SEO purposes. I just meant, that on most social sites it’s less important. Obviously there are exceptions. Now, when you add privacy control into the mix, basically making portions of your site private or semi-private, SEO will be even less important. That’s why I said you should mainly concentrate on the public pages (which will be the blog pages for most setups).

I’m not able to reproduce this. Did either of you create a child theme, or did you just customize the default theme?

Having same problem with http://our.windowfarms.org

Seems like a serious bug