BuddyPress.org

@jetlej as far as I know Admin can do that by default. Personally as a website owner I would want that functionality to be sure that my members were behaving themselves.

@jetlej are you logged in as ‘admin’? That would explain it as admin has access rights to member’s private messages. Try setting up a dummy user with subscriber access rights. You’ll most probably not be able to read the messages.

@jetlej which theme are you using?

@jetlej does it happen with the user role editor plugin deactivated?

I think you might be able to do something like this in functions.php

function absolute_message_sent_date() {
    global $thread_template;
    return $thread_template->message->date_sent
}

Then this will go straight into your single.php template

echo absolute_message_sent_date();

groups can be used as seminars
members directory can be attendees
profiles can be bios
There is a docs plugin to shsre files
BP has private messaging
Posting to FB and twitter might require custom code. Try BuddyStream plugin

@jiminps
Even though the first question deals with bbPress the answer is it depends on what you mean by capabilities. You can can assign user roles like keymaster, moderator, participant, spectator, or blocked.
Yes, private messages can be sent and received. If you only want messages to be sent between a member and the admin that would require use of a plugin, or some custom code but it can be done!
Hope that answers your questions!

I had the same problem and was hunting for a solution only yesterday. After much searching and trying various plugins (some VERY old and inoperative) I found this very new one:

Private BP Pages

Just use that text as the search text for ‘Add New’ from your WP plugins page.

See my review here

https://wordpress.org/support/view/plugin-reviews/private-bp-pages

The edit I mention is important. Seems to work fine but I need to do more testing.

Update: bbPress 2.4.1 does not fix the bug!

@life1134
You could use:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/private-community-for-bp-lite/
and in the plugins settings use wp-login.php as the redirect.

I experienced this exact same problem on a site I recently upgraded from an older version of buddypress/bbpress. Private group replies were available in users’ activity stream to non-logged in users even. I turned off all plugins with no affect.

@gizmophotos
https://wordpress.org/plugins/private-community-for-bp-lite/

@chur74
Don’t you suppose that would be a clear violation of any privacy policy?
This could probably be done but ethically I think it is a bad idea. You could probably hire a developer that could do this for you, but I would warn of the legalities involved. “Just because you own a business does not give you the right to put hidden cameras in the bath room and watch.” I hope you see my point! Anyway, good luck!

@chur74
Can you be more clear of what your requirement is please?

@cogden-1
Try this plugin I made. This only makes BuddyPress and bbPress private.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/private-bp-pages/
Also make sure you read the FAQ first:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/private-bp-pages/faq/
Make sure you clear the previous code out of bp-custom.php that you posted above!