The only way I know that would work is to use the Hidden Forum plugin to create a forum called something like Members Only, and then allow anyone with any role (Member, Moderator, Admin, etc.) to see it.
Then you could add topics to it, and only members could see it.
That’s the simplest solution I’m aware of… sorry!
Brad,
I’m confronted with a similar problem (on the ‘Post’ level): Beside visitors (lurkers), I need user categories like VIP or Paying (for content) too.
Where I was able to get an idea how to eventually handle it, was by looking at _ck_’s bb_attachments.php
Put this into capabilities.php just behind the memberblock:
'visitor' => array(
'name' => __('Visitor'),
'capabilities' => array(
'participate' => false,
'read' => true
)),
Then changing her (shipping) setup code in bb_attachments.php to this here:
$bb_attachments['role']['see']="participate"; // minimum role to see list of attachments = read/participate/moderate/administrate
$bb_attachments['role']['inline']="participate"; // add PAID ! minimum role to view inline reduced images = read/participate/moderate/administrate
$bb_attachments['role']['download']="participate"; // add PAID ! minimum role to download original = read/participate/moderate/administrate
$bb_attachments['role']['upload']="moderate"; // minimum role to upload = participate/moderate/administrate (times out with post edit time)
$bb_attachments['role']['delete']="moderate"; // minimum role to delete = read/participate/moderate/administrate
I was able to exclude the ‘Visitor’ from even seeing that there are attachments to a certain post.
Hope that helps.
Addendum: To check a user’s role anywhere in your code use
<?php if (bb_current_user_can('administrate')) { ?> .....
(by replacing administrate by the proper role description)
as proposed here:
http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/page-elements-viewable-only-to-admin
I used the Private Forums plugin for a year or so… it would randomly turn all my private posts public!
Then I checked the comments on that plugin, and a number of other users had reported something similar:
http://bbpress.org/plugins/topic/private-forums/page/4/#post-1621
I don’t recommend using Private Forums for that reason… especially since Hidden Forums does the same thing. I’ve been using that for a year or two now, and have never had any problems.
