bbPress.org

[WORK-AROUND]

I used the WP plugin ‘User Role Editor’ (WP not bbp plugin)

https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/user-role-editor/

to add some capabilities to the ‘forum participant’ role.

These seem to be the extra capabilities required:

[v] read_hidden_forums

[v] read_private_forums

[v] read_private_replies

[v] read_private_topics

If set up without the ‘read_hidden_forums’ capability, forums are visible, but not topics. I don’t know if this is real or because I have been switching the hidden/private setting for the forum during testing.

I have done some basic testing and access/posting/replies/create topic/uploads/subscribe all seem to work OK.

I guess this could be done simply via some code in functions.php, but I don’t have the time to investigate.