bbPress.org

I’d be grateful for advice about how to set up. It’s a website for an amateur choir. Currently hosted somewhere else and using a web package that is fiddly to update. So I’m looking into moving to WP. We need some pages that only choir members can view and some that are only for the committee. I could do that with something like Members plugin, but I wondered whether a bbPress forum would be a better way as it could be an easy way for the committee to post announcements and have their internal discussions. And be a way of setting up user management and privacy settings.

I’m thinking out loud so apologies if this is muddled. If possible, what I want to happen is:

A. Forums can only be viewed by choir and committee members.
– Link to forum visible to everyone (eg public menu or sidebar widget).
– Non-members not to be able to see topic titles or posts.
– If someone isn’t logged in, they could be taken to a login/registration window or to a page telling them how to login/register.
– Registration has to be approved, so only choir members can register (I think. But see below.)

B. Two forums:
1. Announcements. Committee members can start new topics and reply. Choir members can read but not reply.
2. Private forum for committee.
– Also hidden apart from to committee members? But doesn’t matter if choir members can see the link as long as they can’t see topic titles and messages.
– Committee members can all start new topics and reply.

It would be easier for the committee if they can start new topics and reply from the bbPress front end. So they don’t have to learn how to use WP backend. The less there is for them to learn, the less to put them off using it and asking me to post everyting and the less to go wrong.

I’ve tried a dummy choir member user set as “spectator.” What’s odd is I can start new topics and post replies from that login. I thought spectator couldn’t do that.

If that’s inevitable, another way might be in forum settings to have default registration as participant, then change committee members to moderators (which I’m not sure how to do yet.). Then have the moderators always use WP backend to create new announcements and set to closed.

Can someone advise me what general forum settings I should use and what configuration options for the two forums please?

And how do I make sure new members have to be approved? I think there are some WP new user approve plugins so I can find one of those. But I wondered if it was already something that can be set up in bbPress.

To muddy the waters, I’m waiting to find out how the committee currently organises the newsletter for people interested in coming to concerts. If they do that outside their current web/host setup, fine. But I’m wondering if they’re using the current host’s subscriber interface to send newsletters. In which case I would need another category of WP user. Not sure of titles but something like:
1. Subscriber. No access to the forum but can be sent newsletters. Doesn’t need to be approved.
2. Choir member. Needs to be approved. Can read choir announcements forum. Can’t post.
3. Committee member. Can read and post in both forums. Ideally from bbPress front end.
4. Moderator? Maybe allocate this to one or two key committee members so they can authorise members instead of everything have to come through me.
5. Admin/keymaster/wizzard of everything. Me! And hopefully someone else I can train up later.

Sorry to be asking so much and so much detail. But it’s the detail of trying to set it up that has me lost. New to bbPress so I’m not sure whether this is possible or not. Or whether it is, but with a plugin (which?).

I’m trying to get a dummy site set up to demonstrate to the committee, so need to be sure it is possible.

Thank you.
Clare