Private (clan) forums

[AfterWorldForum]

Hi,

Been trying to search, but without much luck, so I figured I'd try my luck here.

I run two gaming forums, and would like to offer my users private forums for their clans/guilds. I figured the easiest way to set this up is creating them along with a seperate usergroup for that forum and denying access to everyone except admins and that usergroup.

However, I'm worried that with people switching back and forth, I'll get a fulltime job out of keeping track of who goes where, so I'd prefer outsourcing that functionality to the individuals in the clan/guilds.

How would I be able to allow this to be done, without requiring extensive administrative effort, and without enabling these people to see more than I want them to see? (I.e. just the ability to add or deny users from their specific subforum rather than all forums).

I also tried searching on vb.Org, but so far have not managed to find a way to easily set this up. Any pointers would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Peter

[ENF]

Create Public user groups. Assign the leader of each guild/clan as the leader of their own group and they can approve or reject people's join requests. The leaders can check join request via their User Control Panel.

For a user to join, they view the "Public User groups" - select which one they want to join and then the leader that you assigned to that group can approve or reject their application.

The only small problem is that they could join multiple groups and those leaders would have check that person's member status to see which groups they are or are not a member of.

You as the owner, only have to worry about changing the leader of each of the groups.

Just a suggestion. We do this on a gaming site already and it works fairly well.

[AfterWorldForum]

Thanks for the suggestion. I do have usergroups enabled, but this is more about a private subforum where individual societies can do what they want.

I'm not convinced the groups would allow for completely private conversations, or where they can share stuff that cannot be seen by others on the forum.

I'll admit I never really saw the sense in social groups, and never got involved in them in any of the forums I attend myself, so my experience with them is rather limited.

[ENF]

If you set those specific forums to "Deny All" and the just enable the target group for that specific forum, no one that is not a member of that group will be able to see inside. You can hide it so that people don't even know that it exists.

You can even remove your admins from seeing the forum, VB's rules can be really tight. There was once a 'Guys' forum on the same gaming site I mentioned earlier, one of the female admins didn't like seeing some of the content. So, I removed her ability to view the forum even though she was a 'Super Moderator'. :P

It all depends how much work you want to put into it.

PS: We don't use the social networking parts of VB on any of our active sites. It's enabled, but has seen little to no use. People do love the custom profiles though, that has been popular.

[Reeve of Shinra]

I run a gaming forum with various guilds and it becomes EXTREMELY TEDIOUS after 5 of 6 groups to support and manage. You really do NOT want to go this route. (edit: the problem with ENF's way is that ... you still have to go back and muck around and re-approve certain groups, etc. Its just a major hassle)


The -best- way of handling this is to have them use the Groups option. This allows the user to create the group, change group ownership, and invite or approve members without your involvement or having to manage an extremely ugly and complex set of permissions.

[ZombieAndy]

Thanks for the suggestion. I do have usergroups enabled, but this is more about a private subforum where individual societies can do what they want.

I'm not convinced the groups would allow for completely private conversations, or where they can share stuff that cannot be seen by others on the forum.

I'll admit I never really saw the sense in social groups, and never got involved in them in any of the forums I attend myself, so my experience with them is rather limited.

If im reading your post right (correct me if im wrong) then your confusing public user groups with social groups.. ENF is not talking about social groups but rather an actual usergroup (like registered users, super mods, etc etc) but in the admin cp you make it a public (joinable) usergroup and then your members can apply to join via their own user cp, and you can assign a group leader who can either approve or deny their application.

You then create your private forums and configure it so only admins and group X can view it and there you go, we use a similar system on my forums.

[AfterWorldForum]

If im reading your post right (correct me if im wrong) then your confusing public user groups with social groups.. ENF is not talking about social groups but rather an actual usergroup (like registered users, super mods, etc etc) but in the admin cp you make it a public (joinable) usergroup and then your members can apply to join via their own user cp, and you can assign a group leader who can either approve or deny their application.

You then create your private forums and configure it so only admins and group X can view it and there you go, we use a similar system on my forums.

Actually, I think you nailed it, and my apologies to ENF.

Have some rep, both of you. If this works like it sounds it will work, then absolutely brilliant. It would satisfy my needs, for sure.

Any effects on board performance this way?

[ZombieAndy]

None that ive noticed.

[ENF]

None that ive noticed.

Same. No noted issues have arisen in using the methods described above.

[AfterWorldForum]

Thanks again for the suggestion. I've since found how to make a group public, and how to appoint a group leader. Will the group leader also be able to remove people from the group, or is it only good for approving or denying applications to the group?

[ENF]

Thanks again for the suggestion. I've since found how to make a group public, and how to appoint a group leader. Will the group leader also be able to remove people from the group, or is it only good for approving or denying applications to the group?

The group leaders can also remove members.

User Control Panel → Group Memberships

At the top of that page, you can "List Members" of each group that you are a leader of. On the next page that shows the member list, you can check the box on the far right of each user row. After selecting the users to remove, go down to the bottom and click "Remove Selected User(s)". That will remove their membership to that group and they will no longer have those permissions.