Possible to make entire board private?

[montanamom]

Is it possible to make an entire board private? Wanting to switch from EZ Board Member By Approval Only to our own site and board.

Example, EZ Board has a function that makes the entire contents of the entire board private (MBA). That you have to be a registered user to go anywhere. And all applicants have to be approved. An unregistered person will see nothing but an 'apply' to the board page, and NO information about the board whatsoever.

Does Vbulletin support that at all? If not, any suggestions? I have been looking all over for this function!

ETA: I realize I can make forums private, but that still leaves the member list hanging out there....as well as the board itself. I want it to be 'invisible' to all but approved members.

[Floris]

Yes, you can require usergroups to only see certain forums, setting it 'can view forum' to 'no', will prevent this.

Yes, you can setup that users have to be moderated after registration. You can also turn off registration if you want to add them manually.

[Floris]

Practical Examples of Permission Schemes

The section will cover a few examples of things commonly done with vBulletin’s permission system.

Links from this section:

An Announcement Forum
A Private Forum
Registration-Required Board

[montanamom]

I don't want them moderated after approval.

Say my board is www.myprivateboard.com/forum

What would someone see going there if they weren't a member? An application box? Or would they see my board and the member list?

Thanks for the fast response!

[Floris]

Ok, I misread that; I thought you wanted to moderate your registrations.

If you set your permissions for the usergroup 'unregistered / not logged in' to 'NO' for " can view forum " they will see a 'permission denied' page with a user/pass login, and a link to register.

You can set per usergroup which forums they are allowed to see and not.

[montanamom]

But will non-registered users be able to see the members list, or FAQ, or User CP, Calendar, etc. at the top? Will they be able to see ANYTHING about the board without registering?

[Floris]

They probably see the header and footer, and the register button, and nothing more, on any page.

Goto the usergroup manager and click on the unregistered usergroup, then set everything to no - then log out of your forum and browse it as unregistered (as a guest, not logged in) and check it all if you want, you should get permission denied on every page but register.

[montanamom]

I can't do that! I haven't bought the product yet. Sorry! I need to be sure it can do this before I purchase it. As, if it can't....I don't want to buy it.

[montanamom]

Is there perhaps someone WITH a private board set up that could e-mail the link to their board? Just for me to look at as a non-registered member so I can see what a non-registered member would see?

[Floris]

I invite you to try our real-time live-full-admin vBulletin demo:

http://www.vBulletin.com/admindemo

[montanamom]

Thanks, checking that out was helpful!

I hate to seem dense though, but when I am 'logged out' there. I can still see member list & FAQ. Is that how it will be on my board? Or am I missing a setting to turn that to registered members only? If it's not possible, that won't work for my needs.

Back to my original question, I need for users to have to log in before seeing ANYTHING identifying about the forum. Is that possible with VBulletin?

[Wayne Luke]

What you want is possible. You can simply set the "Not Logged In/ Unregistered" usergroup's permissions to no to remove those features from them. The default settings do not restrict those permissions.

[montanamom]

THANK YOU!!!!!!! I'm sorry if I wasn't asking in the correct lingo You'll have to forgive me for that one!

Off to buy now

[Floris]

Wayne didn't say anything different from what I said twice already

But I am glad you got things sorted.

[montanamom]

Thanks! I just wasn't understanding until after I saw the demo

I'm all intalled and I 'think' it's working well.

Thank you for all the suggestions and help!!!