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Topic: Link or forum section visible only to certain group of users (Read 2105 times) previous topic - next topic
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Link or forum section visible only to certain group of users

Hello Community!

Thanks for that interesting product first of all  :)

So, my question is in the Subject: how to make link in the user's post or entire section of forum accessible to certain user's (group of users) only?
In other words I need to hide some link under the spoiler or make some section of forum visible to specified members, might be via the authorization.

Re: Link or forum section visible only to certain group of users

Reply #1 –

Hi and welcome to elkarte!

As far as I know, you can't set permissions for spoiler, and you can't choose which membergroups can view links.  It requires custom coding. There is an add-on that only hides links for guests.

With permission you can set an entire board to only some membergroups.

Re: Link or forum section visible only to certain group of users

Reply #2 –

QuoteThere is an add-on that only hides links for guests.
Would you like to give me a link to that addon, please?   O:-)

Did you mean this module https://addons.elkarte.net/bbc/Spoiler-Modern.html ?

Re: Link or forum section visible only to certain group of users

Reply #4 –

I see,  thanks!
Anyway I'll try to rewrite the plugin in such way to hide link for users having karma less or equal certain value not only the guest user themself.

Re: Link or forum section visible only to certain group of users

Reply #5 –

My experience of foruming is that such things tend to be very divisive and counter-productive to forum communities.

Blocking off content to people with lower karma doesn't help them become better contributors - all it does is produce cliques within the community where they will inevitably just up-vote each other to keep their own ratings high, and newer contributors can't get in easily. Plus it becomes all too easy for someone to be hounded out of a community if content they previously had access to is hidden after a campaign of downvoting.

Re: Link or forum section visible only to certain group of users

Reply #6 –

Quote from: Arantor – My experience of foruming is that such things tend to be very divisive and counter-productive to forum communities.

Blocking off content to people with lower karma doesn't help them become better contributors - all it does is produce cliques within the community where they will inevitably just up-vote each other to keep their own ratings high, and newer contributors can't get in easily. Plus it becomes all too easy for someone to be hounded out of a community if content they previously had access to is hidden after a campaign of downvoting.
One way or athother I need to resctict access to some content links to files until the user paid the price of someone's work.
In your opinion what is the best method to implement such feature?

Re: Link or forum section visible only to certain group of users

Reply #7 –

Simple approach is assigning board access to allowed group. This is a default feature.

Re: Link or forum section visible only to certain group of users

Reply #8 –

Quote from: Twissell –
One way or athother I need to resctict access to some content links to files until the user paid the price of someone's work.
In your opinion what is the best method to implement such feature?

If it's just restricting access to the files, and the links are to a location on your server, another option is to move the file location to a restricted subfolder. Auth access per individual user-name/password.
Using ahrasis approach, create a new board (or sub-board), move the post(s) containing the links,to the new board and set permissions for that board to a unique group.
If the user has already downloaded the files, though, nothing you can do.
Last Edit: March 22, 2021, 10:48:55 am by Steeley
// Deep inside every dilemma lies a solution that involves explosives //

Re: Link or forum section visible only to certain group of users

Reply #9 –

Thanks a lot to all topic's participants, I appreciate your help, really  :)
QuoteIf it's just restricting access to the files, and the links are to a location on your server, another option is to move the file location to a restricted subfolder. Auth access per individual user-name/password.

Did you mean something like a good old Basic HTTP Auth on the side of the webserver installed?

Re: Link or forum section visible only to certain group of users

Reply #10 –

BTW is PosgreSQL recommended SQL engine for ElkArte?

Re: Link or forum section visible only to certain group of users

Reply #11 –

Quote from: Twissell – BTW is PosgreSQL recommended SQL engine for Elkarte?

MySQL is better supported with addons, but both work perfectly well. I use PostgreSQL on my sites.

Re: Link or forum section visible only to certain group of users

Reply #12 –

Quote from: Twissell – Thanks a lot to all topic's participants, I appreciate your help, really  :)
QuoteIf it's just restricting access to the files, and the links are to a location on your server, another option is to move the file location to a restricted subfolder. Auth access per individual user-name/password.

Did you mean something like a good old Basic HTTP Auth on the side of the webserver installed?

Yep -  htaccess and htpasswd  - if you have an admin UI for your server like CPanel, it's called "Directory Privacy".
My forum is actually running behind a "DP Wall". (The website is an educational archive on a unique military unit during the Vietnam war, and has several "restricted areas" only unit members can access, one of which is the discussion forum).

And then I have a few "private boards" set up in ElkArt as well, controlled by group permissions. Users not a member of those special groups don't even know those boards exist.



// Deep inside every dilemma lies a solution that involves explosives //

Re: Link or forum section visible only to certain group of users

Reply #13 –

I currently (as does this site) use MariaDB.  If I was not using that I'd go with Postgre and lastly Mysql .  That's just my path, others will be choose a different one,  which is why all those are supported :D

Re: Link or forum section visible only to certain group of users

Reply #14 –

Hello all!

Yep, I got the points and opinions,
so another newbie's question come to scene: is ElkArte successor of SMF forum engine?
How much it codebase differs from SMF in that case?