Member privacy on a support-type forum

[sef1268]

I’m working on a new forum called ‘The Spouse Caregivers Space.' The focus is on providing a safe place for spouse caregivers to talk about the challenges of caring for their ill/disabled husband/wife/significant other, while also having non-related boards where we can talk about other topics (the idea being, we can all use a break from it once in a while).

The forum doesn’t have any members yet, but I have been talking to several people from other sites who are interested in joining once I have it officially rolled out. One person remarked that I need to be sensitive to the fact that many spouses join groups like this “on the sly,” because their ill spouse may not be supportive of their well-husband/-wife/-SO venting to strangers about their situation. I did plan to lock-down the “What’s On Your Mind?” board so that only members can view those topics [which will be a place to vent/ask for advice from other caregivers], but I’m wondering if I need to do more to protect member privacy.

I know that I can shut the board down to guests entirely (which I’d rather not do---especially in the early stages of trying to get the forum going), but is there anything else you can suggest to help protect member privacy? I can’t exactly disguise the fact that it’s a support forum for spouses, but I’m trying to think of ways of being a little more subtle about it (other sites, such as AARP, tend to bury their forums where they aren’t quite so obvious---not necessarily by design, but because the forums are just a small part of overall content and not ‘front and center’).

Any thoughts/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Mandoli]

Who can view the board? Everyone. Who can access the board? Members and Staff.

Guests can see what the board is about (description), but only the members of your forum would be able to see the contents of the boards. If you view a forum as a guest, and the above settings were in place, then you'd see nothing under the "last post" column. You should still be able to see how many threads/posts there are, but you can't see what people are actually posting.

Also, I'd suggest that users make themselves invisible. Only the staff would know that they visited, since they won't show up where it says how many people were online. That way, they're anonymous.

[sef1268]

YES! Perfect; I should have thought of that (changing it so that guests can see the boards but not access any of them). I also like the idea of keeping all users invisible. Is there a plug-in for that, by any chance?

Thanks much!

[Mandoli]

Nov 29, 2017 13:06:32 GMT -8 sef1268 said:

I also like the idea of keeping all users invisible. Is there a plug-in for that, by any chance?

I'm not sure if there is. Best bet is that you go to the Request a Plugin part of Support, they'll tell you if this is possible.

[sef1268]

Okay, I will post there -- thanks.

One other thing:  I went ahead and locked down the boards so that guests can see all of the boards/categories but can't access them. I like it. However, is there a way to change the default message so that, if a guest clicks on a category, he/she will receive a message other than "oops! error!....you do not have permission..." ?  I'd like for it to say, "To protect the privacy of our members, please log in or register to access this board."  Or words to that effect. 


Thanks again!

[Mandoli]

To be honest, I don't know if that's possible. I haven't toyed with a board's settings. That's a question for the staff here.

[sef1268]

Okay, thanks.