Add Private Forum Communities with Invitations, Branding, and Group-Style Presentation
Type: Enhancement
Area: Forums / Moderation / Community Features / Forum Branding
Current Behavior:
Forums currently function as standard discussion areas and do not support hidden or invite-only access, moderator-controlled membership invitations, or forum-specific visual branding such as cover images and icons.
Requested Change:
Create a unified feature that allows selected forums to function as private, branded communities within or alongside the existing message forum system.
Requested capabilities include:
- Allow moderators to designate specific forums as hidden or invite-only
- Provide a moderator-controlled invitation system so moderators can invite members to join restricted forums
- Limit visibility and access to hidden forums so they are only available to authorized members
- Allow moderators to assign a cover image and page icon for each forum
- Create default forum covers and page icons that will be used when a moderator has not defined custom branding
- Display the forum cover and icon prominently at the top of the forum page
The overall experience should feel similar to a Facebook Group or Facebook Page, while still fitting naturally into the 6502ish forum ecosystem. The feature may be implemented as an extension of the current forum system or as a closely integrated parallel community model, provided the user experience remains consistent and manageable.
Expected Outcome:
Moderators can create branded private communities with controlled membership, and users will have a more modern, community-oriented forum experience with clear visual identity and restricted access where appropriate.
Notes:
This feature should be designed as a cohesive system rather than a collection of unrelated options. Branding, privacy controls, invitations, and forum presentation should work together as part of a single community-focused feature set.
. __ ____ ___ ____ _ _
/ /_| ___| / _ \___ \(_)___| |__
| '_ \___ \| | | |__) | / __| '_ \
| (_) |__) | |_| / __/| \__ \ | | |
\___/____/ \___/_____|_|___/_| |_|
D2sk - Sysop