Private post feature

Contribute Feature

AI-generated summary

The discussion revolves around the “Private post feature” in Discourse. user232 suggests introducing a feature that allows users to choose between making their posts public or private, with private posts only visible to the user and staff, and not indexed by Google. merefield points out that this functionality is already possible by placing a topic in a restricted category, which hides it from search engines. However, Moin notes that this would require user intervention, such as sending a personal message to staff. merefield seeks clarification on the scope of “users” in the proposed feature, wondering if private posts would be visible to all registered users or only the user and staff. user232 confirms that private posts should only be visible to the user and staff. Canapin mentions an unofficial plugin that offers a similar feature, but with limitations. user232 emphasizes the importance of giving users the option to make their posts private.

1

I want users to choose if they want their posts hidden/private or public/unprivate.
Hidden does so only the users and staff can see the posts, which also include., No Google Search results from the hidden Post. The users, can choose anytime, also when the Post has been made.

2

If I understand you correctly, this is already possible (and has been for almost the life of Discourse).

That is achieved simply by placing the parent Topic (a Post is part of a Topic) in a Category that is at least restricted by trust_level_0 group.

I do this on one of my sites. It masks these Posts from Google whilst encouraging sign-up as a bonus.

3

In this case the user could send a personal message to the staff group. Otherwise they post in a public category.
But the user has to ask a moderator to make a public topic a personal message or to publish a message

1 Like
4

Can we clarify something?

Each user’s Post can only be seen by staff and that user, or all registered users can see the Posts (including staff)?

You were a bit ambiguous I feel. It depends on your definition of “users”.

1 Like
5

The closest thing that exists is this unofficial plugin:

But it doesn’t do exactly what you want, as the feature is enabled per-topic (all posts in the topic will be hidden).

1 Like
6

Each user’s Post can only be seen by staff and that user

1 Like
7

it would be better if users could pick self