xiasummer is using Discourse as a private notebook, restricting access to logged-in users only (invited accounts), and hiding categories from non-moderators (only themselves). They’re concerned after noticing anonymous pageviews in analytics, fearing their private content might be exposed. hutchinsfairy suggests testing incognito mode to simulate anonymous access. pfaffman confirms that requiring login and disabling public account creation should prevent unauthorized viewing — and xiasummer confirms they’ve done this, seeing only the forum logo when not logged in. pfaffman reassures them this is the desired behavior and suggests creating a test user to verify permissions. xiasummer shares screenshots showing anonymous view counts and asks why they appear if no one can access content. Falco clarifies that anonymous pageviews typically occur when someone (often the owner) visits the login page — it doesn’t mean content is exposed. In short: private setup is working correctly; anonymous views are harmless login-page hits.
I really like the discourse system. So I made a small discourse forum only for my own use. And it has only one user (Me) and forbiddens any viewing without an account. I write my personal notes there so I’m really don’t want others to read.
Also I have some hidden categories that only the moderator can view (That’s only me).
But when I see the basics about the discourse system, I found there are a few anonymous viewing and some unlogged in viewing. Is is right? Will my secrets be revealed?
Put your browser into incognito mode (or equivalent) and you should be able to see what an anonymous user sees.
Did you require login and disable new account creation?
yes, I had. Only by invitation and requires login to read anything.
I tried not logging in, can only see the logo of the forum.
Isn’t that what you wanted?
Perhaps you want to make a normal user account. It will see only the categories that it has permission to read.
Hi, yes that is what I wanted. I don’t want any one read my own discourse as a notebook of mine.
But Why I see
The anonymous view is
I’m wondering why there is anonymous viewers?
When someone hits your Login page (yourself probably) it counts as one anon pageview.