Infinite spinner /about on private forum when logged out

bug
#1

When I’m logged out of a private Discourse forum, I can still view /faq (or /guidelines), /tos, and /privacy. Is it the intended behavior for non-members to be able to view such pages for a private forum? It seems questionable to make these pages public. Some private forums may still want to keep their guidelines private.

Second, those three pages link to /about (especially the /faq page which has multiple links to /about), but when I click to visit /about while logged out, I get an infinite spinner page that never finishes loading. Perhaps these links should redirect back to the home page, inviting people to log in, or the About links could be removed for a private forum. This /about page shouldn’t be displayed for non-members since then it would reveal some forum stats.

2 Likes
#2

Hmm, not sure, @techAPJ could you have a look?

1 Like
#3

This has come up before:
https://meta.discourse.org/t/viewing-privacy-policy-without-logging-in/40306?u=jomaxro

4 Likes
#4

I can edit /faq to remove the links to /about in the body text, but is there a way to remove the About link from the menu at the top of /faq, /tos, and /privacy? Seems iffy to show that link in the menu if the page can’t be visited by logged out users.

For some reason I’m now seeing the /about page redirect to the login page, even though I haven’t changed anything. Can’t seem to reproduce the infinite spinner I was getting, though it was happening repeatedly earlier. Correction: It’s still happening intermittently, and it happens in multiple browsers. And another tester is seeing bizarre redirections from /about to different URLs.

#5

There is currently no logic/code in place that indicates that those 3 pages should not be shown for private (login required) forum. So yes, it’s the intended behavior.

I can repro this, it’s a valid bug. I will fix this so /about link will not be visible on header for private forum. And, going to /about link directly will redirect anonymous user to login page.

4 Likes
#6

Done via:

Thanks for reporting this issue @Steve_Pavlina :thumbsup:

4 Likes
#9

@codinghorror suggested that FAQ/Guidelines page should be hidden from anonymous users for private forums. That is now done via:

5 Likes
Guidelines Static page not displaying when it should
#10