Heliosurge seeks guidance on hiding the Like button for users not part of specific groups in public categories, and decorating the Topic Author’s posts to identify them as OP.
Canapin suggests using CSS to hide the Like button based on user groups, but notes that a plugin would be required to prevent users from liking posts. They also cross-link a related topic for decorating the Topic Author.
Stephen provides a CSS code to decorate responses by the OP, which Heliosurge finds working but wants to move the decoration after the name or add space between the decoration and name.
Canapin notes that the code’s default behavior is to display the decoration after the name, but this may vary depending on the forum’s HTML structure and enabled features.
Heliosurge mentions using Post Badges, National Flags, and User Notes plugins, and wonders if these might interfere with the decoration’s position. They also consider adding a border around the OP’s name as an alternative.
You can hide the like button with CSS, but that won’t prevent users from liking posts (a plugin would be required to ensure that), if they figure out how to un-hide the button for example.
I suppose the easiest way would be using CSS Classes for Current User's Groups which adds the current user groups to the body classes, then use CSS such as: