Forum URL:http://cattencollege.vforums.co.uk/
Experienced By:Me - just been made an admin of our company's forum
Browser:Firefox
Operating System:Windoze XP

Problem: OK, here we go...
I've had a go at searching, but can't find anyone with a similar query, so apologies if I'm repeating an old one here. We have a staff forum at our college but it's not used much (they're all a bit shy) so I suggested letting the students use it too. If we did this, there are certain sections that we wouldn't want the students to see - they would be staff only. As far as I can tell, the only way of limiting who sees what is by post count, which wouldn't work in this situation (the students would probably have higher post counts that most staff). What I want to do is have 2 categories of user: student and staff, with staff able to see all of the forum but students only able to see their bit. Is this possible?

Cheers people!

Hi,

That is absolutely possible to do using "Member Groups" functionality. A member group is something you have to place a member in - it is not linked to their post count.
(You may need whoever logins with the username "admin" to do this for you or give the "Administrator" user group permission to both "Assign" and "Manage" member groups - they can do this via "Admin -> Modify Member Group").

What you would do is create a new group via "Admin -> Create Member Group". You can give it whatever administration/moderation powers you want but you don't have to give them any (tip: there is an "uncheck all" button in the bottom right to quickly uncheck all staff powers). Click the "Create Member Group" button to save this group.

Next, for each member you want to give access to go to their profile, click "Modify Profile" and then scroll to the section near the bottom called "Member Groups" - tick the box next to the new group you just created and click "Save Changes"

Finally, by using the modify category/board controls you can restrict access to certain sections so that they're only accessible by members of specified member groups (such as the "Administrator" group and the new group you just created).

I hope that is clear. If not, let me know

Excellent!
I'll give that a try and let you know how I get on.
Thanks for the swift reply

Ha!
it says "Member Groups - You do not have permission to access any of these features."

so I guess that means I don't have full admin rights
I'll speak to the powers-that-be. Back soon...

OK here we go....

I now have full admin access and your instructions worked perfectly

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

That's great to hear. And you're very welcome

Do let us know if you have any other queries.