IMPORTANT: Private Forums feature is LIVE

Last year we shared our idea of allowing members creating their own Discussion Space on the site to discuss with their friends and something they have more control. In order to avoid confusing the user with words like Space / Hub etc.. we opted for a more simpler one which we already understand Private Forum. 

So going forward we will have 2 types of Forums namely: Public Forums and Private Forums.

• Public Forum doesn't require users to join the Forum to make a post. This is how we have in the current setup. It continues to work the way we have it currently. DT members moderates the same and is indexable by search engines.
  
  
• Private Forum requires members to join the forum before they can post on the forum. Forum Creator / Manager (moderator) primarily manages this forum. They control who they allow / disallow in their forum. Forum Creator can appoint other joined member as Forum Manager to help them manage that forum. 

Please note the following for the Private Forums:

• India Forums Code of Conduct still applies on all forums and also should not be violating any law. We are soon going to revise our COC so that its simpler and uniform across all forums.
• Even though moderation in Private forum will primarily be the task of Creator / Manager of those forum. Our team would be conducting regular checks to prevent misuse of the platform.
• In the event the creator / managers are absent and reports are going unattended and there are no one to manage that forum we will deactivate that forum.
• Owner / Moderator will have the rights to update the Forum Banner / Forum Avatar (you will understand when you see how its implemented).
• Once the forum reaches a certain member strength and is being managed well (assessed by DT) they can opt to become a Public forum so that they can reach more user. And we will consider the creator / manager for the role of DTs. 
• Parallel forum is not allowed for which there is already a Public forum available. In simpler terms users cannot create a show forum for which already we have created a Public Forum.

Another change:

Moderators and above in the DT would also get the option to create a Public Forum. However in these forums they wont get the option to Add non-DTs as Moderators.

All forums like Moderators / Viewbies etc which are not open for all will be migrated as a Private Forum.


Frequently Asked Questions:

Why we are creating Private Forums?

Currently India Forums has majorly just Show forums and few other forums however as our user base is increasing and members would like to discuss on various topics apart from entertainment with friends or people sharing the same interest and it can be as random as Social Media, Chess, Cooking, Recipes, WhatsApp Jokes, K-Pop, Regional shows etc.. which we are not able to create cause we do not have that much bandwidth to moderate all of them. This also gives the user their own space which can be relatively private

As a Private forum owner can I restrict access to limited people?

Yes. Private forum creator/owner will be able to manage and maintain who are part of the forum. These forums can be Invitation only / Approval Basis / Regular (which doesn't require any approval).

How will we keep a check on such Private forums?

Private forum Creator / Manager needs to ensure our terms of service is adhered to. There would be proper checks and balances to ensure that there is no misuse of this feature. Private Forum can be created by Senior Member or above (with no WL) and can be joined by any member. One member can create maximum of 3 Private Forums. Members can report a Private Forum and we will look into it.

How will other members know about this Private Forum?
Users can invite other members. User can search for forums they want to be part of. We would be featuring  new / trending / popular / active forums throughout the website.

Wont it be difficult to follow these many forums?
We are making a separate section on Homepage and Forum page to highlight Private forums. Users can check new topics from the Private forums they have joined easily on /forum page. 

Anyone can create a new Private Forum?
Since we are just starting out we are limiting creation of new forums for Senior Member and above. As this gives some assurance that they have been around and knows how our forum works.

Can I create a forum on Bigg Boss or other show which already has a Public forum?
Sorry parallel forums would not be allowed as this would make the discussions more scattered.

Can I create a private forum for discussions among my forum friends group? 
Yes you can create a private forum and invite users to it.

Can we check the discussion topics before Joining the forum?
Well it depends on the permission set by the Creator for that forum. Normally members would be able to check the topics. Incase its a Invite only / Approval based, members will have to join the forum before they can view / post in that forum.

And can the creator lock the forum?
Once it has served its purpose creator can lock the forum so that there is no new activity in it and gets archived.

Will this Private Forum be indexed by search engines?

No. This is why we are calling it Private forums as it wont be viewable to outside world (non-members).

I will add more FAQs once we get some interesting questions from you guys.

Regards,
Vijay


Here is the old topic where we first shared the idea: 
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/topic/5212634

Keeping space for updates.


19th July 2022:

I am excited to share that we have enabled Private Forums feature. We are monitoring the same at our end to ensure its a smooth rollout.


22nd July 2022:

We have updated the Forum page further:

Now you get the Joined Tab so that you can easily access all the Private forums you have joined.

Another change that we did is that instead of going to each Private forums we can easily access all the last 7 days topic from Forum main page. 

Long term plans:

There are a lot of plans for Private Forums and will give more customisation features to the team managing their forums. Some of the long term ideas we are exploring are:

• Creator can manage the complete look and feel of the forum. Header / Footer / Different Widgets / Color etc. As we want to give more control to them and we work on building the platform and providing the right tools.
• They will also have the option of making a subdomain so that they can access the forum as mynewforum.indiaforums.com and to take it even further we can even offer private domains like for example www.mynewforum.com.
• Ability to add separate pages / blog to their forums.
• Add analytics so that Creators / Managers can view how they are doing and which area they can improve.
  
• Forum / Topic Suggestions using Machine Learning

This new addition to our site has a huge potential and I hope members are able to make the most of it. Do share your feedback / suggestions so that we can improve the same.

Regards,

This private forum idea sounds nice

Do invite me in some private forums

Thank you for this exciting news dear Vijay .

Am sure this idea is going to be super hit . 
The idea of private forums provides space to groups of members who do not wish to share their discussions with others/publicly 

I have lots of appreciation for the technicians who are working behind the scenes to make this possible. 

This sounds like a wonderful feature! 

This is going to be such an amazing feature! looking forward to it!

Such an amazing news  looking forward to it 

We have already finished 80% of the coding for this. We are hoping to launch it by end of next week.

Cheers,