Private Replies

Giving forum members ability to post new reply in private for only keymasters (and maybe moderators) to be able to read and reply, can be very useful in support forums where users can post sensitive information.

This feature supports forum override settings and you can disable support for private replies in any forum.

Settings

You can limit the availability of private replies by user role, or even visitors.

If visitor (not-logged in) creates private reply, that visitor will not be able to read that reply, because there is no sure way to identify that anonymous post or user.

Other options include allowing moderators access to private topics (by default, private topics can be accessed by topic author and keymasters), you can have checkbox pre-checked, and you can select form location to show the checkbox, support for threaded replies and hiding replies from thread using CSS/JS.

Using Private Replies

With Private Replies, few things will change in bbPress forums:

• If enabled and available based on forum settings, checkbox Set this as private reply will be added to the reply new and edit forms.
• Topics with private replies will show Crossed Eye icon in the list of topics.
• If you open private reply, if you can’t view it, it will show message about it, and not the content.
• On admin side, Replies panel will show Private Topic flg to indicate private replies.