The View Any Topic Permission Mod adds an additional permission that can be applied to any board.  When enabled (the default setting), the board will act as normal.  That is, the user group can 'view any topic'.  When disabled, users in that group will only be able to see topics in that board that they started (i.e. their own topics), or topics that have been stickied.

To use the permission, go to Admin->Permissions.  Click Settings.  Ensure the "Enable advanced by-board permissions" is checked.  Next, go to Admin->Permissions.  Click Permissions by Board.  Select the "Local" option next to the board of your choice.  Select the board name.  Hit the Modify button for the user group whose permissions you want to alter.  Underneath the Topics category there should be a new permission called "View Any Topic".

As an example.  I have a forum that contains two boards, General and Personal Support.  The General board acts as normal, while the Personal Support board utilizes the permission.  Regular Members have the View Any Topic permission disabled within the Personal Support board.  Moderators, Administrators, and the "Problem Solvers" user group have the permission enabled in all boards.  This ensures that Regular Members can only see their own topics within the Personal Support board, while the other user groups can see and respond to all topics.

Topics are hidden when viewing the board, 'Members Last Posts', 'Recent Posts', board 'Statistics', "Unread posts since last visist", when using the 'Search' page and when viewing the RSS feed.  Topics are blocked if a member attempts to directly access them.

There are a few forum features that should be disabled for boards affected by the permission: Topic/Post Counting, Notifications and Announcements.

ViewAnyTopicPermission.zip 84.56 KB

Manual installation info 1.1.2 1.1.3 1.1.4