What does a visitor who is not signed in see?

Only the public rooms. Members-only rooms and private rooms do not appear for them at all. A public room can be read by anyone and found by search engines such as Google.

Can members see that a private room exists?

No. A private room is hidden from everyone outside its group. Members see only the rooms they can enter.

What happens to a new room I add?

It is open to every signed-in member unless you say otherwise. Bernard never makes a room public unless you ask for that.

Does Bernard change who can see a room without asking me?

No. Bernard tells you exactly who will be able to see the room and changes it only after your approval. Afterwards it says the new audience back to you in plain words.

Community forum2 min read

Can some areas of my forum be public and others for paying members only?

Your forum is made of rooms (the categories members post in), and each room has its own door. You choose who can come through it, one room at a time, by asking Bernard.

The prompt

“Make [room] in my forum public, and keep [room] for my [tag] subscribers only.”

Signed in, Get my prompt fills in your site for you. Otherwise press Copy and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard once: Use your own AI (opens in a new tab).

The three kinds of room

Public. Anyone on the internet can read it, and search engines such as Google can find it and show it in results. Signed-in members can post. Good for a free community that brings new people to you.
Members only. Every signed-in member of your forum can read and post. Visitors who are not signed in see nothing. This is what a new room is unless you say otherwise.
Private to a group. Only the people in one group can see and post. To everyone else, including your other members, the room does not exist. This is the room for your paying subscribers or a course’s students.

A room can also be closed: nobody but you can see it. Rooms made before you could choose an audience may show as closed until you say who they are for.

A private room can also let a second group read but not post. That is useful for people whose subscription has ended: they keep reading, and their earlier posts stay where they are.

How a private room is filled

Each private room has one group, named after the room. You decide who is in the group from your own contacts, with a tag: everyone carrying the tag is in, and anyone without it is not. The whole flow is in How do I give my subscribers their own private area?.

Checking who can see each room

Ask “who can see each room in my forum?” and Bernard lists every room with its audience in plain words. Name a person, “which rooms is [email protected] in?”, and Bernard tells you the rooms they can see and why.

Making a room public

Ask for it by name: “Make Free Community public.” Bernard says back what that means before it changes anything: anyone can read the room and search engines will find it. Rooms only open to the world on your word.

See also How do I add, rename or tidy the areas in my forum? for adding, renaming and hiding rooms.

Questions people ask

What does a visitor who is not signed in see?: Only the public rooms. Members-only rooms and private rooms do not appear for them at all. A public room can be read by anyone and found by search engines such as Google.
Can members see that a private room exists?: No. A private room is hidden from everyone outside its group. Members see only the rooms they can enter.
What happens to a new room I add?: It is open to every signed-in member unless you say otherwise. Bernard never makes a room public unless you ask for that.
Does Bernard change who can see a room without asking me?: No. Bernard tells you exactly who will be able to see the room and changes it only after your approval. Afterwards it says the new audience back to you in plain words.