This is just a question about how the main forum and the group forums should or could work together...

I have a site with a general purpose forum - not part of a group.

Then we will have groups, where each group gets their own forum.

Now that AF 4.2.4 hides the group forums (good) it is also hiding the group forums for those group members (as far as I can tell)... ie you have to be in the group to see the forum now. I certainly want all group forums hidden from everyone on the main forum, but ideally i would want all group forums that I am a member of to also show on the main forum (I think). Just looking for feedback on what others think.

I foresee being in multiple groups, and having all those forums visible along with the sites main general forum in one place seems cool.

What is the general consensus on this? I can see that if they were all in one place, people would forget and reference private stuff in the public forum perhaps, so maybe keeping them separate is good? I am also thinking about some of the stuff that AF 5 will bring, and how that all would work with group forums and the main forum.

I've been trying to come up with the best way document some of the possibilities because I know it can be confusing at times. There are a variety of different use cases but we seem to have a 50/50 when it comes to displaying or not displaying the group forums as part of the main forum list. Personally, if you are going to make heavy use of groups then everything should be part of the group, but we are still giving you options. We are also about 2 releases away from being able to hide Active Forums completely, if you want. We want to be able to keep all the functionality of Active Forums in Active Social without the need for all the integration steps. The end result would mean you can have a forum anywhere in your site.

We will put together some recommendations of configuration options very shortly.

Posted By Will M on 24 Mar 2010 02:45 PM
  We are also about 2 releases away from being able to hide Active Forums completely, if you want. We want to be able to keep all the functionality of Active Forums in Active Social without the need for all the integration steps. The end result would mean you can have a forum anywhere in your site.

We will put together some recommendations of configuration options very shortly.

I really like this. I am also guessing that we will be able to convert existing forums to (default) groups? It would be more awesome if MC worked, at least, for the default groups.