Disabling areas, streamlining appearance; best way?

Hi @asgaros

So many of the features available are features I’ll not be using. I’m using Asgaros as a communication tool between client and provider. Not as a form in the typical forum sense.

Because I want to also monitor communication between parties and act as a moderator, I do not want any of these parties to be able to edit their own comments, or delete their own comments, or so forth. If something is said, I need to see what was said and then take action if need be; giving users the power to edit and/or delete their comments to hide their activity is not desirable.

So I’ll need to shut that off.

Also, since I will be creating private groups and adding the people I wish to it, I’ll be using the “hidden” function to hide categories and groups and so forth. So far, it appears no trace of a user group that is in a ‘hidden’ category can be found — so even if someone not in one of those user groups that has been given to attend a discussion finds a destination path for a user discussion, it appears they will not even be able to see the title. Or, that it exists. If that is incorrect, please let me know.

I will need to hide the following areas and features, then…here is my master list:
– editing comments (off)
– deleting comments (off)
– the entire ‘top bar’ — that’s because everything in there is irrelevant since I will be subscribing members…this is the top bar that says, ‘forum | my profile | members | subscriptions | logout” and also has a search bar, which is irrelevant…all of it (off)
– ‘statistics’ bar and everything below it (off)
– the ability to subscribe to posts, forums, comments…or anything (off)
– the ability to unsubscribe to posts, forums, comments…or anything (off)
– the ‘new posts, nothing new, mark all read’ indicators (off)
– cute little home button icon that says ‘forum’ next to it — do not need it there because my side bar is the menu to pay attention to, and they should not be going anywhere else anyhow than the discussions I subscribed them to (off)
– the ability to start any topic (off)
– the ability to delete any topic (off)
– member profiles: I would prefer that they cease to exist entirely (off)
– searching the entire forum…should not be allowed, and not seen (off)
– note: I also need to rename the ‘forum’ label wherever it is to say, ‘discussion’…. (change)
– the ability for users to get e-mail notifications by default that a comment was made in a user group they’re a part of (leave it as a permanent “on” option — that they cannot have access to, so they cannot ever shut it off)

And what look I am going for: merely using this as a communication area, like an inbox, that has people signed up to receive communication between each other as if they were in a room together — but I want them to be cognizant that I am there, sitting there silently in the conversation…ready to help if need be and also making sure things all stay on the up and up between them….so it has to have me in every discussion as a default.

I want this to be one “bucket” with many little user groups inside it….making sure that these user group members cannot see other user groups.

This is a lot of “cutting out”…I hope it also reduces load time if this can be done with hooks. Or filters. But that is not my main goal; I just want a user to go to the Discussion page (that is the name of the forum page I created to display the forum)….and when they get there, only see a list of “topics” (user groups) they are part of…then be able to click each “topic”…respond with a comment and/or picture to the last person that commented, then be able to go elsewhere on the site. They don’t need a little number in their face that a new comment was made (that would be too much like email)…but if some sort of sitewide notification is possible that wouldn’t hurt. That’d be a bonus, not a requirement. The email notification that a new message was made is actually a requirement, and I believe that is already built-in. Then, they can go back to the forum page (the page I call, ‘Discussion’), and when they click that ‘Discussion’ page they are taken immediately — without any further clicks — to the page that holds all user group (private user group) conversations/discussions/etc. ((whatever you want to call it)) — that they’re involved in. All on one page. These are listed in a list, like a forum would normally list them…stacked on top of each other, like lines in an email inbox. click the one line that is displayed (title and etc.) and they get to the discussion/private user group forum.

That’s my vision. It’s a lot of cutting stuff out, but that’s what I need.

Where can I find all the shortcodes…or filters…or hooks to prevent these things from displaying? Ideally I want it to never load, so I’m hoping for hooks. But if there is a better way, please let me know.

Thanks in advance for all your help!