For a self hosted solution (including behind the firewall), you can add similar functionality by searching for a plugin from the Plugins> Add New menu that will give you the same effect. One option I’ve used in the past is the “Members Only” plugin which should do what you’re looking to.

Or does it require some special Microsoft Hosted Exchange development work? And if so, how much?

Isn’t there a simple plug-in that could do this (and ensure only company emails work for logging into it?)

I think a lot of confusion comes from the fact that there are two separate places to create “users.” One is to create a list of allowed readers. Another is to create collaborators with various levels of editorial or administrative control. Calling them both users and putting the controls in different places, with no mention in either place of the other kind of users is bound to lead to confusion. Neil is not alone. I struggled with this for a long time. It would seem sensible to put all permissions set-up in one place. Ideally that would be where the three levels of collaboration are now. There would be a fourth, lower, level called “readers” or “viewers.” I think doing this would save your constituents a lot of time, would help engender positive feelings toward WordPress (which, by the way, you all deserve, for putting such a great tool on the web for free), and would save you and your colleagues a lot of explanation time.

Cordially,
Jeff Byers

Thanks,
Jeff Byers

How would it be possible to have the third option on a self hosted blog (wordpress.org install)? Is there a plugin that does this exact thing: my blog to be invisible to users I choose?

I had the same issues and just applied this plug-in and know it works.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/absolute-privacy/

be careful what images you publish. that’s all…

If you’re interested in seeing different privacy settings on WordPress.com, the best place for you to indicate that is on those same forums. There’s a forum dedicated to ideas and suggestions for WordPress.com.

Are you working on creating an easier way like blogger has setup for people to view a private wordpress blog?
Thanks for your help

Once you’ve set that, you want to make sure you’ve set any posts you wish to be privately locked with a password. You can find more details on that control here. (It sounds like you’ve done this already and have a good grasp of it, but it never hurts to double-check.)

If you’re still having issues with the combination of Privacy Settings and post password protection, please either ask a question in the WordPress.com Support forums or drop our Support team a line and someone will be happy to help you.

Thanks!

If the blog is NOT sitting on the home page of the site, how can I password-protect it?

I tick the checkbox for the password protection on the ‘blog page’ but it doesn’t work.

My WordPress.org installation is sitting one level down from root.

Thanks anyway.

I am in the process of setting up a family Blog which I only want extended family members to see. I have followed all of the above guidelines. I solely want my family members to view the Blog and not be able to post etc, so I would like to add them as “Subscribers”. My problem is that, for some reason, I do not appear to have that option in my drop-down set. My only options are “Contributor”, “Administrator”, “Editor” and “Author”. None of these are appropriate as they all allow the reader to have extended access.

I am using the free WordPress.com service if that helps…

Many thanks in advance for any assistance.

I am aware of this feature and how they can get access to the blog, but I’m wondering if there are any future plans to present them with a screen that is not just the login form. I think that some users might not understand that they need a WordPress account to login or that I as the admin need to explicitly add their accounts to allow access.

It would be nice if they could request access somehow. A small CAPTCHA protected form or perhaps allowing the blog owner to specify a bounce page that viewers are redirected to.

I’m curious if this kind of request has ever been considered or if there is another workaround that have the same basic behaviour.

Thanks

In old versions of wordpress I was able to make a post both private AND password protected, can I still do this in 2.7?

Thanks
Mike

The third option under privacy settings that would make the whole blog private isn’t there. Only the first two options show.

Please help.

Oops, I guess if it’s that easy I should have read the documentation first :-/ Kudos to you for not just telling me to go away and read it, thank you!

I am trying to create something private for my organization with the minimum amount of obstacles for access. All I want is a single password for everyone without having to create an account. Is this at all possible?

my posts take me a long time to prepare, I rarely have the time to finish them in one go. What I would like is to have my posts set to be private by default, not public, so I can keep them hidden until they’re ready. If I forget to set a new post to private it will go out to the world before it’s ready, not good.

I know I can set the publication-date to the future instead, but that is just the same problem in a different guise. Unless I remember to change something when I make a first draft of a post, it will be published prematurely.

Any chance such a feature will appear sometime?