Hello, is it possible to prevent anyone from seeing anything in the forums until they log in?
i.e. NOT see the list of forums
NOT see the recent stuff
NOT able to post.

In other words, they have to log in first, then they can read, comment, start new posts etc.

We're assuming that we can link this with the prevent new registrations option in the options php to stop anyone else attempting to join.

We want a closed set of forums for a pre chosen audience who we will generate the user lists for, we don't want the forums public at all.

Many thanks.
timbald

It is surely possible with customization (possibly creating / including just the login template on the index page and hide/disable anything else for unlogged visitors). But you may also need registration page / ability unless you manually create accounts.

You can protect all forums by a password ($protectWholeForum, $protectWholeForumPwd options), or you could try this solution.