This would solve several use-cases I think. Some quotes from #8618 (duplicating issue):

_Jochen Manz_ wrote:
> Most of the Permission do have a View XXXX checkbox, but not the forum. In my case i wanted to give a customer access to our redmine. In fact he is able to see our discussion forum which is not ment to be public. Its definetly a missing thing.

_mark B._ wrote:
> I've got the same problem. Work-around was to move the forum to another private project, but this is less than ideal, as it really should all be in the same project. Causes confusion and extra clicks.

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The attached patch makes the "view messages" permission configurable, similar to #7068#note-5. This patch does not include translations as those are already present.
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Felix, thank you for the patch. It works fine but breaks some tests on my environment. Could you take a look?

{{collapse(ruby test/functional/boards_controller_test.rb)
<pre>
Run options: --seed 48663

# Running:

F.F....FF.F..FF.....

Finished in 1.551336s, 12.8921 runs/s, 30.9411 assertions/s.

1) Failure:
BoardsControllerTest#test_show [test/functional/boards_controller_test.rb:50]:
Expected response to be a <success>, but was <302>

2) Failure:
BoardsControllerTest#test_index [test/functional/boards_controller_test.rb:29]:
Expected response to be a <success>, but was <302>

3) Failure:
BoardsControllerTest#test_show_with_permission_should_display_the_new_message_form [test/functional/boards_controller_test.rb:92]:
Expected response to be a <success>, but was <403>

4) Failure:
BoardsControllerTest#test_show_should_display_sticky_messages_first [test/functional/boards_controller_test.rb:62]:
Expected response to be a <success>, but was <302>

5) Failure:
BoardsControllerTest#test_index_should_show_messages_if_only_one_board [test/functional/boards_controller_test.rb:42]:
Expected response to be a <success>, but was <302>

6) Failure:
BoardsControllerTest#test_show_atom [test/functional/boards_controller_test.rb:101]:
Expected response to be a <success>, but was <302>

7) Failure:
BoardsControllerTest#test_show_should_display_message_with_last_reply_first [test/functional/boards_controller_test.rb:81]:
Expected response to be a <success>, but was <302>

20 runs, 48 assertions, 7 failures, 0 errors, 0 skips
</pre>
}}

{{collapse(ruby test/functional/messages_controller_test.rb)
<pre>
Run options: --seed 480

# Running:

F............FFFF..

Finished in 2.647736s, 7.1759 runs/s, 18.5064 assertions/s.

1) Failure:
MessagesControllerTest#test_show [test/functional/messages_controller_test.rb:29]:
Expected response to be a <success>, but was <302>

2) Failure:
MessagesControllerTest#test_show_with_pagination [test/functional/messages_controller_test.rb:58]:
Expected response to be a <success>, but was <302>

3) Failure:
MessagesControllerTest#test_show_should_contain_reply_field_tags_for_quoting [test/functional/messages_controller_test.rb:37]:
Expected response to be a <success>, but was <403>

4) Failure:
MessagesControllerTest#test_post_new [test/functional/messages_controller_test.rb:113]:
Expected nil to not be nil.

5) Failure:
MessagesControllerTest#test_show_with_reply_permission [test/functional/messages_controller_test.rb:67]:
Expected response to be a <success>, but was <403>

19 runs, 49 assertions, 5 failures, 0 errors, 0 skips
</pre>
}}
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You are correct, the tests make the assumption that this permission is public. I have added the permission to the test fixtures and they work now.
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The patch works fine and passed all tests.
I think that delivering this feature along with #7068 makes permission control system of Redmine more consistent. Setting target version to 3.4.0.
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Committed, thanks for the patch.
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relates,New,7555,Private forums
duplicates,Closed,8618,New Permission: View Forum
duplicates,Closed,2224,add view persmission for board