BuddyPress Friendship Restrictions

Open friend requests can attract spam and unwanted connections in a social community. BuddyPress Friendship Restrictions lets site administrators decide who may send requests and who may be added as a friend, using user roles as the basis for each rule. This keeps the social graph orderly and helps members feel safer.

The plugin also throttles requests, so a user can only send a set number within a given time period, and it can limit the total number of friends a member has. It works with BuddyPress and the BuddyBoss Platform. Developers can adjust the rules further with filters, which suits communities with unusual requirements, from small niche groups to large networks.

Features

• Role-based sending rules: Choose which user roles are allowed to send friendship requests, so only the members you trust can start new connections in your community.
• Role-based friend targets: Limit which roles can be added as friends. This gives admins control over how the social graph is made up and how members connect.
• Request throttling: Cap how many friendship requests a user can send within a chosen time period, which helps stop mass friending attempts and abuse.
• Maximum friends per user: Set an overall limit on how many friends a member can have, which encourages meaningful connections and helps manage server resources.
• Filters for developers: Developers can use filters to customize and expand the restriction rules so they fit the specific needs of a particular community.
• BuddyBoss Platform support: Works with BuddyPress and the BuddyBoss Platform, so the restrictions apply to the friendship features on either kind of community site.
• Simple admin settings: Administrators configure the restrictions through a user-friendly interface, with no coding knowledge needed to set up roles, limits and time periods.

Best for

• BuddyPress community sites troubled by spam friend requests
• Admins who want role-based control over connections
• Niche communities and larger social networks