All,

I have finished a forum hack supporting the following:

adds 4 optional behaviors and a preferences page to configure options...

1) make private forums searchable (for users that have rights) while hiding private forums from users with no rights altogether
2) allow forum rights assignment by groups
3) allow moderators to automatically recieve posts via e-mail
4) allow users to monitor forums by receiving posts in e-mail

Download here

please report bugs or questions on forums On My Site

I hope that this helps!