Overview
MHC Forum is a private community for the students of Mahfel Huq & Co. I built it at forum.mahfelhuq.com as a place where members can share news, ask questions, follow each other and stay connected. It is closed to the public: posts can only be seen by signed-in members, and accounts are created by an administrator, so there is no open sign-up.
What members can do:
- Post their thoughts, questions or news, and edit or delete their own posts
- Comment on posts, reply to comments and like posts
- Follow people whose posts help them, and get a bell notification for their new posts and for replies to their comments
- Search the member directory by name, partner, company or blood group, and open member profiles
- Keep a profile with a photo, designation, partner, ICAB number, registration period and blood group, and add company, position and address once their CC is complete
- Report any post that breaks the rules, so the administrators can review it
Only administrators can attach pictures and files (PDF, Word and Excel) to posts. A short set of community rules is shown to every member: respect each other, no spam or advertising, and no sharing of other people’s private details.
The Challenge
A community only works if people feel safe sharing in it. The forum had to be private, simple enough for members who are not technical, and easy for a few administrators to manage and moderate.
Keeping it private. Posts are hidden from anyone who is not signed in. Every sign-in is checked twice: with the email and password first, then with a one-time code sent by email. The site also asks search engines not to index it.
Keeping it simple. The features follow what people already know from social networks: posts, comments, likes, follows and notifications. A plain welcome post explains each one in a few lines.
Keeping it well moderated. Members can report a post with one click, only administrators can attach files, and the community rules are visible to everyone.
What I Did
- Planned the member journey, from the sign-in page to the feed and the profile
- Built the complete forum as a custom community on WordPress, using Claude (AI) as a development partner
- Added the private sign-in with email, password and a one-time email code, and administrator-created accounts
- Built the feed with posts, comments, replies and likes
- Added follows with bell notifications
- Built member profiles and the searchable member directory
- Added post reporting and administrator controls
- Wrote the welcome post that explains the features and the community rules
The forum is private, so the community itself needs an account. You can see its sign-in page at forum.mahfelhuq.com.