According to this list of plugins compatible with BuddyPress 1.5, the Private Community plugin is NOT compatible.
http://codex.buddypress.org/releases/1-5-plugin-compatibility/
I have not found an alternative that works, so would also be interested in hearing from anyone who has managed to find a way to make BuddyPress 1.5 private.
It’s a really good plugin and easy to customise via PHP. I just don’t know how to make it compatible!
This apparently works with 1.5 but I’m not sure if it does the same?
Private BP: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/private-buddypress/
I have looked at this problem more closely, and here’s what I found:
When I install Private Community, it does create a php error, but this error is not created by the plugin, but by a BuddyPress bug described here: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-buddypress-private-community-when-clicking-on-a-protected-page-i-get-error.
I have made the fixes described for this bug, and Private Community now seems to be working, although I am still testing.
Thanks avere!
Out of interest, how many files are like this and need to be fixed in the BP core?
The files that need to be fixed are part of the bp-default theme. You need to fix the index.php file for each BuddyPress component you have enabled. For example, for the activity component you would need to edit /wp-content/plugins/buddypress/bp-themes/bp-default/activity/index.php.
In addition to this, I also had to edit single.php.
Hope this helps.