How do I make just one forum visible to unregistered guests?

[Bobbi]

How do I make just my Tech Support forum on my site visible to unregistered visitors? (I set it up so that they have to register to view any of the other forums on my site. I just don't see how to make one forum visible on its own.)

[Wayne Luke]

Go into the Admin Control Panel and click on Modify Forums under Usergroups and Permissions.

SCroll to the forum you want and under it click on "Unregistered/Not Logged In".

In the resulting screen click on "Use Custom Settings" and then set your settings how you want them.

[Bobbi]

But even when I change the setting to 'yes' and click on the 'save changes' button, the setting always reverts back to 'no' (after I access some other part of the admin control panel and go back to that screen to try to verify that the change has taken place). Do I need to change some other setting, as well?

[Bobbi]

Never mind - I think I got it to work! Thanks anyway.

[Bobbi]

I just checked by clearing out all the cookies on my PC, and I don't see that forum visible at all when I get to the main page with the login screen (http://www.ourmusiceyes2.com/index.php). So, what now? The change has taken effect in the Admin Control Panel. The forum is marked there as visible to unregistered users.

[Mike Sullivan]

It seems you have the general permissions (non-forum specific) for unregistered users set to not be able to view. You need to give them permission to view (usergroups & permissions -> modify). Then they'll be able to see the forum(s) you gave them permission to see in usergroups & permissions -> modify forums.

[Bobbi]

Well, before I do that, I just wanted to clarify: does that mean I then have to go through all 20 or so forums one-by-one to mark them invisible to unregistered users?

[Mike Sullivan]

Yes.
Well, actually, permissions cascade down, so you can just do it to your top most forums (probably the categories) and the below forums should inherit it.

The only category you can't do that for is the category the tech support forum is in.

[Bobbi]

Yeah - I figured that out as I was setting the various permissions! Thanks anyway.

So, is there some way to exclude the list of currently active users so that unregistered users can't view that feature (but the registered users can)?

[Mike Sullivan]

Not without hacking, no.