The Problem: I would like for non-registered visitors to SEE what forums are available on my site, but NOT contribute OR see the topics without signing up.

I have set the forums to private, but now users can’t even SEE the forums. When they click on my forums page, they get “Oh bother! No forums were found here!” It seems like you either hide it from them all together by making it private, or allow them to read it without contributing until they register.

Possible Solutions?:

I’d like to at least be able to do one of the following

1. Allow non-registered users to at least see the private forums list but not the topics.
2. Change the “Oh bother” message (and also the “page not found” message that shows in place of the individual forum page) to something, like “please register to view forums”.
3. Or at least show a custom alternative PAGE for non-registered users who click on the link, but show the forums page for logged in users.

   any ideas. Hopefully there is a simple workaround that doesn’t involve child copies, as I would like to keep receiving updates.

[@netweb Keymaster 11 years, 11 months ago]

I’ll also point you to to trac and @jjj’s comment https://bbpress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/2089#comment:6