Hi there,

I’m running a community with bbPress and Paid Memberships Pro. I’ve come across an issue I can’t fully explain or resolve:

Whenever a user with the bbp_blocked role tries to access bbPress content, they get a 404 page instead of a “you don’t have permission” message or a redirect as expected and set in PMPro.

These particular users are not suspended but free members without access to the bbPress sections of the site. I understand the bbp_blocked role is meant to restrict forum access, but why does it result in 404s rather than a proper restriction notice?

My specific questions:

1. Is it intentional that bbPress shows a 404 for bbp_blocked users?

2. If so indeed, can this behavior be changed to show an “access denied” message or redirect instead?

3. Is the bbp_blocked role actually meant only for moderation (bans), and not general access control?

Since I haven’t been able to find anything like my specific setup, any clarification or guidance is much appreciated before I start remapping roles or overriding behavior.

Thanks much in advance!

[@robin-w Moderator 3 days, 20 hours ago]

1. yes, this is the intended behavior
2. yes, that behavior is set by a function which is called by an action, so we can remove it, and do something else.

so untested, but this should work

remove_action( 'bbp_template_redirect', 'bbp_forum_enforce_blocked', 1  );

add_action( 'bbp_template_redirect', 'rew_forum_enforce_blocked', 1  );

function rew_forum_enforce_blocked() {

	// Bail if not logged in or keymaster
	if ( ! is_user_logged_in() || bbp_is_user_keymaster() ) {
		return;
	}

	// Set 404 if in bbPress and user cannot spectate
	if ( is_bbpress() && ! current_user_can( 'spectate' ) ) {
		//DON'T DO THE SET 404 ie this is the code that the default bbp_forum_enforce_blocked does
		//bbp_set_404();
		// DO SOMETHING ELSE HERE!
	}
}

What the something else is, you will need to decide

Put this in your child theme’s function file –

ie wp-content/themes/%your-theme-name%/functions.php

where %your-theme-name% is the name of your theme

or use

Code Snippets

3. I can’t say what the original authors intentions were, but I suspect yes

[@jfbprivate Participant 3 days, 7 hours ago]

Thanks much, that helped a lot actually!

[@robin-w Moderator 3 days, 6 hours ago]

great – hope you get it working how you want