Help > Forum > General > Forcing guests to login before allowing access to the forum

Forcing guests to login before allowing access to the forum

Your forum can be configured to require a user to log in or sign up before being allowed to view a specific category, all of the categories, or the entire forum.

To require users to log in before any page of the forum is viewed, follow the instructions below:

1. Log in to your Website Toolbox account.
2. Click the Settings link.
3. Click the Privacy link.
4. Set the Privacy option to Private.
5. Save your changes.

Making your forum private will ensure that only people who have signed up can view it. You can also optionally choose to approve new users.

Notes:

• Alternatively, you can require users to log in before all categories or a specific category is viewed.
• You may also want to review the permissions for the Pending Email Verification and Pending Approval user groups depending on if you have the Email address verification and the Approve new signups options enabled in the Settings -> Security section.
• Making your forum private will also prevent access to search engines. If you would like search engines to be able to access your content, you may want to force guests to log in when posting content rather than when viewing your forum.

If you still need help, please contact us.