how to restrict group's access?

Hi! I'm curious how to *dis*allow a group from seeing a forum. I'd like ~80% of my members, including all new members, to see the forum, but to disallow certain members (~20%) who do not meet certain criteria after a period of time from seeing that forum. When I go into Forum Permissions Control, I can easily enable access for a group, of course, but if "Members" is checked the groups are grayed out and I thus cannot uncheck a group, which is what I had been hoping to do. I definitely do not want to ban them, just to restrict them.

Right now all I can think to do is to create a forum for 80% of members and to enable the forum for them, but then I have to remember to put every new member into this group, unless there is a default way to do this.

So:
1) Is there a way to disallow a group from seeing a forum other than by creating a group of everyone else and enabling it only for them?
2) If not, is there a way to put new members into this main group by default so that I don't have to manually add each new member immediately?

Thank you!

You create an auto-subscribe group (number of posts). Members will be automatically added when they reach the post requirement. If you want to restrict a group, you have to set the permissions here:
Administration Panel > General > Forum > Categories & Forums
Check the boxes for the ones you want to have access and uncheck the boxes for the one you want to disallow.

For the grayed out boxes, uncheck the members boxes and check the boxes for the other groups. When you are finished, check the members' boxes again.

I don't think you understand my question.

It will not let me uncheck a box if I have Members checked. If I check some groups' boxes first and then check Members as you suggest, it still grays out everything when I check Members, and I still cannot uncheck a box.

I want new members to see everything. "Zero" is not an option for an auto-subscribe group as I understood it from reading this the other day.

I don't want my question to get off-track in this response -- everything is in my original post.

You will need to create an autosubscribe group with 0 posts for members, that way it will work.

Thanks so much, Sanket. My understanding based on the link I posted above was that 0 wouldn't work for an auto-subscribe group, that it had to be 1 or more. But, I did just attempt it and it worked for my current members, which is great!

My first question remains whether I can disallow the 20% group from seeing posts. That would still be much easier if it's possible; otherwise I'll have to constantly cross-check my list to make sure that everyone is in either the 20% or the 80% group, and there really is no other reason for the 80% group to exist. I'd rather just monitor the 20% group as time goes on, not have to keep a list of everyone NOT in the 20% group too.

So, I'm still very curious about my first question, but knowing that the "backup" of the auto-subscribe group works after all is helpful. Thanks!

You will need to make two different groups[80% & 20%] & give them access that way. Make them hidden if you like.

Too bad -- is there anyway to make disabling/unchecking forum permissions possible in the future? In the meantime, I appreciate your help. For my immediate purposes this is solved. Thank you!

afm wrote:Too bad -- is there anyway to make disabling/unchecking forum permissions possible in the future?

I don't really understand what you mean by that.

Sorry -- I was just wondering if my initial question might become a possibility in the future, that is, being able to uncheck a box for a group in Forum Permissions Control while allowing other Members to have permission (without creating a separate group of those still with permission). My current situation is solved, and I appreciate that, but it'll actually be much harder next time I have to do it sicne there will be movement back and forth between the two groups whereas this time I was just creating them. But again, thank you for helping out with my immediate need!

Ahh, i have no clue if it will be possible in the future.
Solved?

Fingers crossed then! Solved -- thanks again!