When we refer to admins we always mean SP admins which do not necessarily also have to be WP admins.

I think I need to break this down so let’s deal with guest access first.

You say a guest has no access to this forum so how can a guest load the topic? The two ways would be (a) they simply run the url for the topic if they know the slug – in which case the ‘access denied’ message should display. Or (b) you have the permission turned on that lets them view the topic list but not the posts – the ‘sneak peak’ feature. If THIS is the case then the system will display the message set in the sneak peak options (components > login and registration). Or is there a (c) that I am overlooking?

For non-guests – members/moderators/admins – then I am unsure just what you are saying? What are their permissions and what are  they seeing?

Let me follow along with your breakdown.

For the guest issue, guest permissions are set to allow seeing the topic list.  As a guest, I click on an item in that list, and I would expect to see the message, but I see the CSS styling, and no message.  Check out this link:

http://www.wpperform.com/forums/genesis-framework-child-theme-support/

I would imagine you are a guest, so if you click on 1 of the posts, you should see the message.  All I see is the CSS styling but no actual text.  If I look at it in Firebug, I see an empty <div>.

Your clarification on WP vs SPF admins may have cleared up the other part of this.  I was referring to a WP site (not a network) admin.  As I mentioned in my original post, if I visit Options->Members, I have administrators set to be part of a group that would be able to read the posts in that forum.  I was assuming that referred to WP admins, which was the basis for my question.  So I understand why a WP admin is seeing the same thing as the guest.  However, that leads to a follow up question:

If Options->Members settings for Administrators refers to SPF admins, there isn’t an Administrator permission set on the Permissions menu.  That suggests to me that SPF admins get full permissions (full as in can do anything).  If that is the case, what is the purpose of a group setting for an SPF admin?

So – for the guests able to see the topic list only – this invokes the ‘sneak peak’ feature. So have you actually set a message up for this? Are you saying that this is just not displaying?

Sorry – I misunderstood – the ‘Administrator’ referenced in Options > members does indeed refer to the WP ‘administrator’ role. So can you just explain this one again? They have full access to this forum via their usergroup/permissions assignment but are not seeing posts? Is that the question?

Can you explain about the “sneak peak”?  I thought that the message would just come from the spTopicView.php, on line 197: “Access denied – you do not have permission to view this page”.  I haven’t setup a message because I have no idea where to set one up.

On admins, this is on a WP multisite.  There are posts in that forum I linked to in my earlier post.  A site admin for a site in the network can’t see the posts.  He sees the same as what a guest sees – the CSS box and no message.  Is that what you see when you follow the link?

there are two types of sneak peek… view list of forums only… or view list of forums and topics…

and they are permissions… so you have to give the users you want to get the sneak peak assigned the proper permission…

I think the permission are explanatory, but the first lets you see the list of forums and if you click on a forum, you either get the message or the redirect… the second lets you see the list of forums, visit the forums and see the list of topics, but if you visit the topic, you either get the message or the redirect…

but the key is giving the desired usergroup a permission set with that permission on the forum you want…