It was set-up before I took over, but I believe it was created only a year ago. (Possibly 2.)

As Is said a few posts back. User Groups and Permission Sets are ‘married’ when you create or edit a forum. Go to manage forums – and then you can view/edit/remove those relationships.

What i was asking regarding the age of the forum is if it was an old V4 forum that had been upgraded.

Please go to the forum admin > toolbox > install log to see if there are any entries for Version 4 and also when was it updates to any version 5?

Thanks Y/S. 

I do not see any V4 in the Install Log. The first entry I see is 5.0.0 on February 20, 2012.

My apologies for getting a little muddy. So, the relationship is NOT the Usergroup to Permission set, it’s Forum name to Usergroup and Permission set. Ok, I think I got that now. (“bloody newbies!”)

When I pull up the forum, it does not show the currently selected Usergroup & Permission set. Only the ability to “change”.  The other night I actually DID click the correct entries for the two. (I mean, I guess I can do it again, but “Lyn” IS in the same usergroup as everyone else.)

Ok, I think I figured something out.

The people that were denied messaging were in TWO usergroups. It’s getting confusing because the primary group name is the same as the primary forum name (“Forum 2013”). But apparently removing them from one of the standard default “Members” group changed their “Can PM” status from “no” to “yes”.  

I’m confused a bit, since there are several people in both “Members” and “Forum 2013” groups.

It’s a big button over on the right of the forum listing that says ‘view forum permissions’…?

OK – so let’s go back to basics, double check everything and get this solved.

You say this user is in the same user group as everyone else. Can you please just double check that – look at the user group members listing to make sure.

Check all permission sets this user is attached to at forum level to make sure that the permission to send PM’s is turned on.

Get her to check her profile > options > edit global options to make sure she has not opted out of private messaging.

And if all is correct so far then – I am not sure of we have done this earlier in this thread – but go to the forum toolbox > housekeeping – and click on the task to reset user auths cache just in case it is something that simple.

I think part of my confusion was because when you click the “Forums” button the default is actually “Manage Groups and Forums”. So “Forum 2013” is actually a Group name and therefore does not have “View Forum Permissions”.  It just didn’t register in my brain that I could be looking at a Group under the “Forums” tab. I assumed (yes I know what happens when you assume) that I must click “User Groups”. That’s why I stated both the forum and user group have the same name. I was actually clicking on the same Group, but under different tabs. (Since I didn’t start any Forums myself, I didn’t fully realize how that “Manage Groups and Forums” structure makes perfect sense. Also, I’m not a user of the forum itself; as it has highly personal information that is not really kosher for me to read. So sometimes I feel like I’m swinging at a pinata w/ a blindfold on. haha.)

ahhh!

Anyway, yes I have double/triple/quadruple/quintuple checked that Lyn is in the group “Forum 2013” with everyone else.

As mentioned she was also listed in the “Members” group. I thought to delete her from this group because under the “Edit Group” button for “Forum 2013” I saw that “Members” have “No Access”.  (This is when I still thought I was actually editing Forum permissions.) So deleting her from “Members” changed the “Can PM” from No to Yes for her.  Not sure why as there are several members in both groups. I have asked her to check & see if she does indeed have access now to the Members lists/Watching/Subscribed and Inbox.

If it works, then I guess all is well.

The basic rule is that if a user is in more than one user group/permission combination then they get the ‘best permissions’ – i.e., the most liberal.

However, that would assume that in this case BOTH user groups were in use against the your forums.

Anyway – for now I will wait till I hear back from you on status.