http://codex.simple-press.com/codex/plugins/our-plugins/available-plugins/plugin-featured-topics/

Thanks! However I can’t view the codex because it says my Gold membership has expired.

But based on my records my Gold membership does not expire until October 1st, 2014.

Any ideas what may be going on?

https://simple-press.com/documentation/codex/plugins/our-plugins/available-plugins/plugin-featured-topics/

in the process of moving the sister site over here…   but have reset your account on the other codex site too…

Terrific, thank you. The [sp_featured_topics] shortcode is perfect.

Is there a way to make the featured list of posts visible to all users, even people who are not registered on the site?

the featured topics/posts follow the normal permissions rules of your forums…  If they can read the post, they can read the featured post…

If you want to expose your list of forums and/or the topics, but not the post content, I would recommend checking out the sneak peek feature…