some other of our plugins have widgets, but we generally prefer template tags as they are more powerful and customizable…

have you seen:  https://simple-press.com/documentation/codex/plugins/our-plugins/available-plugins/template-tags/

it walks you through the various options…  you have many sort options though default is simply by date across all visible forums…  remember, the person viewing the widget list, must be able to see the forum in order for it to show up in recent posts list…

i looked through the template tag documentation and do not understand how to use templates. does it require coding, putting shortcodes on pages…?

currently, using the widget, someone who is not logged in sees the most recent SP posts from one particular forum.  when they click the link our membership plugin sends them to a page that explains they need to enroll to access the forums.  we like this functionality but based on your explanation it shouldn’t be working this way because someone who isn’t logged in shouldn’t be able to see anything, is that correct?

our goal is to display a list of the forums to people who are not logged in, via the home page sidebar, so they can see the forums we provide, and when they click a forum link our membership plugin sends them to a page that explains they need to enroll to access the forums.  

can you check out our home page without logging to see how it is currently working and tell us how to accomplish the forum list on the home page sidebar for visitors who are not logged in, in the way I described?

what a user can see is based upon their permissions…  sounds like in this one forum, you might be use the sneak peek feature?  that is, permissions for can view forum lists or can view forum and topic lists….  so for those forums you want to display, use the sneak peek – I would recommend the can view forum and topic lists… sounds like you already are using the redirect if they try – just only on one forum…

yes, most template tags have a shortcode equivalent… so you put either the template tag or a shortcode in a widget, wp theme template file or other file that displays wp content…

i have looked through all of the SP admin panel options and searched the SP website and cannot find where to set sneak peek.  how do i set it?

See from admin panel – Forum > Components > Custom Messages. On the right you should find ‘Sneak Peek Statement’ and also a help button to explain how to implement.

from the help statement:

If you are using the ‘Can view forum and topic lists only’ permission for guests or users, they will only be able to see the Group View (list of groups and forums) and Forum View (list of topics in a forum) and not any actual Posts.

where do i find/set ‘Can view forum and topic lists only’ permission for guests or users’

that’s the messages… but as I said, its a permission (actually two – pick one)… can view forum and topic lists or can view forum lists… lets users see the forum and/or forums and topic, but not post content…

all permissions are on forum – permissions – manage permissions.. but those are permission sets.. remember, to control access to a forum, you have to assign one or more permission sets with usergroups to a forum…