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I'm really hoping this is a simple mistake or misunderstanding on my part.
1. The site is running WP 4.5 on WP Engine. I just installed simplepress this weekend. Previously, I had installed bbPress but deleted it and imported the small number of bbpress posts into SP. That mostly worked okay, although some posts didn't come over. Not really a problem.
2. As an admin, I can post just fine, desktop or phone.
3. I have a test user that couldn't post to the forum when I first tried immediately after installing SP. I deleted the WP user and reregistered that user and then that user could post.
4. I have a group of friends who have agreed to test this site. All are existing WP members. They all have subscriber/participant roles and Paid Memberships Pro 'member' status. They can read the SP forums just fine but cannot post in any forum or subforum. When they try to add a post, they get a message stating that access is denied.
5. When I installed SP, I edited the standard permission set to add some capabilities, especially with regard to uploading attachments. The attached images show the permissions set for Standard.
6. Tonight, they're getting jumpy and annoyed and impatient. Not great for a new site. Trying to figure this out, I added a global permission set for members for standard access:
7. That didn't help, unfortunately. I'm guessing that this is because these people were WP members before SP was installed. I tried resetting the Auths cache. That didn't help.
8. I went in search of a list that would show me the permissions attached to each user but I couldn't find such a thing.
9. I'm sort of out of options but am probably overlooking something terribly obvious. Any help is greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Brian
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More information:
I just created a new user by registering for the site. The WP users lists shows subscriber and PMP member status 'member'.
Like the others, the new user can view the forums just fine. When trying to post a reply, however, the result is "Access denied: you do not have permission."
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More information:
1. I discovered the "user groups" and found that all of my users are in the user group 'Members'.
2. Looking for a solution, I went to the plugins and discovered the Membership Subscribe plugin. I downloaded it and installed it. I couldn't find any instructions on how to use it. With no other creative idea in mind, I went back and assigned the standard set to all members again. No dice.
3. I checked the error log and see that I am getting errors (see attached image) but none seem likely to be the cause of this error.
I am completely befuddled. Why can't my users post? 
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Let's try and clear a few basics up first. When SP is first installed it pre-creates a small pool of user groups and permissions sets and all existing registered users of the website are placed into the 'members' user group. The permission sets are basic permission templates that probably have the options needed for the average user. However, we would always encourage people to create their own.
Then, when you create forum groups and forums, you need to add to each one the permutations of user groups and permission sets desired. So yes - as per your illustration - a 'members' user group might have the 'standard access' permission set. Setting these permission/user group assignments when you create the forum group, will then allow those assignments to be automatically applied to each forum created within the group. Otherwise they will need to be made for each forum defined.
To see at a glance which user groups are set up for which forums - go to the 'Manage User Groups' listing, select the group to look at and click on the 'User Group usage' button. There is an equivalent informational listing for the Permission Sets as well.
To see an individual users access - use the members list on the public/front end of the forum, locate the member to look up and click on the profile link. When their profile pops up, click on edit profile in the heading at the top. In the final profile editing forms select the 'Permissions' tab which will give you a listing of all the forums and for each one the permissions the specific user has.
So all of that is by way of information to try and help you troubleshoot. It is worth stating that the majority of membership plugins we have heard of seem to work just fine but there are some caveats and one or two that have not behaved in the past. WordPress communicates with plugins via what are called 'hooks'. for the non-techie I always suggest you think of these as 'messages'. When a new user registers, WP broadcasts a message and plugins can listen out for this and act accordingly. SP, for example, allocates them into whatever default user group you have selected for the purpose (initially 'members').
Any membership plugin that replaces the WP registration process must continue to send these messages for other plugins to work as expected. As I said, we have encountered one or two in the past that fail to do this. However, if new registrants are being added to the default SP user group then there is probably no need to worry about that.
IF your members ARE in an SP User Group AND your forum(s) have an assignment for that User Group with an appropriate Permission Set then those members should, of course, be able to see and use that forum using the permissions defined.
If for any reason members are unaccounted for then go to the user groups section of the admin and open the 'map users to user groups' and use the tools there to rebuild user groups. In fact you mentioned a 'participant' role which is not a standard WP defined role so it may well be a good idea to make this visit and ensure all is well.
After which you need to carefully review the permissions being assigned. Some permissions can override others. For example I see that you have both 'Can reply to existing topics' AND 'Can only reply to own topics' checked. I believe you will find that the latter will win out stopping users from replying to others.
Finally I see you have noted the 'reset auths cache' tool in the toolbox. A members permission/forum data is cached in a column in their members record to help performance. When changes are made to groups or sets we do clear thus data out and then it is rebuilt the next time a user makes a visit. Under normal circumstances there should be no need to run a manual reset but it is available should any corruption or unseen circumstance crop up and can be used at any time to clear the decks.
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Thanks for that information!
I've actually been working with technology since 1967, so I'm hopeful that someday soon I'll qualify as "non-techie". 
The above information helped. As I walked through it, the problem was checking both "can reply to existing topics" and "can only reply to own topics" -- at least at first glance. Unchecking "can only reply to own topics" allowed a new test user that I created last night to post successfully.
Last night, while working this problem, I had wondered if the permissions were disallowing all posts or only posts to topics started by others. A friend had created a topic in bbpress. That topic was imported into SP through the import step. I asked him to see if he could add a post to that topic. When he tried, he was disallowed. I suppose it's possible that the ownership was somehow confused in the import step, although he's listed as the topic creator. That makes me wonder if setting both of those will generally disallow any posting. That might be something you folks would want to test.
The above information in your reply was quite valuable and quite helpful. It's entirely possible that I missed that someplace else but it wasn't clear to me exactly how the permissions worked with the user groups and forums. Your reply cleared that up. You might want to keep that around as a sticky or add it to some of the standard documentation someplace. I doubt I'll be the only new user to run into these questions.
Finally, one last thought: if there are permissions that should not both be checked, perhaps you might consider grouping those into various sets of radio buttons rather than as checkboxes that seem additive rather than exclusionary. Just a thought. 
Thanks again for a great reply. It appears that you have solved the problem. I'll ask the others to give it a try. As a new user but long time techie, I am so far impressed by the product and am quite likely to install it next week in a different site that I'm working on. If I choose to do that, I'll sign up for a platinum membership for them, too.
Have a great day!
Brian
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