In a support discussion titled ‘Invite to a members only topic,’ spdegabrielle asks if it’s possible to invite non-members to view a topic in a members-only category (#lounge) via an invite link, noting they received a ‘not permitted’ error. HAWK clarifies that invites only work if the recipient has the required permissions (e.g., trust level or group membership) to access the category — otherwise, the invite fails. spdegabrielle suggests that invitees should gain access upon signing up, but HAWK reiterates that permissions must already allow access to the category. Lilly successfully demonstrates the process on their own site: creating a topic in a secure category, sending an invite, and having the test account access the topic after signing up — but notes this only works if the invite includes a group with permissions to the category. Lilly also recommends adding trust_level_0 to category permissions and specifying a permitted group in the invite settings for this to function correctly. The discussion highlights that invites alone don’t grant category access — explicit permissions or group assignments are required.
If the person you are trying to invite does not have permissions to view the category that the topic is in when they try to redeem it, it won’t work under any circumstances that I can think of. It’s possible I’m misunderstanding your question though.
Only if they are at a trust level (or have other permissions) to see the category that the post is in. For instance, if you invited a TL2 member to view a post in the Lounge category I don’t think it will work.
Perhaps I am misunderstanding what you are wanting to do?
Edit: If you want it to just be a member’s only category, then you can add trust_level_0 to the permissions. But you need to specify a group that also has permissions in the group field of the invite for this to work:
I just successfully invited a test account to my own site into a new topic in a category they have permission to.
