This plugin allows you to restrict access to topic pages in a category. Topic titles will still show up in topic lists, search, user activity & digest emails. This is a great way to advertise the activity in a “members-only” category, which may charge for access.
It IS NOT designed to keep the contents of the category 100% private - if someone is determined enough they will be able to piece together the content from search results.
Each category has a couple of new settings in the Security tab:
“Locked down” topics will show a (configurable) icon in the topic list if the user does not have access:
Once clicked, unauthorised users will be redirected to a defined URL (e.g. your payment gateway). This link can be internal or external. The static pages plugin works great for this.
Plugin repository: https://github.com/paviliondev/discourse-category-lockdown
Thanks to @DiscourseMetrics.com for funding the development of this plugin.
Authored by @david
Now maintained by Pavilion