My use case is also similar. I’m creating a private (in my case paid) community, but I want to allow visitors to be able to create an account and see limited (teaser) content without paying. (No anonymous access, so I’ve set login required.)
When you get everything sorted, @Paul_King would you mind summing up the plugins you end up using, the set-up you end up using including automations and validations (etc), and any gotchas? Thank you in advance.
@nathank Am I understanding correctly that if I have a Visitors group and a (paid) Members group, I can simply restrict access to categories by changing the “everyone” security setting? (And being careful to check all sub-categories also, because security settings do not inherit? – Something I learned yesterday, which was not intuitive and potentially dangerous! Subcategory does not inherit security settings) In particular, trust levels will not rise for Visitors such that they could ever give themselves more access, correct?
Also @nathank, what does this mean?
Do you mean that a Member could not cross-link (at all) from one Member category to another if it’s (at all, i.e. Member) security restricted? That’s a hefty price to pay!
I’m re-considering at this point whether it’s worth it to try allowing for logged in Visitors, for the sake of getting leads.
@denvergeeks Since my community will be paid, maybe I could upgrade my hosting to get access to the Discourse Subscriptions plugin. I was planning to use ThriveCart since my courses (optional, external to the community) will be paid for through there anyway, and I can then bundle courses, coaching, community membership, etc. and keep all financial transactions in one place.