Forum Subscriptions – old posts locked?

It says there is a policy that you have to be a member to post

There are some forums (or some other characteristic) that non-members are allowed to post – inconsistent with the policy

If I was a non-member, I would just find a place I could post, and do it there, even if it wasn't really the right forum or whatever.

Made you look!

This is within a given forum. For instance, in this Forum Admin & Support area, I see the Post Reply link for most of the threads, but not "site being hacked". What originally brought this up was the desire to finally be able to post an update to the "Bright, powerful headlamp" thread over in Gear (http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=69482), but no posting love there either.

Derek, I just went to the post you linked to and it came up with "Post Reply"–once I remembered to sign in, that is. :-) The thread therefore is not locked. You might want to try it again. If it still doesn't work, there might be a bug somewhere in the new Forum membership category.

No post reply option on that thread for me either.

You might want to check a bunch of threads in different forum sections to see where this is happening and then PM Ryan or Roger with the results. New software inevitably produces a bug or two and this might be one.

It's sure great to see you former non-paying members/now forum members back!

Jerry, the new category of Forum Membership is supposed to be able to post! Some forums are restricted, but not Gear.

I believe there are different permissions on each FORUM. Likely on each thread in a forum, too. Some are member only. Some are lifer only. The new grouping is the lowest permission, with posting to only some forums. Over the years these distinctions have become blurred. In the midst of the spam attack there was at least one thread that could be posted to by the spammer, but he could not post to the others.

Please mail any problems to the admins (usually Ryan or Roger.) They will also need your help with the NAME of the forum and the TITLE of the thread. Again, the old restrictions may now be better enforced, so, you might just get a nothing when you click on it. For example: BPL Members Only may still not be assessable. Many of the permissions need to be rebuilt, no doubt.

I "think" this is what's going on – that those threads were created during the lockdown, so they inherited more restricted permissions. Unfortunately I'm not able to batch edit those threads and change permissions to allow F's to post to the threads.

I don't think that's the case. At least, the headlamps thread was created well before, and I have a post or two in there before the lockdown. It's pretty trivial to find other much older threads that have this same problem. I sent in a few via a support case.