Restricted access to topic reading

[MoonCat]

Hi all,

I'm looking for mod (possibly solution already exists) that restricts access for topic reading/replying only to selected groups (based on the participation in the forum discussions). However, topic's titles are visible to all. I'd like people to start participating in the forum discussions, so they deserve getting accepted to groups having access to privileged information.

There are bunch of mods which force people to register by blocking access to the topics/boards/etc. ok, so one spends 3 mins, registers, learns whatever he came for and goes away. Forum dies. It needs active members to continue living. I'd like all members to see what's there, so they see it, they want it, but can't get it, because they didn't work hard enough yet.

It could be special tag bbcode, that blocks topic from reading non-allowed users. Or based on topic id. Please direct me if there is something similar available today or how I could achieve it.

Thanks

[Arantor]

There is no solution that is up to date for 2.0 for doing this because it doesn't actually stimulate the kinds of discussion that you hope for, based on watching interactions over the last ten years or so of typical forum behaviour.

[MoonCat]

Thanks, Arantor!
Your answer implies that possibly 2.1 has partial answer? I'm asking for the solution, based on similar forums to mine implemented with myBB engine.

[Arantor]

No, my answer implies simply that 2.0 is stable and that there is nothing even up to date for  the currently released stable version, let alone a not yet released version.

And no, there is nothing in 2.1 either for this, it contravenes a fundamental design decision in SMF, namely: if you can see it, you can do it.

Implementing such solutions is surprisingly complex too since if you jam some code in at the topic level to prevent people seeing the topic, you then have to modify recent posts, search, RSS feeds and a few other places to prevent the content being hidden, which is why we don't support it, not to mention that all our evidence over the last decade suggests it does not achieve what you hope (better engagement) because people do exactly what you suggest, they come, see they can't get to the content and likely leave rather than engaging to get to content. It's similar to "reply to see this post" logic where you end up generating hundreds of one line posts which is not good content.