Do you have paid membership plugin, may be it sets some restrictions?

No, I don't have that plugin.

I tried deactivating third party plugins one by one and using different themes, but the problem persisted. I couldn't replicate it on the Oxwall demo site or the test site we are using, though, so it's got to be some problem with our live site.

I wondered if maybe it was because I hired a programmer to do a custom code modification and that broke something, but looking at the dates of certain topics I know I linked to and the date he started the work, it was happening before that too. So it has to be some other thing.

Well, members can still use the forums just fine. The only issue is it looks bad in the newsfeed, but all things considered, I suppose that's a minor issue to have. I don't have the skill to track it down, so I guess I'll live with it for now.

Ok, I was able to reproduce that, this happens because the user shares the forum topic which is in the private forum section, if open that forum section everything will be alright. 

Topic was moved from Bug reports and troubleshooting.

Ok, good to know the reason. My forums are open to everyone, though. Do you mean opening them to guests as well?

Can you please provide screenshot of the forum section which user shares in the newsfeed, I don't know for now for what user role the forum is accessible on your site?

Sure.

Screenshot "forum1":  First section/category of the forums, depicting the one private forum I have.  I have 5 areas total, and all forums in all areas have the same permissions/settings except the staff area.

Screenshot "forum2":  Shows the permissions/settings for an individual forum.

Screenshot "forum3":  User roles permissions.  I don't let guests see anything.  Unchecked boxes for other user roles are because of the user credits plugin and how it works (those are the actions that let users earn or spend credits).

As you can see the section is available for mod, admin and owner user role. The forum section is private, make it available for everyone and you'll see no "limited permissions" notice when you share it in newsfeed

The forums are open to the "free" default member role as well.  Where are you seeing it limited?

To be clear, I have no interest whatsoever in ever posting links to topics from the private staff forum on the newsfeed.  That is the only forum with limited permissions (as far as I am interpreting it).  All other forums are open to all four user roles except guests.

Are you saying I need to open things also to guests?

Regardless which user role has access to the private forum section, if the forum is private and you share it in the newsfeed, you'll see limited permission note, if you make it open for every role, then you will get rid of that notice

I repeat:  I am not sharing the private forum.  Only other, non-private forums.  Such as in the screenshot "forum2" where you can clearly see the "private" box is not checked.  If this is not the option you are talking about, can you describe to me where to locate this option to change forums to be open to every role?

Share your url, please? Make sure registration is open on your website.  Provide the link to the forum post you share, which you say is not in private section, however you get Limited permissions notice. As we cannot reproduce that on our side. 

Site URL:  http://ffambrosia.com/

Example of a topic to post on the newsfeed:  http://ffambrosia.com/forum/topic/5

Yeah, I couldn't reproduce it elsewhere either, so it has got to be a problem on my site.  I just don't know what I have changed to make it do that.

This is not default newsfeed plugin, you're using 3rd party plugin, please enable default newsfeed plugin and see if the issue persists there. As we do not provide assistance with 3rd party plugins issues. 

I have the following plugins which affect the newsfeed:  newsfeed trends twitter style, comment editor, advanced comments, activity notification.

All are turned off.  The issue persists.

The newsfeed plugin I have is the one called "Newsfeed

Newsfeed with likes and comments, Facebook-style"

I wasn't aware I had gotten some different-than-default newsfeed.  Where do I get the default newsfeed plugin?

Alright, now you have the default plugin, please disable ALL 3rd party plugins and javascript code you have on your website and switch to the default theme and try again, see if the issue persists. If it does, PM me your admin access details for the website and Cpanel access details for the server, we'll check the issue. 

Topic was moved from General Questions.

Ok, we'll play with it on our own.  Thanks for your help.

To clarify, this happens when you post a forum link inside a group newsfeed.  Yor get the limited permissions text with the default oxwall logo.  I even got this as admin when posting a link.

This actually happens any time on any newsfeed where you share a forum link. I even connected my forum to the groups via groups settings and still the same.

This is a bug, im almost certain of it.

The fix it seems is to go into user roles and allow guests to view the forum posts then the notice will go away.  

Now just be advised that IF a guest knows the link to the forum or the article they can read it. However since you have not modified the forum button itself under pages section to allow guests, then the forum will not be shown on the site menu for guests which helps keep them out. 

Its a give and take deal folks, if you want to share forum links in groups it seems youll have to allow guests to read the forum.