Hi @walrus_man,

First you should make sure your paid membership plugin is based on user roles. So the membership plans/levels should be based on User Roles to allow it be integrated with wpForo. wpForo is based on its own Usergroups, and that Usergroups are synced with WordPress User Roles. This allow to get correct access in forum based on User Roles. Once the paid membership plugin changes the user role to some member role it automatically gets according Usergroup and Forum Access in forum. This also works in vice versa.

Please note that WP User Roles like subscriber, contributes, author, editor, etc don't have any affection in forum accesses. They are not used in forum. They are synches with forum Usergroups. And forum Usergroups are used to get different accesses to different forums. Please follow the steps below to see wpForo Usergroups and Forum Accesses...

Step 1: Understand that in forum there is no Roles like Subscriber or so. wpForo has Usergroups for this purpose. And each Usergroup is synced with WP User Roles. For example Subscribers are the same users with  Registered Usergroup. The Registered Usergroup is the same Subscriber User Role. You can see that they are synced together in Forums > Usergroups admin page. So saying Subscriber Role you should understand Registered Usergroup in wpForo Forum.

Step 2: wpForo forums have permission settings in Edit Forum screen. Edit the forum and use these settings to control Usergroup accesses and privileges in that forum. Each Usergroup has some Forum Access set in each forum. For example The Registered Usergroup ( Subscriber User Role) has Standard Forum Access by default in all forums. You just need to set Read Only forum access for Registered usergroup that forum. Then navigate to Dashboard > Forums > Dashboard and click on [Delete all caches] button.

Step 3: Understand the Forum Accesses. Forum Accesses are set of forum permissions. For example, you just selected "Read Only" access for Registered usergroup. You can find all permissions of Read Only access in Dashboard > Settings > Forum Access > Read Only (edit) screen. You can see that "Can create topic" and "Can post reply" permissions are disabled for this forum access. So your users with Registered Usergroup (Subscribers) will not be able to post create a topic or reply in that forum.

Step 4: Secondary Usergroups have the same power like the Primary Usergroup. It allows to set multiple Usergroups to the same user. For example if Usergroup A has access to Forum A and Usergroup B has access to Forum B and you want User AB to have accesses to both Forum A and B you should set User AB primary Usergroup A and Secondary Usergroup B or vice versa.

Now I have a question: what happens when paid subscriber cancels membership and his access to the site expires, in particular what happens to wpforo email notifications of new replies topics or anything user has previously subscribed to?

Hi Robert,

What an awesome reply thank you.

I've got a follow up question as I've been talking with restrict content pro plugin support and I assume others would be interested in wpforo integration with it.

RCP upon sign up can assign a role that we set, for example Paid Member role. Upon subscription expiry it will remove role so that user will no longer have any role on the site. Is it possible to connect this no role user with banned role for the forum for example to avoid notifications etc for expired members. 

>If a forum or topic is not accessible (can view is disabled) for some usergroup, all users of that usergroup stop receiving subscription emails.

I've come to learn that the RCP plugin upon user paid subscription expiry just removes the role completely. This means that the user will no longer have ANY role assigned. 

How does wpForo function in this case? Will that user still keep receiving forum subscription notifications?

Does wpForo detect that this user has no longer the appropriate role and thus disables notifications and access to parts of the forums that are locked for paid subscribers only for example? 

I've noticed in usergroups that we need to connect it to a certain role in WP. We can't create a usergroup that's connected to those users that have no role what so ever in WP. That's what I'd need actually 🙂

I'm just trying to figure out how to make this two work together well as I love the wpForo functionality and looks.

EDIT: another question about a possible workout in my use-case: is it possible to completely disable the subscribe to topic/forum option in wpForo so that I just turn off email notifications completely and don't allow members to subscribe to topics/forums etc.

If a forum or topic is not accessible (can view is disabled) for some usergroup, all users of that usergroup stop receiving subscription emails.

I've come to learn that the RCP plugin upon user paid subscription expiry just removes the role completely. This means that the user will no longer have ANY role assigned.

How does wpForo function in this case? Will that user still keep receiving forum subscription notifications?

Does wpForo detect that this user has no longer the appropriate role and thus disables notifications and access to parts of the forums that are locked for paid subscribers only for example?

We don't have any information on role deleting case. wpForo synchronize Usergroups and Roles on Role changing, but not on Role deleting. I'd recommend just test it and share the result here.

If the "Can view forum" permission is disabled user will not receive subscription emails.

EDIT: another question about a possible workout in my use-case: is it possible to completely disable the subscribe to topic/forum option in wpForo so that I just turn off email notifications completely and don't allow members to subscribe to topics/forums etc.

Just disable the "Can Subscribe" permission in Forum Accesses you want. Form Accesses are located in Dashboard > Forums > Settings > Forum Accesses admin page.