Do you not have to setup them settings in the Usergroups rather than board settings. I don't use vB 3.5. So I'm not sure, but I would have suspected you set that up as a Usergroup setting to stop guests from viewing threads if the option is there.

Yes thats correct. In the unregistered / not logged in usergroup - I selected those permissions and it didnt make a difference...

very annoying..

Did you also check the permission on forum boards for Guests. To make sure the same permission was in place for them to not view thread content. I would just double check your forum category and boards usergroup permissions also to see if the permissions has be over ridden.

that means in each category i have i will need to set the permission? but then it will display to them that no posts been made in that category.

I remember using your hack on the 3.0.x version... it was cool. It displayed the number of posts and latest post made etc... but then when the guest tried reading it or checking it out it will say log in..

ok it displays PRIVATE... but it should act as normal.. thats what i want to show the guests and others that yeh there are posts inside that category.. but once some 1 clicks the category the LOGIN comes up

Yes, but they can still view threads through the "Archive Pages" or "Printthread Pages" (not sure which one, or if they can view through both). As a way of getting around that feature logged out as a guest in vB 3.5. Making that a pretty flawed feature that doesn't really stop anyone at all if they know what address to type in there browser to still view the content.

Were as this hack stops guest from doing that by blocking them from viewing threads while still allowing you to add bots you list in the code that can have access like Google Adsence, Googlebot, Yahoo Slurp etc.