[docvader]

Think this works.

I made the parent forum inactive so that it doesn't show.
I made the permissions for registered users so that they can post in the parent forum, but cannot search.

If the parent forum is active and visible, registered users will be able to see it and enter through forum index, but not through the dorms.php link. So, I made it invisible.
Turning "search forum" in the permissions off, for the parent forum, keeps registered users from searching in the "new posts, etc" search.php query.

Also, I used this hack, even though the above seemed to do the trick: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...exclude+forums

Confused? So am I. But, we're testing this now, this seems to do the job.

rich