Members-only access

A benefit written on a tier card is a promise. A members-only restriction is that promise made real: TribeNest checks the buyer's membership at checkout and refuses the sale to anyone who is not on the tier.

This page covers two different things that both get called "members only", because mixing them up causes real damage:

• Members-only access is a gate. Non-members cannot buy it at all.
• Members-only pricing is a discount. Anyone can buy it, members just pay less.

Access is set up here. Pricing is a coupon and is covered at the bottom of this page.

Restricting something to a tier

1. Go to Membership then Membership Tiers.
2. On the tier card, open the menu in the top-right corner and click Members-only access.
3. Under Restrict something to this tier, choose an Event.
4. Under What to restrict, pick either The whole event (every ticket tier) or a single ticket tier.
5. Click Make members-only.

The restriction joins the list at the top of the dialog, under Currently restricted to this tier. To take one off, click the bin icon beside it. Removing it stops the rule applying immediately, and nothing anyone already bought is affected.

Anything you have already restricted is greyed out in the picker, so you cannot add the same thing twice.

Nothing happens until you turn enforcement on

Restrictions are saved as soon as you make them, but they are inert until you switch enforcement on for your workspace. Until then, the dialog says so plainly, and every entry in the list carries a small not enforced label.

That is deliberate. It lets you author the whole list, look at it, and decide, rather than closing doors one click at a time and discovering the damage afterwards.

The setting

1. Go to Settings then the Features tab.
2. Find Enforce members-only access.
3. Turn the switch on.
4. Read the confirmation, then click Turn it on.

There is a link straight to this setting inside the members-only dialog, and a link back to your tiers from the setting.

TribeNest shows you who is affected before you confirm

You do not have to guess at the damage. The confirmation step carries a report of exactly what turning it on would do, and the button to confirm stays disabled until that report has loaded.

The report leads with a headline: either "Nobody would lose access to your 3 members-only things", or a count of the people who would. Underneath it lists the consequences in the language of what actually happens, and labels each one by how bad it is:

• Takes back access, the worst kind. Somebody loses something they already hold and paid for.
• Stops being visible, where a member can read something today and would not be able to after.
• Refused at checkout, where a recent buyer would be turned away next time.
• Worth knowing, for things like a restriction that requires a tier nobody currently holds, which closes that thing to everyone rather than restricting it to members.

There is also a What this report cannot see section. Open it. A report that hides its own blind spots is worse than no report, so TribeNest lists them rather than letting you assume the number is the whole answer.

The full list, on your tiers page

The confirmation gives you the count. The panel underneath your tier cards on the Membership Tiers page gives you the names.

It appears as soon as you have authored a single restriction and shows, for each restricted thing: what it is, which tiers it requires, how many members still get in, and the people who would not, with their email and the tier they hold. If somebody on the list has no account at all, they are marked accordingly, because a guest checkout cannot prove a membership.

There is a Re-check button and a timestamp of when it was last run. Add another restriction after reading it and the report needs running again, which is exactly the point: it is a check on what is true now, not a formality.

Turning it back off

Flip the switch off and restrictions stop being enforced, so everything they were holding back becomes open to everyone again straight away. The restrictions themselves are kept, not deleted, so turning it on later picks up where you left off.

Members-only pricing is a different thing

If what you want is "members pay less" rather than "only members can buy", do not use a restriction. Use an automatic discount, which applies itself at checkout without the buyer typing anything.

1. Go to Coupons in your dashboard and click Create Coupon.
2. Choose where it Applies at checkout and what it Applies to.
3. Set the discount as a Percentage or a Fixed amount.
4. Under How it is applied, turn on Apply automatically.
5. Under Who can redeem it, set Required membership tier to the tier you want to reward.
6. Click Create Coupon.

Your members see the discount already applied in the order summary, as a Discount line above the total, without ever opening the code box. Everyone else simply pays the normal price. Nobody is blocked, so the offer grows your membership instead of shrinking your sales.

In your coupon list, this one carries two badges: Automatic and Members only.

See coupons for the rest of what a coupon can do.

Where to go next

• Set up the tiers this all hangs off: membership tiers.
• Build the events you are restricting: events.
• Set up the discount instead: coupons.