Seriously: no way to bypass the next page in line at all?

yeah, the support here sucks.
because it no longer exists, i guess.

for what i understand, you have a website where you have your comic strips. and my guess is that a page or a post contains one or many of those comic strips. there are a few posts or pages.

and you do not want the stupid membership page to show up when somebody clicks on a page or post he is not yet able to see.

well, i solved a similar solution by simply designating what level of membership you need to see a PART of a page or post.

you can put your comic strip into brackets, like this:

′[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)]
*your comic strip goes here*
[else]
*display a button to buy level1*
[/s2If]′

and you do it right where you edit your post. this way, everyone can see your post. but only people who bought the level1 membership option will see what’s between the brackets.

am I on to something here?

Thanks for getting back to me at least!!!!!! But yeah, I was set to buy the pro version but after finding numerous similar complaints by people regarding getting help, I’ve decided I’d better not. That’s money I can’t afford to see wasted. Really, it’s money I can’t afford period but I was going to. Besides I couldn’t find any documentation that the system did what I need it to do.

I did use your method on the membership page, because someone tried to get a membership before they registered. That turned out badly.

But when it comes to the comic pages themselves, it’s not possible. Comic Easel uses the featured image set up to display the comic pages. You can’t do a wrap around for that.

I also found that although it’s not letting unregistered people see the blocked page, it’s letting them see the comment I made with it. Which is annoying.

There’s only one image per post, even though the system supports multiple comic posts. I haven’t played with that function yet to fully understand it.

To get around another limitation with this system I had to get yet another plugin and create a page dedicated to pulling posts marked for harvesting by that plugin. So I did that for wallpapers.

But if I wanted to post one of the side stories and have it for members only, I’m sore out of luck.

If I want to have a page twenty pages back be for members only, I’m sore out of luck unless I want people to always be thrust out of a smooth reading experience to that spam moment of “buy buy buy buy”.

I’m thankful these guys put the base out for free and all. And so far it really is the only one I could work alongside with Comic Easel without having to go back to college. But I think if I were to find better I’d jump ship at this stage.

Just a little note on your comment about support. This is a wordpress forum and the authors will offer direct support for the pro version, while here, it is a lot of user-to-user support. So don’t assume that the author’s support is lame for the pro version just because it is not much here. Just saying.

Actually it’s something based on the fact that when I went looking for support on their home page I was directed here. ?? Which means others who are encouraged to go here because their home page forum has been moved have also made the same conclusion. I can’t begin to tell you the cries of help that went unanswered I have read in the past hours. The angry statements from buyers of pro who can’t even get help when they try going direct. The complaint after complaint. Just. Wow. And I’m telling you when it comes to support, no matter how I looked that’s about all I could find. Although to their credit I did find one or two old posts where the people did get help somewhat. Just not lately.

So as for my comment about support (at least), after rereading my original post it wasn’t even directed at this forum. I mentioned the lack of documentation, period. So there was nothing there to take personally or defend this forum from in the first place. Which means I’d spent a long time trying to find *something* *anything* wow seriously nothing at all??

In my case I’ve gathered that the system just isn’t friendly to what I hope to do. I can’t be the first webcomicker to try this with this system, though, so I tried vERY HARD to find some sort of documentation someone may have put out there. Nothing. I may write up a report about it in my blog, document what *I* have found.

Of course it’s my hope the makers find my various please for help in various places learn of this demand and adapt. It would be lucrative on all sides.

I am not sure why they switched, but the regular forum they had was switched to here. The support for the pro version is not in that forum, but through here: https://www.s2member.com/contact/
Did you try that?

Yes. I did. I’m going to take it that I didn’t get my post edit in in time for you to read my mention about asking for help in more places than this.

I also found an online mention by one of the creators and various other people that direct help was for people who spent money on the system only. That was kind of discouraging.

It doesn’t matter. I’ve found out what I needed to know the hard way. Things move forward as they will move forward.

Sorry it does not work for you. I have been using s2M for 3 years now, and although it does not do everything, it does enough for me and probably for a lot of people. I guess you might have specific needs that are just not addressed by this particular plugin.

Yeah. It does a lot, and for other purposes it’s a great plugin. I’d certainly use it for other stuff if I did other stuff… But for my needs it’s missing the most important features.

I may write them a letter outlining my needs and explain the large demand (there are thousands of us webcomickers). If nothing else it’s something for them to consider.

Oh, just to document in case someone else thinks your link is a good one for the free version: This request type requires a customer account. The email address you provided is not associated with a customer account at this time. In other words, this email address is NOT on file as having paid for the pro version of s2Member yet. If you have another email address, please try again. The address you enter here MUST match your customer account.

That’s what you get. (sighs) But until the system works for what I need, there’s no way they’re getting my last $70. LOL

aw come on, cassel.
i’ve been a premium member for … a year or two.
redirecting their forum to this was just a weak move.

i’ve been replacing every core function of s2member piece by piece with my own routines since i bought it. by now i have s2member only for communicating with paypal and it does not even do that perfectly (payments with iphone safari will result in an error).

a feature they have been promising for two years now (if you look at the old forums) is expiring ccaps. it still does not exist. i will have my own hack for that finished today.

and there are no good docs on their own functions to hook into.
there is another, much younger plugin which should have it’s next major release by the end of this month, we’ll see…

redirecting their forum to this was just a weak move.

Sorry, I haven’t looked but which forum redirects to here? The reason I’m asking is to ensure that the author isn’t supporting or sending paying customers to these forums.

https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Forum_Welcome#Commercial_Products

User’s of the plugin hosted on www.ads-software.com should use these forums but as the authors know “premium members” have to be supported elsewhere.

The situation with S2Member’s community forum is they no longer house it. They direct you to here. So unless you pay out money, you’re SOL.

So “If you use a commercial theme or plugin and need support, please go to their official support channel” really leaves S2Members out of luck I guess.

Redirecting is why I haven’t even shared my website. And it just seemed to me that other users of S2Member might know if it possessed the functions I need. They use it, right? No coding help needed with a simple question like that. I just needed to know if certain things were possible.

And hopefully another webcomicker will find the beginning of this thread and be helped. Or maybe another answer will reveal itself later after my post here. =^-^=

@natic86 I agree that the change in s2member’s community forum — not so much the housing it here, rather than on their own site, as the general lack of participation of the developers — was a bad move.

I think they did it for good reasons (to spend more time developing the plugin) but, in reducing the level of support for the free version to more-or-less zero, they have shot themselves in the foot. A little bit of participation would be so much better received that they’d probably make far more sales of the Pro version.

Indeed, there are several features (e.g. Stripe integration) that have been promised for a while and not delivered, so sometimes it seems that they are trying to undermine themselves.

However, the “much younger plugin” of which you speak still doesn’t come close to having the feature set of s2member, and is completely incapable of managing my own sites. The developers of that plugin also provide none of the knowledgebase that s2member provides for free on its own site — unless you want to pay an annual support fee to gain access to its “secrets”. By contrast, s2member only charges a one-off fee for lifetime usage of its Pro version!

So, even though your criticism of s2member is valid, the alternative that perhaps works for you doesn’t even make it into the ballpark as far as I am concerned. In fact, for what I need, there isn’t another plugin on www.ads-software.com that does.

i am glad that you found everything you ever hoped for in s2member.

“the much younger” plugin will feature everything that is needed and will play nicely with woocommerce (which supports european payment gateways). after my support experience with s2member pro, i will gladly pay $8 each month to have true support, instead of a ridiculous promise of “lifetime support” after a small one-time-payment.

@natic86 “i am glad that you found everything you ever hoped for in s2member.”

Since I said no such thing, your own hyperbole suggests you’re now just trying too hard. You were much more persuasive before you went down that route.