Currently when a guest lands on my forum, they see the forum list.

I'd like to show them the latest topics instead to entice them to get started.

Whats the best way to get guests landing into the conversation instead of having to pick a forum and then see topics?

You would not be able to set it so they see unread content as shown there. In fact it would actually be pointless, as guests dont have unread topics, as they arent members. However you can set it so that they see the all activity stream.

1. Go to System>Site Features>Applications

2. Click the star icon at the side of "System"

3. Expand the system section and select the star at the side of "Content Discovery"

I don't agree it would be pointless. I searched the forum and saw that it had been mentioned before. It's merely another side of a coin. If someone isn't a member, you can say they have no topics because there is no tracking. You can also say they have all the topics because there is no tracking.

I believe as a forum owner if you presented me with the option to show my unregistered users nothing. OR unread topics that updated every time they visited. I think that's a no brainer. Repeated topics to someone not logged in is clearly better than no topics in that view.

I don't understand why there isn't a default way to just show the latest updated topics in that feed when someone isn't logged in. Creating a separate view for people who aren't logged in, which is a large portion of any forum is not optimal. Then add a note section above the feed that says "want to come back to tailored unread topics for you each visit? Login with a link"

9 hours ago, Aquariumcoop said:

I don't understand why there isn't a default way to just show the latest updated topics in that feed when someone isn't logged in.

It’s just confusing to present a completely type of content/structure depending on someone’s login status. If seeing the latest topics is useful for your site, why shouldn’t logged in members see this as well on your homepage? Why would this list disappear for them and they would see a category list now? And why would it not be useful for guests to see the forum categories to understand what the forum is offering and why should they not be able to explore the categories to find topics they are interested in? It’s just more logical and user-friendly to keep the structure of the site in tact no matter the login status.

Either way, while you cannot replace the forum list, you can certainly add guest only widgets to show the latest topics. There are activity feeds, post feeds and topic feeds and you can limit them to guests when you set them up as Pages block in the ACP.

If you want a busy homepage showing the latest activity, you could also consider making the Activity Page the homepage (as Mark explained) or to use the Fluid View for the forums. Or use the new feature to set a different default page for different groups. So, there are actually plenty of ways to get your latest topics lists for guests, just not exactly in the way you imagined it.

12 hours ago, Aquariumcoop said:

I don't agree it would be pointless.

I understand your thoughts there, but please let me explain. You are trying to show the unread topic page there. Lets say I'm a guest visiting your site, and I go on, read a few topics and go away. I now revisit your site, and see "Unread topics" at the top, but the first few topics I know Ive already read. I no longer visit, as your site (to me) is broken).

What you are looking for is all activity, which is shown in the manner I mentioned above.

That said, if you want to show different pages for different people, you can do that by creating your own pages, with blocks. You can then show guests one set of data and members another if you wanted to do so.