IT WORKS!!!!!!
I think I read about this somewhere but it did not sink in, so I will say it for anyone who did what I did. YES, what I did to prevent active topics from working correctly.
Our forum is private, so I sent all forums (37 in all) with a default access setting to Private Groups only for everything.
Then I created groups and gave each group access as they are allowed. I did not create a "guest" permission group because the default forum settings would block their access.
It also blocks the active topics from working.
I set the default forum access controls to "All Users" for the forum access control. All the rest stayed at "group permission". I then created a group permission for "guest" in each forum, leaving all access options blank.
Funny I did not figure this out until after I Donated,
Now I need to search again and see if I can stop guest from seeing the topic titles in active topic views. If not, I can live with it.
Edited by Carls Dad