Dom all you have to do is look at the top of page and it CLEARLY states ” Private Forums – Affiliate Webmasters Only” when you are in the private area.
If you are in the public areas it does NOT state Private. So always glance up there first.
I know you have reported having problems with this in the past too. I wish there were an easier way to distinguish the public from private areas, but for now you have to read the thread line to know where you are posting.
We have to do something that lets the users of the “recent posts” function recognize whether they are in public or private areas!
Yep, I am sure thats where your problem arises from and I have recommended you to surf “normally” to avoid this confusion. When you view the forum as it was intended you will always see the private areas are WAY DOWN at the bottom of the screen so it reinforces to you that they are a seperate area from the general discussion areas.