Hi folks,
I’m about nine month into my Ghost journey. I have a handful of “Free” members (those who signed up with just an email address) and “Free Tier” members (those who signed up for the $0 Tier).
If I give a post “Members only” Access, both “free-email-only” and “free/$0” tier members can see the post.
I can’t seem to give Specific Tier access to only my “free/$0” tier members.
With that background, a few questions:
- Is it by design/expected that “free-email-only” members and “free/$0” tier members are different in the system, even though both are “free”?
- If the difference is by design, what is the goal of differentiating them?
- If they are meant to be different, why can’t I use the “free/$0” tier to “gate” content?
- Why can’t a “free-email-only” member “upgrade” to a “free/$0” tier?
I would expect a “free-email-only” member to be limited to certain posts (or to previews of posts, perhaps), and for “free/$0” members to get various perks, but that doesn’t seem to be possible.
More context for those who may wondering “what are you really trying to do?” 
:
I’m currently experimenting with making some “vintage” posts (from my now-defunct personal blog) available as “gated” content. One possibility is to put them behind my “free/$0” and higher tiers, as a perk of joining those tiers. Free-email-only members (and those who don’t sign up at all) wouldn’t see them.
However:
- I can’t (seemingly) gate at the “free/$0” tier.
- Even if I could, “free-email-only” members can’t (apparently) “upgrade” their membership to this “higher free” tier—only to an actual-money paid one.
Thanks for any insight!
Jason.