From 7251977f54b5ce85e2d1050348228c52ef2033da Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: David Stone <david@nnucomputerwhiz.com>
Date: Sat, 24 Oct 2026 23:42:55 -0600
Subject: [PATCH] fix: answer blocked and demo-mode site frontends with 403,
 not 500

---
 inc/managers/class-site-manager.php | 2 ++
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)

diff --git a/inc/managers/class-site-manager.php b/inc/managers/class-site-manager.php
index 46813f6a4..1a6952ad0 100644
--- a/inc/managers/class-site-manager.php
+++ b/inc/managers/class-site-manager.php
@@ -690,6 +690,7 @@ public function lock_site(): void {
 					)
 				),
 				esc_html__('Site in Demo Mode', 'ultimate-multisite'),
+				['response' => 403]
 			);
 		}
 
@@ -731,6 +732,7 @@ public function lock_site(): void {
 				// translators: %s: link to the login page
 				sprintf(wp_kses_post(__('This site is not available at the moment.<br><small>If you are the site admin, click <a href="%s">here</a> to login.</small>', 'ultimate-multisite')), esc_attr(wp_login_url())),
 				esc_html__('Site not available', 'ultimate-multisite'),
+				['response' => 403]
 			);
 		}
 	}