I like it.

Hmm I don't know, I like the idea but I think it could be a bit early. Did it get anyone to sign up? That would only be good if we got posting members. Also, how much did it drop the page views?

Ah well today and yesterday we've got more members then normal, but it sounds the page views and the posts have been greatly reduced. This doesn't make much sense since posts have nothing to do with guests veiwing the forum.

Just a lazy sunday I guess?

I think making the forum closed like this is a bad idea. I have been watching the site since just a little before the other forums were closed and I was very dissapointed when it was.

The main security beneifit from keeping the forum closed is that it would not be indexed by search engines, but this can also be done without inconveniencing anyone with a robot.txt file. The reason attention would be called to the site otherwise is from someone complaining to the police about it. A simple thing like requiring login will not slow even casual investigation of the website. It takes about 30 seconds to register with the site if you have a disposeable email site bookmarked (As I have done).

On the other hand, this creates inconvenience to your users, especially those that wish to remain anonymous. I, for example, access the site through Tor (The Onion Router) which is a very crucial tool for protecting my privacy (It is basically a set of public proxies on security paranoia steroids). One very crucial item for anonymity is to clear cookies when ending a session, such as after posting on this site. If I have a cookie in my system I can be tracked as 'that guy that posted on the Vespiary'. With Tor I have to log in whenever viewing, which means I have to open my password safe, retrieve my 20 digit password, and then load the site (Multiple proxying like with Tor makes it slow to about dial-up speeds), etc. Sure, its not *that* bad, but when you have half a dozen forums to check every day it might just be the difference between keeping a bookmark and deleting it.

Now, the main benefactor of closing the forum like this is of course, the guy who runs the forum. But there are other much better security measures that can be taken. For best convenience you can use proxies such as Tor to get hosting (paying in cash, or anonymous e-gold) and to access the site. If you wanted to host it yourself you could do it within the darknets that are appearing nowadays such as Tor, I2P, etc. and have your users enter using the darknet client (inconvenient for the less tech savy) or the public inproxies (Arguably less anonymous, but generally the inproxy owners are privacy nuts anyway).

I don't really see any benefit for the users of this change, so long as you only keep sanitized logs as you should. The only real benefit after that is that the site could be taken down less often? But I think that a site like this requires proper diligence to keep backups to prevent takedowns anyway, putting the content behind a registration wall isn't going to help that.

Anyway that is my 2 cents. The great power of the internet is that it opens up information. So many things are being put behind paywalls and registration walls nowadays. It seems like a shame to me that there is a push to make the internet more closed.