The Way It Is
I believe I understand the motives of Alexander and his team in putting in the access restriction; they put in a lot of time and effort supporting the iSilo links pages.
However, I think what they're wishing for is flying in the face of how people read forums and use the Internet. For every contributor a forum has, you have 3-8 people who only "lurk" -- read without contributing.
You can wish for it to be otherwise, but from my experience on the Internet (and Usenet before it), that's pretty much the way it is.
The current restriction situation is, in my case, doing the opposite of what it's intended to do. I got an automated e-mail note that a thread I've subscribed to in the "New Links" has a new posting to it. However, I'm unable to read it because I haven't posted lately.
If I did have unencumbered access to that thread, I might well have contributed to the discussion, as I have to other threads -- when I thought I had something relevant to say. However, this new restriction blocks me from doing that. And I dislike being under an obligation to "talk" just to be able to read some of the material here.
This policy gets in the way of my using the forums; so, frankly, I will be reading (and contributing) to these forums less than I normally would. I'd probably never be a major contributor to the forums; but my life is busy enough, and my interest in the topics here restricted enough, that I don't feel the time to "maintain" my account is worth it.
That's how I feel about it; obviously, your mileage may vary. I wish Alexander and the members of this board the best, and thank them for the time they've put into the Turcic.com iSiloX collection.
Regards,
Jeff Meyer
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