Hey, as a new member, I guess I'm one sided when I say, I think the forum should remain 'public', as it is currently; isn't their enough anonymity online as it is?
If a person is so concerned with safety, proxies, firewalls, latest software and hardware, ssl and computers bought under different names should be enough for the average person to evade detection, so there really shouldn't be a big concern about the authorities reading these sites.
Anyways, couldn't a LEO pretend to be just another curious member like someone who is legitimately trying to join, and be pretty much indistinguishable from one another?
I think it would be a shame to make the information here unavailable to the general public who doesn't want to join for whatever reasons. For as many members as there is here, there are a thousand lurkers who don't join but benefit from the material.