We can try this again. As an admin I'm open to hearing what people have to say. I think AnimeGamer's comments were rather rash and inconsiderate seeing as absolutely nothing has changed other than an 18+ agreement in order to keep our site safe on it's server (who can in fact pull it down for such things). Nothing has lost personality, the junk forum hasn't moved and all is well that ends well. It is to safe guard the community you love, not alter it in any way. So think before you post.
The outcome:
-Google will not crawl the junk forum, thus grabbing things that should no represent the site in a search engine.
-New members will have to get aquainted with the site before finding their way to the junker.
-Guests will not be potentially turned off, but upon registering can gain access.
-Vets will have more freedom to say what they like in the junker, considering it won't be out in the open. AKA more fun.
Seems to me nothing has changed, only gotten better on all ends.
As for the entire staff agreeing, no need to even post that. Some things need not be said, swaying a community isn't the way to go about things. In all honesty if you look back at that thread, Peter did not suggest this, he suggested making the last view topic not appear via the index. Others wanted the forum gone and other wanted no change at all. I came up with the idea of having it a private forum that will act as it always has as long as users click 'agree', only once mind you. I tried to appease all ends here and you know what, why the hell wouldn't it? It's the same thing with more freedom. With that said, I did it without running it by anyone. As the owner, I do have the authority to do what I feel is right. Again, to appease all ends here seemed much better than watching a three way debate ensue. At the end of the day, nothing has changed (only gotten looser) but we secured all ends. If anyone is crying over nothing, don't do it to me. I'm not going to hear it this time around.
Axm, please don't lock threads like these with such haste. I made this specifically to help members in case they have questions regarding the procedure in joining the group. How are they going to ask if the thread is locked?