It has been some time now that the EA changed and you now have to register to get in. I understand the reason, but still think it is a bit of an obstacle to new people coming in. What is the situation now? Could we go back?

I know what you mean, but the climate towards "us" is still a bit hostile at the moment. It's still a good idea to carefully screen anyone wanting to sign up, and not just letting "anyone" wander in.

I think letting anyone in unverified is asking for the boards to be spammed

Isn't that one reason why we have those wonderful volunteers called moderators reviewing posts?

I don't think, and certainly hope, that they are having lives and not looking in on the site most of the day and night.

Free access would require fairly heavy site monitoring by all the moderators. More work for them to have to clean the message boards instead of checking someone is who they say they are.

Back in the 'bad old days' when I first learned about EA, it was possible to READ at least some of the forums, but not POST anything except in the one section for 'registration issues'... Reading doesn't cause problems unless possibly if the server is getting so many hits it's overloaded. (Possible w/ a Denial of Service attack, but that is going to be stopped by denying read access...) In order to post in any of the message areas you had to go through the entire registration process just like today. (Which certainly discourages spammers and other evil sorts, but doesn't stop them, I believe the mods have to get rid of them on a regular basis)

My limited understanding of the switch is that there were a few hostile articles posted on various "news" sites that pointed at EA, quoted it, and even 'outed' a couple of the mods.... In response they cut off read access to unregistered folks... IMHO this is of limited value since the Wayback Machine still works. (It may even be worse as the WBM goes back to when there was slightly more tolerance for cutters / people seeking them)

I respect the moderators decision, though I disagree with it, as I feel like it is somewhat of a dis-service to the legitimate seekers (the evil actors can just get a junk email to use and toss).

I know that when I was first learning about castration as something that was more than just ancient history and strange Eastern religious practices, I spent a LOT of time exploring EA and a few other (mostly less useful) sites trying to figure out if this was something that I would actually consider doing.... Being somewhat paranoid about all the general tracking and other bad stuff on the net, I didn't want to be showing up as one of the folks interested in "those" topics until I decided if I wanted to be one... I certainly would not have been willing to give the sort of personal information being asked for on the registration form without having been able to see what the site was like.... Who knows how many other folks like me might be out there?

WheelyCurious

I don't recall cutters ever being tolerate in any iteration of the site. Although maybe in teh past people were fussed at but the post not removed? Can't say I remember that specifically.

Thanks, Folks.

As recently as July, another new hit piece by "She Who Must Not Be Named" appeared online, further slandering Jesus A., Kristoff, Prof. Wassersugg, and basically anyone associated with the Archive.

From the way this article reads, we're all a bunch of pedophiles who have managed set up clinics on every other street corner and hire licensed doctors to perform TG surgery on minors. It's like something out of a fictional EA Story Universe or something! That, and we've corrupted the SOC people with our perverse views.

So, for now, we're keeping things the way they are.

True, it may limit traffic.

But thanks to people like "her," (yes, I can understand that it might also limit access to someone who really needs it) it's in everyone's best interests to keep things the way they are for now.

I get people wanting to hide their online activities. However if the person is in real need of information, registering isn't an overbearing ask. We don't ask for a credit card or anything. Off the top of my head, a real email address and and log on from a real ip address and give a general location?

Too lazy to look it up

That's pretty much, it yes.