Your account is 22 years old. So I don't know what you remember.
But why did you make an account at all if you can recall?
Well, I do have to look pretty far back through the haze of time, but what I recall is basically this:
I was a reader of Ars pretty much from its inception in 1998. I remember reading Caesar and Hannibal explaining their vision for Ars, and I generally liked what I saw, thought it was an interesting set of ideas and people.
In the early years of the fora (and the front page for that matter) there was a heavy emphasis on building Windows gaming boxes and playing Windows games. I was a unix at work, Mac at home person in those days, so those discussions didn't really catch my interest. What I was interested in was the convergence of unix and MacOS that the merger of Apple and NeXT brought. The combination of the Siracusa OS X articles (and related content), and the creation of the Mac Ach in 2001 (or so?), which quickly became a leading forum for discussion OSX and related hardware, is what drove me to sign up for an account here, in 2002 (the immediate trigger was a future hardware discussion I thought I could add something to) and the first thread I created was a BF thread comparing 3 different platforms for a hardware purchase.
My "Eras tour" through the Ars fora looks something like this:
1998-02 - no account, just reading, primarily tech and science content
2002-05 - occasional poster on mostly pretty specific technical topics (mostly Ach & BF)
2005-15 - posting primarily on tech industry trends, higher level, lots of predictions (still mostly BF & Ach)
2016-now - the convergence of the crazy 2016 election and the end of the mobile predictions for 2015 thread (and the tech industry getting a bit boring) changed me to a primarily Soapbox poster
Why did you start posting in the Lounge?
Well you'll note there's no Lounge era above. My first post to the lounge came well over a decade after I first signed up, in 2015 (I think). Lounge posts are a very small fraction for me, and mostly focus on sports or movies/TV. I didn't participate in the early lounge (and don't think I ever posted in the VR, though I can't check my memory on that), nor in many lounge threads that were very personal.
I know I still remember. I read posts there and felt left out, I wanted to participate.
For me it was the tech content and tech fora that drew me in. It took a
long time before I had the interest or comfort level to post in the SB or Lounge (or even read them much). I realize that's only one data point, but it certainly wouldn't have affected my trajectory at all if SB/Lounge required a login to view.
If we hide everything until you're already past the gate, why would you bother to go past the gate at all in other words? You don't even know what you're missing or if you care.
Not talking about hiding everything, just require a login for a couple fora that are more personal/sensitive, and not hiding them from anyone who can post here, as posting requires an account.
I would expect most of your users these days have their first post on front page threads, is that right?
I would think the combo of the front page discussions and all the tech fora would be enough to get people to take the easy step of creating an account.
It's a huge barrier to new people, and it doesn't actually solve anything.
The first part I don't really see - participation in any forum here requires an account, so getting one to see some of the more sensitive content doesn't seem like much of a barrier.
As for 'doesn't solve anything' or 'horse is already out of the barn', you could say the same about the VR situation but you made a well-motivated change there.
You can see in this thread (and elsewhere) that some of your most prolific posters aren't happy with the status quo and are requesting you consider this specific change.
For my part, this isn't really about me personally, except insofar as I really do think making this change will help the SB and Lounge survive into the future and remain vibrant. I agree about the importance of new users, but the reality is that it's your old reliable users who primarily keep those fora interesting places to visit, and several of them have already left, and others are unhappy with the status quo.....
That's the issue, and why I don't consider it a fix for anything. In one of these threads I posted that old graphic about pirates vs DVD buyers, where the point was that pirates get to just watching a movie, and people who pay have to sit through the unskippable trailers etc. It's the same thing, we punish people with good intentions, and don't do a thing to hurt those who aren't paying attention to the rules.
I really don't see how requiring a sign in to view some of the more sensitive fora when you already require a sign-in to actually participate in any of the fora (ie post) amounts to punishing anyone. IMHO it amounts to at least making some effort to protect semi-sensitive content (not so much past as future) and to listen to your users.
And requiring a login does create at least a speed bump for scrapers - they'll at least have to dedicate some effort specific to Ars to get things going (and there are additional things you could do on your end to make it inconvenient for them).
Offered a $10,000 bounty to have me fired from a project, threatened me online. Shit happens.
