There has been no censoring to APF. 70% or more of the entire board is still open to all. But certain areas, have been closed off from global view. When one considers the contributions that all members, past and present, have made here, the research, giving thought and analysis to poster sales, trends, restoration, articles written about posters artists, hobby history, poster finds (the threads go on and on)..... it adds up to a lot of information, not found anywhere else on the interwebs.
Why should all of this be available for just anyone who cant take the 3 min to register here for free? As another example, I have often looked at those online and the numbers of guests who are literally printing out various threads is pretty staggering. As well, there was discussion about how guests could easily gather or take info, not only from the mid auction thread, but from possible wish lists that members post to the board now and then. So there was a money element to it, as well.
And many sites require a free membership in order to access all the features or info available to members. This is nothing new. MPB, HA, emovie and even certain forums have the same requirement or lock downs in place.
In addition, it was primarily done (as an experiment) to see if it might encourage new people that are currently coming here as Guests, to join, want to participate, and infuse new blood, thoughts and material into the forum. And, of course, APF, in total, is then available to them, as well.
I would think that any client of any of the dealers or auction houses would be registered on those sites. As such, they would be able to access any and all material that might be advertised here, for sale or up for auction. In addition, any upcoming auction advertising seen here is also on each of the home sites.
The bottom line is... this change wasnt done to make Guests feel less welcome, but to encourage those to become a part of a movie poster forum that has much to offer, both from its members as well as the material, information, insight, research and imagery they have provided over these last 4.5 years.
And nothing is etched in stone (well, at least not everything). Things can always be reverted back to how they were, prior.
*In checking the technical side of the SMF layout here, individual threads cannot be locked unfortunately. Otherwise that would have been done. Only the larger boards can be.*