I agree with the majority. Leave it open so people can see what AH is about and decide to join or not. A totally closed forum would be like shopping for something and being unable to see the product or the price tag. How can you hope to buy under conditions like that?
If you can't see the product, in this case, the conversations that takes place on the forum, what people talk about, the personalities that hang out there, how could you know if you wanted to buy it?
If you can't see the price tag, in this case, the fact that it is User Supported via donations, and thus FREE to the Great Unwashed Masses, how can you decide if you can afford to buy it?
I see this kind of thing increasingly in stores all the time. The product is packaged so securely and locked down so tightly that you can't even look at it to determine if it will even vaguely meet your needs. And to make it worse, it's priceless. No price tag on the item itself, nor the shelf or hook that it is on. Even if I REALLY, REALLY think that I want it, if it's offered to me under those conditions, I turn my back and walk away. I obviously DON'T want to buy it from them.
Leaving it open gives an added bonus that you do NOT generally see in stores, Try-It-Before-You-Buy-It. It's how I joined. Someone told me about it and I came and listened and browsed the threads. Yeah. I liked it, so I joined. Granted, I didn't become ACTIVE until Certain Events occurred, but nonetheless, I joined because I was able to look at the Threads to get the overall "tone" of the Forum, which I liked very much, and because the music WAS/IS MY STYLE. If the Forum had been closed, my "shopping" visit here would have lasted all of 10 seconds, if that.
No. It's exactly perfect just the way that it is.