regarding MEMBERS ONLY forums...

I think the friendly banter is a drawing card for new customers. When potential customers visit the site and see the supportive community, they want to belong to it. Therefore, I think everybody should have READ access, much like now.

WRITE access is currently also available to anyone, they just have to sign up. (Which makes it easy for spammers to join and post)

But if write access required a registered version of the product, I think it would not only keep out bots and spammers, it would also encourage people who may be using a "borrowed" copy to buy and register a legitimate copy.

Also there are probably some who are on the fence about buying, and the option of joining the community will push them over the edge.