This merely means it has zero SEO (google finds nothing) and participation is consequently very low. Most threads are posts by people desperate for solutions and almost nobody is replying because there is almost nobody here.

Originally, from years ago, it was to reduce bandwidth as spiders were continuously and repeatedly re-reading. But also because it's a value added service for registered UK users only.

Your further hypothesis... I don't agree

participation is consequently very low.....almost nobody is replying because there is almost nobody here.

I admin a forum (technology, not networking or computing) which has had 250k posts in 7 years, currently 100 posts/day, 300GB/month download traffic. We allow users to upload images, too, which is brilliant for content. The total size is 80GB and hosting on a 160GB virtual server costs $50/month and the allowed bandwidth is 3TB/month so even we are using 1/10 of that. And that is with bots, google and everything else. 15 years ago it was a bit different...

Social media is key to selling stuff these days, because almost nobody reads printed media, so advertising in it returns almost nothing. And a forum where the product is supported is a great tool.

Just saying

peter-h wrote:
I admin a forum

Yes, TODAY. Back when this forum started, the ISP charged for bandwidth (or we were on a cheapskate account... ).

First-time poster here..

I'm on the lookout for a replacement VDSL router and am considering a Draytek. Was pleased to eventually discover a support forum but also disappointed to find I couldn't browse without registering first.

I imagine I would've found it a lot sooner had the forum been open and crawable as no doubt posts would've appeared that matched some of the things I'd been running searches for.

Noting the rationale behind why it was first locked down is it now time to reconsider opening it up? Im my view it would do it/you good.

MJN wrote:
I imagine I would've found it a lot sooner had the forum been open and crawable

No, you would have found whatever you needed a lot sooner by asking the pre-sales team a specific question by email rather than accessing a forum which is clearly for eligible existing users only...