Originally Posted by
YoDude9999
This works well to keep out the spammers, but it describes the mechanics of getting registered and gaining access to the forum. It doesn't however, touch on the issue at hand.
What's being said is that the forum should be open for read only access to all pages except for the Team only private areas. Being read only still keeps the spammers from spamming on the forum and using the current method for validating real people and granting them write access that's already in place, should remain so.