I know it was supposed to be a temporary measure, but I think this closed group thing is actually a good thing in the long run as well. I went by CG for the first time in long and what struck me was the enormous amount of stupid posts on the forum like "what does good espresso taste like" or "what's the best machine?" or worse.
4500 members like CG is death to any online forum, I think you can be much more effective - not to mention pleasant - keeping those numbers low (maybe a few hundred really dedicated people is the maximum). What do you think?