As I said, the greater the difficulty to access the material the more people will dismiss it. I think there are plenty of people out there that pass over the Nfic because they can't be bothered with the registration.
Really? I've always thought that nfic in every fandom garners more interest and enthusiasm than PG fic. The more you lock it down, the more allure it has and the more people are beating down the doors to get to it. I've certainly never had the impression it was "dismissed" by readers, here or anywhere else.
I don't think the nfic posted here is especially damaging (another one of those value judgments, of course, since everyone's definition of what might be damaging differs, and perhaps differs even further according to who's reading it) but I also don't think it hurts to password protect it. As others have said, it's pretty easy to get the password, both here and at the nfic archive. If it keeps the site owners out of legal trouble, it's certainly not too much to ask that readers send a simple e-mail.
Caroline
