Two points to be made:
1) I love the suggestion that ONLY subscribing members can post here while all threads are available to everyone to be read. Honestly, how can you expect to grow the subscriber base unless you allow potential customers to see the benefits of having specific questions answered by some of the best C4D, Houdini, Blender etc. artists out there. Also, anyone who proves that they are on some level a subject matter expert either by their work, their scipts, or their plugins should be allowed full access for free provided that they are answering X questions a month. Not sure how you would track that....but you get the point. Give the experts free access to the forum provided that they are helping the community. Remember that people who serve the community only increase the desire for people to join that community via a subscription. Does Core4D want to be the "hermit kingdom" or an open society? If you open it up and allow people to see the value, then the revenue will grow.
2) Really confused by what is truth or rumor around C4D Cafe being forced to change its name. Honestly, after 20 years of being C4D Cafe something had to have happened to cause the site to now be called Core4D. You just don't change your brand after building it up over a 20-year period on a whim. So, if being "forced" is a rumor then that implies they were not forced and if they were not forced, then let's change it back!!! If that idea does not sit well with anyone, then tell us why so we can deal with facts rather than rumors.
Dave