Are we talking about two different things, or are you still a little under the weather?
If you password-protect the forum, like any directory, no one (including a search bot) will be able to visit it w/o the password. And on top of that, registered members will need to go through that extra log-in step as well. I don't see that as an attractive solution.
Thats what i was saying, if a guest (an un-authenticated user) cannot access yoru forum, a search engine robot will nto be able to either.
They, form what i coudl tell, where saying they wanted an additional means of password to view their forum, which is what htpasswd would be for
