But according to web archives, it was openly accessible until 2019 Q3 (approximately).
That's about the time I started reading here. I'm pretty sure (but may be wrong) that it was under lock and key sometime earlier in 2019.
I'll be honest, I don't remember exactly, but it's been long enough that it just got plain annoying to even try to read the site, considering the login and the constant errors. But I'm pretty sure it was before Q3.
edit: Made another post with more info.
As best I can tell you, the lockdowns and site instability started around the time of this post:
A particular post got targeted, not sure if it's referenced in there, but the site started to go on and off of lockdown, until one day they just never let it back up. There were periods of time when you could browse the front page freely, but they usually went away quickly as another round of "DDOS' happened.
(post is archived)