Apparently this is what the members wanted, at least enough of them that this was implemented. I really cannot fault them on this, after all it is a private organization funded with dues paid for by the members so..... ? ??
Not a member myself and though I do stop by and scan, I almost never post anyway so this is not really a change for me. And of course if at any time I do want to post, it is only $37 away. In the end, they are not really restricting anyone but only insisting that dues be paid to be a member (they will apparently let anyone join- I was a member :-) ). Depending on one's point of view, the paying members are basically sponsoring the non- paying forum only members and I can certainly see how this would rub them the wrong way.
Interestingly enough, this was one of my complaints when I was a member; I was paying dues so that non- members had a forum in which to abuse members. They mostly fixed that already and this last change sort of puts the icing on that problem.
Again, just my own opinion that is no doubt worth what you paid for it.
For those who don't know, the COG exec has decided to limit forum subscriptions to maximum 6 months.
For that reason I and others have chosen to give up on COG completely.
I already quit the COG Facebook group due to how it was administered.
This pains me as I have been on the COG Listserver and eventually the Forum since 1994, and was a COG member for many years but in the last 2 years it seems to have really gone down the pan. I will remain active on here (the Original Forum) and on various Facebook groups.