[Crimin4L]

Allowing guests to view, also allows Google's (and other search engines) bots to crawl & Index pages/content- which I don't need to explain the advantages of the latter.

But if we had a [Hide][/hide] option, we would be able to let guests view pages but still protect the important content (like downloads, password, etc..)

Implementing the Hide tags, has been discussed a few times with mixed opinions.

Whilst I agree that protecting Important content will serve Its purpose well, It may will also lower the quality of replies such as "Thanks......". Yes, the minimum character length can be Increased to help prevent LQ posting, but It's not "what" you say but "how" you say It, that also deems a quality post.

Without naming specifics, I have first-hand experience with the Hide tags on a daily basis, and I'd say around 5% of replies are valued posts.

Nah I'm not suggesting a post to unlock the hidden content because i 100% agree with you, but maybe just liking the post could unlock it like @miso said. Or if that's too much, just prevent anyone who is not registered from viewing the content in between the [hide] tags. Either one will not increase spam and still serve the purpose of protecting the content of the posters.