OK, have I got this right ? LBS owners & their employees have their own secret forum that the ordinary cyclist & enthusist members of this forum can't read or post on ? Am I right so far ? That would indicate that commercely sensitive info. is being exchanged , which in turn would assist the LBS's profit margins . Thats fine but this is not a commercial site . I would suggest that if this secret forum for LBS owners is to continue they should be charged a set subsription fee for the service !!
The other point raised was that they dont want the common or garden cyclist asking "silly" questions there , this could be overcome buy letting the "great unwashed" namely the backbone of these forums view these secret post's but not post, in much the same way as a guest to OUR forums may do with pleasure
sorry to be a pain in the arse
regards greywolf