Readers of this site who’d like to see the protected posts can automatically request the password to unlock them. Once you’ve unlocked one, they should all magically open up for your viewing pleasure.
There are two reasons we lock posts on this site, for the record. One is to tell Google, Yahoo and other search engines that this text is not for searching. The locked stuff are mostly drafts of things I’d like to sell somewhere, and as a result I don’t want them going into search engines at least before they’re finished and sold and junk. The second is because some publishers consider the posting of even drafts of stories on the web ‘previous publication’ and won’t consider them. After I’m established as a capital a Author who smokes a pipe and the like, I can let my agent argue with them on that point. In the meantime, by putting these posts behind a password, I’m saying these are drafts I’m letting selective people see as I work on them. After publication, I’d likely be amenable to doing the Creative Commons shuffle with them.
You’ll notice there’s an agreement bit on the form. Besides being designed to piss Cory Doctorow off (though admittedly that’s always fun to do), it’s meant to make those two points above perfectly clear. If you’re going to get the password, please don’t distribute these things. If you do, I’ll have to change the password and have you killed. Banned. I mean banned. Heh. Yeah.
