I think Knots was expanded hugely a couple of years ago - dunno if that kind of modification is what they are thinking of -
along with making the forum searchable from google/et al - and thus allowing anyone to search the web and click into the forum discussions directly -
wasn't that long ago that BT was made 'private' was it? (entry by registering, no 'guest' status?) - I think when the switch was made to prospero that content became hidden from the search engines -