Let everyone read your forums. Hiding them makes it much more difficult to get new members. Reading the content and seeing that it is a lively community are the two of the biggest reasons new members sign up. Hiding your community takes this all away.

I am a lurker before I decide whether a forum is worth my time to register. There are just so many forums out there nowadays, and it's so easy to set up a forum. It's what you do once it's set up that makes it special, and that's what we prospective members want to see. Not that you know how to run an install.php file.

there is no way your telling me you spent months posting different topics and got no replies to them.

I did and I was persistent and I didn't give up and eventually it all became worthwhile.