For those of you who are wondering--no, the Neutral Zone forum has not disappeared.
It is, however, invisible if you are not logged in. Some difficult topics are broached, and people are revealing personal things about themselves, so I figured it was appropriate to conceal that part of the forum from just any random person who happens by.
Once again, it's meant for thoughtful, meaningful, civil discussion about fandom issues like slash, het, 'ships, and characters. Stuff that would be a forum grenade anywhere else, but can be taken on in a mature manner here because DE members are the best.
So, registering and logging in are the price of admission. I think that's fair.