I only just found out that the Lounge is not accessible to lurkers and potential joiners, but exclusive to joined up members

As the Lounge is the most popular board, do you think we're doing the fun that can be had on this site an injustice? Net effect, making the site appear to be more geeky, serious & less social than what it really is. I mean the best threads on this site are in the lounge imo.
As a solution I would like to propose to make it public, and the less savoury threads put in the rant arena.
What say the mods?