Allineer Why SSL is fine only for a smaller forums?
First, I didn't say "SSL is fine only for a smaller forums". You should feel free to use SSL on larger forums if you like; hell, even Google secures every connection these days. But some of us can't afford the kind of servers that Google has, and so we have to take things like overhead into account.
The esoTalk site I referred to has only a dozen or so users total, so even on the extremely low-end server I'm using (because it's all I can afford right now) the overhead of using SSL for all connections doesn't really worry me. It means my users have to put up with a slower site, but they're fine with that. And since we're not looking for participation by the general public, we don't have to worry about what the general public thinks. That's what I meant when I said it's fine for smaller forums.
Allineer Why SSL must be used only for auth?
I'm pretty certain I never said that either. I said it would be nice to have the option of using SSL only for authenticated users (which is what I think you mean by "auth"). That's because I'm considering building a forum that will be open to the public, but will have a core group of regular members who will be given access to some member-only areas.
In that sort of situation, it would be nice if I could use SSL to secure connections for authenticated users, since folks accessing those member-only areas might be concerned about their privacy. But since the bulk of content on the forums would be available to the general public without any login credentials, it would not make much sense to assume I'll want to put up with the overhead of SSL for all those guest users. (Nor would I assume that those guest users would appreciate the site being slowed down by SSL.)
Well, as I said, my current forum has only about a dozen users and is not open to the general public. That's a pretty small forum by anyone's standards. A "larger forum" would be anything much larger, particularly any forum that is open to browsing by the general public, and/or seeking to attract new members from the general public. After all, once you get the general public involved, you're talking about an indefinitely large number of people.
