John has been talking about separate forums for quite a while. This isn't a surprise.
Maybe not, but the total loss of "cross-forum" searching is screwed. And, warning or not, the concept is a bad one that will cost a lot of paying FReepers who find out that their threads are not "good enough" for the regular news forum, and should be relegated to the back of the bus.
Like the thread you posted about drunk chicks...