When I logged in again I was asked to renew my password (think that's the first time this has happened on a forum) which I now realise is an attempt by the admins to increase security (it doesn't btw). I have also discovered that mentioning this means this thread will be locked.

This is at odds with the fact that HTTPS doesn't work, you either want to increase security, or you don't. You really should enable HTTPS and keep it updated and working as your 30 day password change policy will mean that most people will use simple passwords, and probably reuse existing ones rather than a long complex unique one so even though I have seen it mentioned that "it doesn't matter, it's only a satellite forum" the passwords being securely transmitted is important regardless. As a rule of thumb if you have to enter a username and password on a page or you have a link to a page with a login form on it then those pages should be HTTPS.

As for the actual reason I was actually going to start this thread, I was asked to agree to the forum rules and in the rules there some links to posts on the forum, which I can't view until I agree to the rules so a catch 22 situation there. I either need to agree to the rules without actually fully reading everything or I do it properly and get stuck not being able to agree to something I am not allowed to look at.