You have to be logged in to read the forums simply because of all the bandwidth the forums were using. Several users have asked us to do something about the content in the forums so requiring a log in (after the bug was found and fixed) to read it helped dramatically. The timeout for the session is well over two days so if you don't close your browser or flush your cookies you should stay logged in for a minimum of two days. If you aren't staying logged in, increase your cache settings to see if that may help.
:pint: