If I understand correctly, you want people to at least provide feedback (or contribute in some other manner) before they get access to downloads. This just doesn't work. You have to be able to download something before you can provide feedback on it, and not everyone has the time / patience / talent to create something worth contributing.
So in effect, you end up turning away users and shrinking the community. A lot of us started off as leechers who slowly formed a desire to give back. Sure the number of people to change in this way is few, but these contributers (including myself) would have been turned away and not ended up getting into FoF, and not contributing.
I agree with nwru: it should be kept open to all. You do suffer from a lack of feedback, but we're all hobbyists, doing this in our own spare time for our own gratification.
Also, I have to agree with aander on this point:
Snake said his feedback ratio was 7:8500. 8500? That's eight and a half thousand downloads. Someone likes what you're doing there. I don't think anything I've ever made has reached a thousand.aander91 wrote:That IS your feedback. It's also your thanks. Lots of downloads mean you have good charts and/or wanted songs.
EDIT: turns out my oldschool theme has over 2000 downloads, who knew?