Aaargh! I think this is a big, big mistake!

Now people have to sign up, people are very lazy nowadays, they hate registering and giving away email addresses.

You will get 0 new visitors from search engines. That means you are relying on twitter/fb and people referring. You have drastically reduced your reach.

It means there is very little incentive for me to add content to your site now as it will only be seen by at most 300 people, there are MUCH bigger already networks out there.

There is a saying that for 1000 people who read, 10 will 'like' and 1 will comment. You have shut the site to the 989 who will not now be able to read it.

I'm sorry but I think Bespoken becoming a closed network is a big mistake.