And when I tried to use the "Forums" tab, I get a message that I don't have access priviledges to that page. Something new? Or a temporary way to stop hackers? How would we start new threads?

Here's what I see.

vBulletin Message
34_40, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.