Registration is an additional hack we added later. I needed more "survey-like" questions from the members for the support they receive so I made a few of them mandatory and the rest are optional. Most members answer them all during registration or they go back later (link in their user control panel) to answer them.
I'm unsure about the article hacks except those are private forums that are using a different interface to show up as they do...without showing postbit, replies, etc.
Again, Logician is the magician.