First, I've had a few characters that have explored the Silent Tower, and as someone who wants to solo explore so they can take the time to look at objects and read special descriptions, ST was the place for me. Sure, as a non-powerhouse solo character, I couldn't get my grubby little fingers on the archmage stuff, but the ST experience was such that it was worthwhile nevertheless. The other area explores will never deliver something comparable to the characters I play. Simply learning the meaning of individual runes in that area and discovering hints to puzzles I haven't even found yet have given me untold hours of fun.

A few people have made a rainy day out of a beautiful area, and you have decided that you can't ban them for the damage they have done for the manner in which they have distributed knowledge. You could create an IP-based area explore ban for people who you want to keep around for some reason or another, but don't want going into those special areas that get created because they are the sort of people who are making a mess of things. And if you wish, you could extend that flag's power so that if somehow they were to obtain explore_gear, it would not function for them. Those wonderful explore musical devices wouldn't make music, weapons wouldn't harm, and armor would leave them vulnerable.

That wouldn't prevent some disgruntled, never-going-to-play-CF player from posting walkthroughs, but it would allow the rest of us to enjoy an aspect of the game that has been missing since Nyathl Ikalith and its sister(s) were closed.