Watch your behaviour in the future, this is borderline flaming/trolling...

Yes, that would make sense. Noticed that with my third post on that idea.


So then it can be abused...

I understand your point, but what about someone like me? I believe I donated within a month or two of joining because I saw value in the site and wanted to keep it's resources available for more people to access. As you can see from my profile, I've been a member of the site for over four years now and I still have yet to break the 750 post barrier (or even 500 for that matter). This is because I don't post in any and every topic just because I can. I really only post when I can add value to the thread or to pick the brains of some of the more senior and/or experienced members. The point I'm trying to make is that not all VIP members with a small number of posts are undeserving of the title.

I see nothing but truth there... It was indeed pretty easy to get in the staff as well as out before the restructuring. The conditions and stuff is more strict now, though...

Agreed - in actual fact, the low post count requirement has cheapened it more for me. That anyone can get in with a few months spamming cheapens it far more than the fact people can contribute in a far more direct manner by helping the site financially.

I second this.

Thirded, it took me years to get to 750 posts.

4th. (even though I got VIP in less than a year, and have yet to donate-but I plan on donating as soon as I can).

But then again, what about those of us who don't yet have a card to use for online payments? I suppose everyone would get the chance in someway or another, eventually, so it doesn't really matter.

Add more contributing posts to pass Advanced Membership?

That would require a bit more reading from the mods, you think there are that many people spamming this site?

Yeah, there's far too many spammers and trolls.

-Lower the Advanced member post count requirement - it only contributes to the board being flooded by spam.
-Change the VIP requirements from posts to contributions to the archive (of course without striping current members of their VIP status).


I like this one also.

I think rather than quantity we should look at the quality of posts.

Maybe it should be a quiz to get in. Random questions that you can find the answers to on the forum by searching. If you don't get them right you don't get in. It will promote people to actually search the god damn forum instead of posting useless topics. Maybe that's a bad idea, I don't know

Good idea, Andy...

Hopefully in that quiz you can question said users on basic grammar.

I vote for the quiz.

This quiz idea looks interesting; I assume this would be in addition to the 10 contributing posts rule, which sounds good to me

Yeah, but what kinds of quiz? Maybe a few questions on the Rules, who are the moderators, how to use the FTP and stuff....

Here's your answer :

It should be based on internet etiquette, some knowledge and a must is basic grammar. I see people failing to provide capital letters and correct punctuation. I'm not asking for a 200 word document, I'm asking to see some attempt at putting the effort in to give posts the ability to be interpreted properly. Not to mention, it looks a tonne neater too.

Well - I'm obviously one of the persons spoken about. And quite honestly: While I do have a general interest in betas I simply lack the time to continiously participate in this community. But from time to time I like to take a look and make a post (like now).
I do understand that in a sense of "community", I'm not a VIP. Neither am I from a financial perspective. I've donated 8 GBP in total so far. So whatever your decision about VIPs will be, I don't have a right to complain.

My suggestion would be to differentiate between VIPs and (simply) donating Members. But I think both should have the same rights (although maybe you'll want to consider a minimum-amount for donations then) - so maybe you can differentiate by a different color. That way nobody feels mistreated.

And as for the low post count requirement, I'd introduce an alternate way to gain FTP access - namely by a donation (which in my opinion should be at least 5 GBP). So that would basically be a fast track for persons who aren't really interested in an active participation in the forums. Because I think BA gains more from a donation, than from a dozen or so boring posts. I think you cannot force people into a community - but maybe you admins and mods know whether or not this assumption is right. I mean: How many people are there who stop posting permanently after getting Advanced Member Status?

I quite like Jens idea. Perhaps offer a quick method of access for say £10, or have the post limit too.. Maybe even raise that limit from 10 posts.

It's rather frustrating when you get a new member who wants to try something out, they get told that it's impossible, then try to do it anyway. Not sure of a solution for this, perhaps being more heavy handed with locking such threads?

In real life, some VIPs pay their way to that spot (think strip club). That is just the way it goes