by KiarasMate » April 20th, 2011, 7:04 pm
I remember when KK suggested something very similar to this quite a while back, and it was unanimously decided that something like this would just inevitably cause a rift amongst the community, so I'm not entirely sure what has changed since then. If anything, it seems like this community wouldn't benefit from anything that sets members apart from one another and makes others feel inferior/superior to other members because they are not considered to be Very Important People. You have the same issue with the ranks and post count too, so nothing is really being fixed in favor of this new addition.
It's like the reason why Moka allows guests to view the entire forum before they decide to join or not. I'd think, as a new member, I'd feel much more welcome in a community that treated everyone as equals and where everything was accessible from the very start. I see a few exceptions to that rule, like the chatbox feature and what not, but I can't really think of anything that could be added to a section of the forum that only some members could access, that wouldn't be more beneficial for the entire forum if it were just made a part of the forum as a whole.
If the idea does go through though, which it probably will, I do like KK's suggestion of putting the off-topic threads in the VIP Section. That would place the focus of the forum entirely upon TLK for new members, although that doesn't really seem like that great of a reward still. I'm sure more suggestions will pop up though. Perhaps if you had a game like Impressive Title or something to that nature, that members would gain access to once they reached this status, then it might be worth it for some people. I really think the forum is better off without something like this though.