DarkUnderlord, Taluntain, and Infinitron, thank you in advance for reading.
I would like to draw to your attention a matter of no small importance: that of the ability for any Tom, Dick and/or Harry (no pun intended) to pay a measly fee in order to have complete, unfettered access not only to General Discussion but also to the holy Box of Shouting.
This is unacceptable, and I will explain why.
First of all, a long-standing tradition of newfags being harassed and having to earn their place amongst us otherwise prestigious Codexers is being bypassed entirely. No longer do they have to earn their stripes, so to speak, through actual effort in posting in the General RPG forums and elsewhere; by simply clicking authorize on their PayPal accounts they're free to clog up what used to be restricted areas with whatever mental dribble they can manage to cough up. It is lazy and a mockery of our once fine traditions.
Secondly, I feel as if the opposite effect of what you might have intended with this policy is occurring. Let me clarify: it is obvious that by taking in these fees, you're generating funds to either maintain your cocaine habit(s) or you're actually putting that money towards server upkeep, etc. (lol). But the real effect that taking in these hobos' money is having is further alienating long-standing, loyal members who instead of being inspired to keep Codex prestigious, might decide they've had enough of this unwashed rabble and decide to take their snobbishness elsewhere. Thus, net loss for Codex, both monetarily and culturally. And no, I'm not referring to the kind of culture you might be thinking of; I'm referring to the culture of Codex Lost: A Bunch of Angry Cunts. We are no longer those cunts. We are a faceless mass of real-time loving, anime-watching mouthbreathers. And this is all due to these admission policies diluting what would otherwise be a still-worthy Codex of old.
So, on to my proposal:
Continue accepting pay-for-play, but do so on a tiered basis:
- $100.00 gets you full access, Shoutbox and everything. Hey, everyone has their price, even us.
- $50.00 gets you access to all forums including GD, but Shoutbox is still off-limits until you're here for a full year.
- $25.00 reduces your vetting time to one month, after which you get access to GD, but Shoutbox is still out of your grasp for one year.
- $10.00 reduces your waiting time for GD to six months, Shoutbox one year.
- $5.00 still gets you a patron tag, but otherwise we laugh at you. One year sentence.
I think these prices are fair, I think the wait periods are reasonable, and this way everyone's happy.
It cannot be stated strongly enough how important it is to maintain some level of control in allowing these
immigrants new users in. The barbarians are at our gate. We must act.
Thank you again for your time.