Thoughts on paid forum memberships - free for active members

[Karl_H]

My whole profile reset to zero a few months ago - no posts, no awards, no thanks, no avatar. I never mentioned it because is seemed unimportant at the time.
If my ticket to admission is based on my history, then there should be a whole system of double checks to keep that history accurate.

If admission is based on the number of posts, many people would game the system, and instead of clicking the "Thanks" button, they would make a post saying "Thanks Marv - do you have any plans published?"

Many of the postings are fun to watch, but not very helpful as far as homemade tools. Many of the actual homemade tools are interesting but of no real use to me because they don't fit my interests or they are beyond my skills (anything that requires welding for example.) But it is interesting seeing how they are built.

As Marv mentioned a few days ago, he tosses out ideas that he has refined that he thinks others might benefit from.
There have been several posts that, while the tool per se is of little interest to me, the author's methodology, technique, or even general approach have given me ideas to solve problems that have been interrupting my sleep for a long time.

I am not sure I would be willing to pay to MAYBE pick up a pearl or two along the way, even though I am just a few pearls short of having several "Tools of the Week!"

I am not a hat or T-shirt sort of guy, but I like the idea of using them as a way to pay for the site. That seems to be a veery popular way to raise money.
I would be more inclined to buy something useful - say a 6" gauge with the HMT logo.