Let's face it, running a site like this is time consuming and expensive. With the incredible growth this site has gone through over the past years, the server-needs increase similarly. To help cover the costs, the time we put into this site, and future enhancements, we have introduced the 'Premium Membership'.

Premium memberships are a good way to both enhance your experience on the site, as well as help us cover some of the costs associated with keeping the board up and running, amd it helps us to continue to add new features, which aren't always free/cheap. It's not unusual for a site to accept donations from frequent users/members. It still keeps everything free for all, but at the same time helps to cover the costs. Still, it remains a voluntary thing, rather than a requirement to become a member.

Instead of just accepting donations, we've decided to implement a number of features that are available to Premium Members only. Note that the board will not be crippled in any way for current members. The size of the donation is up to you, although we would very much appreciate a minimum of $10. Donations that are considered too small may not qualify for a Premium Membership. Donations are also an annual event, are non-refundable and do not protect against being banned if you thoroughly misbehave.

People who are very active on the site, contribute good information and help others with their problems qualify for a free or very discounted subscription. Please contact the admin for any questions about this. It's all pretty flexible so don't be shy.

Here's an overview of some of the additional functionality:

Thread Search

At the bottom of every thread (under the Quick Reply) will be a field which allows you to search a specific thread. This is not possible from the general search page and will be very useful once threads become too big to browse

Search History

The search page will have the ten last searches performed by our members. Not so much useful as interesting. The searches will be links, and will be performed again when you click on it.

User Post History

This cool feature will lists the ten last posts of a user in their profile. This will help you to check when someone posted last, and to find their couple lasts post. This list will automatically update itself whenever the member posts.

Custom User Title

As your postcount increases, your usertitle will change whenever you hit a certain limit. Premium Members however can just pick a custom title, and change it as often as they like. Note though: NO profanity. We do reserve the right to ask you to change it or do it for you if we consider it to be in bad taste.

Additional Colorschemes

This is probably the coolest feature of premium memberships. By default, the site has a grey theme. When you become a Premium Member, you will have the choice of Red, Blue or Green themes. These themes cover everything but the photogallery. When we find a way to integrate the colors into the Gallery, we'll be sure to do so.

Access to the Premium Member Area

As of November of 2005 we have added a Premium Member Area, which contains the 2D/3D Library, a Skillset and Equipment database, and a list of Premium Member Addresses in case of a roadtrip.
We are not charging for the information inside those libraries, but merely trying to cover the additional expenses in bandwidth and harddisk space. If you want access to these files, you will have to be a member and carry a part of the burden.

Higher Private Message Limits

As of February of 2006 we have implemented variable PM limits. For regular members, it's an already high limit of 100 PMs, but for Premium Members it is now 150 PMs. You'll never run out of space!

More will be added

When we think of more cool things to add for Premium Members, we'll get right on it, and add it here. There actually are some other minor things spread around the site, but these are for you to find..
If you are a Premium Member and want specific functionality, let us know and we can see if it's possible

How to get a Premium Membership

Getting a Premium Membership is easy. All you need to do is use your Paypal account to transfer an amount of your choice. As soon as we receive the donation, we will upgrade you to Premium Member status. To do so now, click the button below. Please note that if your paypal email address does not match the one on the forum here, it helps if you could PM or email tam, to let me know it's you. If you don't use Paypal and prefer to use a creditcard, you can click the Google button under it. This will allow you to quickly set up a Google Checkout account, and make a creditcard payment.