Let me explain further....

The community is already segregated by things of interest to members -- what kind of issues you're facing, whether you are a creative soul or not, etc. etc. This is one more interest.

However, this forum isn't mean to make people feel hurt, sad or an outcast -- and I apologize this is some people's reaction to this idea. I'm just trying to do something special for people who've given back in some manner to the community in this fashion. The criteria for access isn't 100% fleshed out (I came up with some initial obvious criteria, but there may be a few other things), so we're going to tweak it in the next few days as well.

I am sorry that some of you feel the way you do. We're doing this not to hurt people, but to acknowledge and provide another place for supporters of our website. We should've done this from the start, it's something I long overlooked and wanted to fix.

DocJohn

PS - Just to reinforce this message -- yes, there will be additions to the criteria coming soon (tomorrow) to open it up to some additional groups of people.