well, i was a gold member when i was here last (before the crash...), and while i can't say that membership didn't have some benefits, i can say that the number of new posts in the gold section were much less than in the general board, and there wasn't really a lot going on. but the oddest thing was that after i made my "donation", the rules changed for gold membership about a month later, and i was summarily excused. as in, "sorry, you're no longer golden." it didn't really bother me because i mainly donated just because i was getting some entertainment from the site as a whole and wanted to help out. i was even working with xthorgal on some artistic ideas for the site, but then i had to leave altogether. aside from that, i'd be interested to see how the present membership totals compare to what they were back then. besides saying "thanks for the porn and all!" when downloading from a particular thread, i really only remember interacting with a handful of people on the discussion boards. none of it was life changing... just a brief distraction. i can remember feeling like i had maybe helped some people out who were just getting into anal play, and that was fulfilling. so maybe, since the general discussion area of this board is auxiliary to it's main purpose, that being a fetishists' forum for the exchange of dirty little films and photographs, we should take it as it comes. if, by some miracle, we find a topic which is actually exhilarating in some way, fantastic! if we can help guide someone with answers that they may not be able to find elsewhere (which, by the nature of some of the topics discussed here, is a distinct possibility...), great! but beyond that, we may be forced to wade through all the "less than desirable's" just like most of us do everyday in our real-world lives.