zucchero,

You're right that many forums have managed to twist and bungle fee-based initiatives. Among losers, history's most spectacular flameout was, of course, AOL.

But ALL tiered-service failures have one thing in common: bad business decisions. As tsatryan might offer at a Sunday service near you, they typically flow from flirtation with the Seven Sisters of Digital Damnation: Luxuria, Gula, Avaritia, Acedia, Ira, Invidia, and Superbia.

Rest assured, this can be done without denying non-paying members anything to which they feel "entitled"...for showing up.

--BAM