I have not said that we need at all costs members who do nothing else then posting complaints. What I meant was that there are members whose motivation to register at this forum was based on the possibility of reporting about their problems with a casino. I count myself to this group. Of course these members must not become necessarily valuable members who also participate in other topics, but there is a fair chance.
Your motivation should be to want to participate in the community - not on the off-chance that you have a complaint to file. Again I refer back to my example - you move to a community for a whole bunch of valid reasons, not just because you think they'll allow you to play loud music.
*IF* your motivation is because you want to post a complaint - there's a pretty damn good chance that is the ONLY reason you will come to the forum. I don't doubt that some people will first find Casinomeister because they heard that they could file a complaint here - but this is the wrong reason to come here.
Those who have no interest in the forums will complain that the complaints forum is not open to them, without looking into other options, without even asking around.
Think about it this way - you are discussing something of interest to you - and I daresay you will be the exception to the rule - but at least you make the effort. Discussion is what Casinomeister is all about - not unrealistic expectations that CM is going to throw his weight around just because you asked him to.
The reality of this situation is that many, many people have abused this privilege - so if you want to blame someone, blame those before you.
These posts will not be completely useless, but the quality decreases. And you will get a lot of these meaningless single-line postings like "I agree.", "ROFL!", etc.
Take my word for it - we can still spot them a mile away. Single-line posts in my mind do not qualify as relevant or useful in 99% of cases.
Once someone hits whatever milestone (say 100 posts) to cross into the full-membership arena, there's a fairly high chance that that person will be reviewed a second time by one or more moderators if they feel that something is amiss. Certainly, someone who achieves 100 posts in a very short span of time is not going to be enjoying full membership for very long before he is reclassed into a group of people who need to re-qualify in some manner or other. But in reality, many of these can't even be bothered to waste 100 minutes of their time making one-line responses - in all likelihood, it's their impatience that brought them here in the first place.
Even accredited casinos can cause trouble (current example: Casino Club) and I'm thankful that public forums like the Casinomeister Complaints Section and others warn me about these problems. For me it would be a large disadvantage if I would get much less of these important informations.
It would be highly unusual for any accredited casino to run into problems with players without affecting someone who is already a full member here. I think it's fair to say that you won't be missing out on much, other than a whole bunch of newbies coming to say "Me too".
Again, I must repeat - this decision wasn't taken lightly - CM didn't just one day say "The heck with it, I'm shutting down Complaints to new members". This came about as a result of years of abuse from one-time wonders. This was discussed amongst moderators as well - and in the end CM *reluctantly* decided that this was the best way forward, as this has been discussed a number of times over the years and CM finally decided that the time had come for a change in policy.
It is not necessarily a welcome change for some people - but it is a change which will result in long-time members getting better attention, and ultimately more time available for increasing the resources available to everyone in general.
edit --> I should add one more very important point. It does not require 100 posts to become a full member - someone who comes in here and participates in a way that people appreciate can earn reputation points - and it only takes 50 reputation points plus the 30 days to qualify.
For example - at the time of this post (or rather, this edit) - you have 135 reputation points, even though you've only been here since August. These reputation points came from people who appreciate your posts.
However - one-line posts or useless posts quickly attract negative reputation points as well - so perhaps Casinomeister should consider amending the policy to 30 days and either (100 posts and a positive reputation), or (+50 rep points, regardless of number of posts).
There *are* members in here who by themselves can give over 100 rep points - moderators only have the power to give 15. So effectively it's the members who can approve you for full membership if they believe your posts are useful.