I'm not sure how this thread will be received, but let's try to maximize this discussion while we can.
First and foremost, WickedFire - start charging a membership fee. I will pay. No seriously, when you have a community member asking to pay you, it might be worth considering. Then again, this might actually piss off a vet or two, which are really the reason I'm around in the first place. But I support this idea. If paid though, I suppose the ongoing community would expect to see some further developments, and that might just stink of ass pain for you guys.
So this thread, and the above-mentioned idea, is an integrity question, right? Will charging a fee, or raising an already established fee for BST, stop irrelevant memberships/services? Obviously not, there will always be some self-righteous idiot who thinks he has the key to all that is holy. However, I do believe there is a tipping point to it all, a fine line that will separate the more dedicated marketers from the "oh hai" memberships and from people like me who have nothing of value to offer, but can throw up a snazzy wordpress site that would lead you to believe differently in BST.
I mean, think of it in terms of generations. By all means, I'm a new generation SEO - in fact, I don't rate the title quite yet. But I take very seriously the contributions I make to the few communities I spend my time in. Eventually I'll become a worthy contributor to the communities I've been loyal to (or I'll start flipping burgers).
Weed out the idiots from the get-go. Aside from some of the great, and equally useless, information around these parts, your BST forum could be a stand-alone selling point.
There's money in it for you, and here's hoping there's authority in it for us.
