Ok...
To start with, whilst all this was going on, i discovered a reasonable sized 'tick' trying to bury itself into the back of my leg which i have had to dig out, so, i am not in a good place at the moment.
Now, if you really want an answer i'll give you the EXACT reason it was set up...
Dan, who OWNS the forum, does not have a huge amount of input into the general running, as he is not an electrician, plus he has many others to deal with, so its myself, Lenny and the mods who look after the place.
He had stumbled across a setting in the control panel that lets a forum only allow users of certain posts counts to enter automatically.
Now, the 3000 club is NOT an elitist club, it is merely there for our regular members to hang out as a kind of 'thanks' for their massive contribution to the forum.
The Arms has not been set in this way, as we do try and keep the access only to bona fide sparks who wish discuss any topic relating to business, pricing or stuff in general that they want out of public view.
Thats it... nothing more, nothing less.
Members have been banned for spamming pointlessly about it and i am happy to authorise more bans if need be, as this is taking up way too much moderating time for the lads.
We are more than happy for discussion about anything, but dont take the **** by spamming threads about something you are not happy with.
It is there to stay, end of.