For example, I had to PM raphtown to request admission to the group, but the forum supports usergroups (which are already used for the Oldies and Whippersnappers groups). If I'm not mistaken, it would be easier for me to request to join a Classicists usergroup (or, presumably, one of the Bronze, Silver, etc. usergroups) than to PM raphtown, and probably easier for him to deal with the request that way too. And the membership list would always be current rather than requiring an update of the BBS post (there could be a link from the post to the list, so it wouldn't really be any harder to find it). On the downside, raphtown's post count would slow down without all the announcements... (Well, actually, nothing stopping him from continuing to post those announcements.
)Similarly, having to PM someone for the password to a game seems like overkill. If there was a usergroup, then the Games forum (or, maybe more likely, a "Classicist-only Games" sub-forum, to distinguish from the "Classicists preferred, but not totally strict about it" games) might be available only to members, and then the passwords could just be posted there. The game creator wouldn't have to read PMs, check that the person asking really is a member of the group, and respond; the potential player wouldn't have to send the initial PM or watch for a response.
Sorry if any of this has been discussed and rejected before; I didn't see anything like it in any of the old threads, but I didn't read every single message.
