Question

[mantleofpraise]

Hi,

I have been away for a while and just tried to submit an entry in the challenge. Is it now a new rule that one must be a paying member to submit in the challenge? Every time time I tried to submit my entry it took me to the membership page. I finally just posted my entry as an article on my writing page.

Thanks,
Cathy

[Shann]

Yes it started a couple of weeks ago. To access the challenge the critique circle and a few other spots you need to have at least a gold membership. It's a little less expensive than the 500 or platinum membership. They were faced with having to do something or face closing the site down. I know they agonized over the decision. I think they mentioned it in the Jan newsletter.

[Deb Porter]

Hi Cathy. Welcome back.

As Shann said, the new membership system was introduced early in January. It was something we had talked about many times over the last few years, but resisted it as long as possible. Finally, we had no option:

http://www.faithwriters.com/Boards/phpB ... hp?t=28220

The good news is that instead of only having one paid membership option, there are now two, and both have access to the Challenge. The Silver membership is the free one with limited access to services on the site. The Platinum 500 replaces the old FaithWriters' 500, and has full access to everything. The new Gold membership provides access to key services only, including the Challenge. The Gold membership is just $5.95 a month.

So although we had to introduce the levels of membership, we believe the Gold membership cost is within most people's range.

Love, Deb