[roger_smith]

so when someone is all done upgrading their account to the highest level, how much money have the spent? $100? $150? More? That's a lot of money.

I'm not complaining by any means, just stating fact. There has to be a reason to attract someone to spend money, so what's the benefit of spending that kind of scratch? I think in addition to the benefits on the forum, people spending that money need to gain something tangible as well. Something small, but still bad ass, such as say a sinister.li flash drive and a personal letter from @Oni. Obviously the cost of the custom drive needs to be considered and would need more research.

I think getting SP for the upgrade isn't a bad idea. The other option is give those upgraded users a flat % discount on SP purchases. Another idea, perhaps free user title changes for the upgraded users.

As far as the comment about this idea killing sinister.li, I doubt that would happen. No one is being forced to purchase such upgrades, and if they flop, they flop. That's the free market, if people don't see value in something, they won't buy it.

I'll ponder the idea more and see if I can think of anything else that would set the new upgrades apart from the existing.