I heard that they are giving free membership to folks who have contributed a lot to the Fool.

True, so on this board (and similar "stop by for advice" boards) that will leave the folks who answer the questions. But who will ask them? Eventually the regulars who either join or are given the memberships will run out of questions. I suppose you might get some from 30-day trial folks, but they aren't giving them any free posts.

I'm campaigning for free Read-only access.
http://boards.fool.com/Message.asp?mid=16574394

That would give people plenty of time to get comfortable enough to cough up the $$. I've got to believe that will result in more new joiners than the current plan.

- Tom