I am proposing the idea of having the TER membership status (VIP or Basic) of a board poster incorporated & displayed along with the poster's handle on his/her posts & threads.  This is being suggested as a way to let the members of TER to know who is a VIP or basic member, and whether they can currently read private mail from others.

At present, due to my financial situation, I have been forced to let my VIP membership expire temporarily.  Since it has expired, I have received several private mail messages that I can't read until I get my VIP membership back.  Having private mail access is a VIP benefit, but there's no way of knowing whether someone you might send private mail to is a VIP and able to read it.  It's frustrating for me (as I imagine it is for all Basic members) not to be able to read the mail I received, or to respond to it.  Since they don't know the membership status at the time they sent the mail out, they might be thinking that their mail is being ignored or blown off.  Unless a member posts to the boards telling everyone that they can't read mail because they aren't currently a VIP, no one will know their status.

I think having a "live" VIP status indicator, appearing along with the poster's TER handle, would be beneficial in letting all the members know who can currently access and read private mail. It would assist in keeping members from writing mail to those who can't read it at the moment.

This proposed suggestion would apply only to a member's primary handle and not to any aliases, since you can't send mail to anyone's alias.  This is definitely something I would like to see as part of the new TER board format when it is ready to go online live.