I like the different levels of membership. I think its an ingenious idea to use chess pieces for levels. I don't think it segregates people, when I was a pawn I never met a rook who treated me badly because of my membership level, and I hope I have never said anything to make a pawn feel lowly since I have been a rook. From my experience the majority of people on this site are just not like that.
I think it did encourage me to buy membership though! I liked the look of the rooks next to members names and wanted one for myself! :o)
Stick with it, Fencer, theres far more people appreciate this site than you think.
Maybe we should have an 'appreciation board'! lol, we seem to have boards for everything but saying how great this site is! (only kidding!)