Access to advanced forum

[Squelchtone]

Well it is good that you enjoy being able to contribute to the advanced forums and all and back in 2006 when you were granted access

The May 11, 2006 date you saw when sorting Advanced members was my lp101 forum sign up date, not when I was admitted into Advanced.

I had to search my email account to find it, but I was admitted on 2/2/2007

"Congratulations, Your request to join the "Advanced Locks" group on Lock Picking 101 has been approved. Click on the following link to see your group membership. -- Thanks, The Management "

You guys are seriously not missing out on some secret cool kids only club, its not like that at all, and nobody who has membership walks around with that kind of mentality.

Hope to see you on the other side,
Squelchtone

[Legion303]

in 2011 only ONE lucky member has been accepted to the advanced forums so far this year
in 2010 only 6 members were accepted into the advanced forums

In 2011, we are currently voting on the *first* small batch of applicants. In 2010, 34 members were accepted into Advanced. I'm not sure where your information is coming from. I'm looking directly at the voting lists and seeing who was voted in (and I would estimate that 98% of everyone who's applied in the last few years has been voted in, the exceptions mostly being people who didn't read the rules and applied before they met the criteria).

EDIT: Between may 15, 2009 and the end of 2010, 81.69% of applicants were accepted. After weeding out people who didn't meet the basic criteria, there were 71 applicants with 13 rejections. I included carryovers in these numbers, meaning that people who applied once and were rejected, then reapplied later, were counted twice. To my knowledge, no one who reapplied was turned down. If you go by unique individuals, the acceptance rate would be a few percent higher.

EDIT 2: To get a meaningful comparison, I looked at the 20-month period from 8/2007 to 3/2009 (there were no lists in the interim 3/09 - 5/09, which means the 5/09 list covered a couple of months). Using the same criteria as above, there were 139 applicants with 22 rejections, for an overall acceptance rate of 84.17%. I'm not sure how this indicates a huge decline in the number of Advanced applicants we accept, but there are the numbers.

-steve

[Scope]

I would say that if you get access then yeah its great to progress your skills & learn more, if not selected, just means you are not ticking the boxes (whats required).

To be quite frank if your not picked, its plain hard luck. Just another part of the forum we get to talk in, share stuff & enjoy the hobby.

People shouldn't worry so much as to "will I ever get in", if you think like that mostly in life, then its all about trying to be "accepted".

As a mod has said, its not an elite club-shall we just trust his words & the powers that be. We should say thanks for a great forum that I can share my hobby with!

Just be greatful there is a decent site with like minded people.

And to answer: No I'm not a Advance forum member, just have an outsiders view.

Happy Picking

Regards

Scope

[Scope]

Another note to add: If you really want to know the real secret stuff I know a great place:

A Locksmith course-Secret info! You can even make money!

If you want to find out by other means if you cannot access the advance forum, the mods/admins are right not to give access & if your that smart why would you be looking here?

Smart people will know what I'm talking about.

On that note.

Scope

[EmCee]

I was accepted for Advanced access, am grateful for it and consider it a privilege not a right. To gain access I simply followed the guidelines given in the accessible thread at the top of the Advanced section: I applied; I sent a PM as suggested; I heard nothing and assumed my application had been refused but after waiting for longer, actually, than the suggested amount of time, I sent another PM as suggested; and was then granted access.

I do understand that those without it think that they are missing out on dark secrets and may also feel advanced members are a clique hell-bent on preventing too many of the hoi-polloi from joining them. But it really isn't like that at all. And there are long-standing and expert members of the site who do not have and may never have applied for Advanced access.

I find it useful because I am a trading locksmith. There may be some information that would be of interest to advanced hobby pickers, but a lot of the material covers bypass and destructive techniques or discussion of tools that are so expensive many locksmiths don't have them because they can't justify the cost - all of which is a locksmithing but not hobbyist interest. There is certainly a lot of stuff that is there simply so it can't be found via a google search on the open forum. If a hobbyist is that advanced, I doubt much of what is there would be particularly staggering since they'd already be able to work out the answer from their own knowledge.

I must admit I don't like the 'them and us' feeling that some have about advanced access. Most of all, I don't like seeing that the forum has X thousand members of which many, many are inactive - and that includes members of the advanced section.

Like others, I publicly thank those who host, administrate and moderate what is a useful, mostly fun, and interesting site - and I still learn a lot from the open areas, not just the advanced sections.

Cheers...

[Squelchtone]

in 2011 only ONE lucky member has been accepted to the advanced forums so far this year
in 2010 only 6 members were accepted into the advanced forums

In 2011, we are currently voting on the *first* small batch of applicants. In 2010, 34 members were accepted into Advanced. I'm not sure where your information is coming from.

-steve

He's mistakenly looking at a list of people with Advanced Group membership, and going by their forum join date, no their date of joining advanced, which the forum does distinguish clearly in that listing.

here's the info he's going by.
http://www.lockpicking101.com/memberlist.php?g=2275&mode=group&sk=c&sd=d

Anyways, nothing to see here, move along everyone... topic well covered.

Squelchtone