If you were to have a VIP usergroup on your forum, what perks would you give those members? Does anyone do anything outside of the normal perks like hidden forum section, more PM storage, special userbar, stuff?
I wouldn't bother. All it does is annoy people by depriving them of functionality which makes their use of my site more palatable. And to be frank, I find fancy badges, titles, etc. to be annoying and it distracts from the actual site.
If someone is so kind to donate to my likely undeserving self, then maybe they could be included in a wall of gratitude of thanks or not, but beyond that, it all becomes a bit much.
If you're at the sort of scale which requires adverts to make a living or to support the site, then I guess you could give them an ad-free experience and something that really eats up server power for their trouble.
Evening with VIP group most members aren't interested anyway, As some are paid or they been so active and did allot that they became the net vip anyway. I don't think those kind of groups are not as big as they used to be. Most members are happy to be at the same level more then anything