All sounds interesting.
Some thoughts:
1. Definitely buy a domain or use a donated one, with a website on it. Said website is more than just a page, and the cache is up to date. Website history goes back a year.
2. Using the number of links in and PR as a measure of contribution is flawed. There are many high PR sites out there that will transfer PR and that’s it. It’s all artificial. A formula need to be designed that calculates a factor, depending what is brought to the party. I can point you to loads of guys with big PR networks and all you get when they link to you is a bit of PR yourself. Not very useful IMHO.
An independent “committee”, voted by members, operating on a rotation window is set up. This committee runs the exposure schedule and vets new members.
3. There are basic criteria that determine mebership. Members have to comply with some basic criteria to gain access.
It’s a question of whether it is fair to allow someone in who has been doing this for a week, and has accidentally bought a pr4 website and domain…
My 2 cents…the admin could be a bit of a pain