Hi Lorien,
It's always been twenty years of experience required to be a participant in the Voices of Experience (VOE) forum here on AikiWeb.
However, please note that
anyone can start a thread there (and respond to his/her own thread) in case one would like to limit the discussion to those in the VOE forum.
You can find the charter and subsequent information regarding the VOE forum here:
http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2297
Hope that helps,
-- Jun