As for sponsorship - there are strong opinions on that, the whole invite thing - so obviously that's not going to work.
What could happen is, when a person wants to gain access to the ToE, they have to let the admins know two weeks before their 3 month / 100 post mark. They would then be given Read Only access to the forum for two weeks. That way, they wouldn't be jumping in headfirst (so to speak
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)