@fhstralow The memberships allocate what level of support you participated in for the whale pool. We are letting members build a whale pool. It is pretty sweet.
Free members still get support but those that help fund the whale pool will get a little more support from the whale pool accounts. That way it is fair. Plus paid members exchange their steem that rewards tokens for free. The membership levels allow us to make sure that people who fund the whale pool receive a fair amount of support as a percentage of upvotes. If you dont want to support the whale pool that is fine. Free members still have all of the access for the most part and benefits steemthat.com has to offer.
It is also a way for us to bundle Stish with memberships to allow for a simple package to support the whale pool. It allows us an efffect way to manage it easier still than signing up for minnow support on discord. You have already purchased some Stish to helpout and so have a few others. We will be able to assign you a level of membership that corresponds to your support level.
It Just makes it fair for those who support the formation of the whale pool. Now you can pay with SBD, Eth, BTC,LTC and USD via credit cards. Buy some more Stish and fund the whale pool. Paid members also get discounts on Stish purchases as well. They get a little beyter pricing which an even better incentive to help us jump start the whale pool.