Shields never had it. It was a "glitch" to keep out spammers.It's a theory. One MB guy came over & said it was to transition to replacing the mods kicked out w/some MB mods, then move it into a MB "lite" then to pay.
A few years ago, they suddenly restricted to people to 1-3 posts a day max. Then blamed it on a "glitch" Oddly, the glitch is still in place.
There was some controversy at the time whether the shield holders got a pass on that restriction. Not sure we ever knew for certain.
Spammers wouldn't be paying