I believe that a website stays alive (grows) by attracting new members. The way videosift is set up currently it takes a lot of work to get a special icon next to your name. So much work that you either have to be a lurker or a full time sift zombie

If someone has stayed around long enough to get out of probation why are they still not allowed to post dead/dupe/related/backup? I have found many "problem" videos and tried to help out but siftbot ignores my calls.

I understand wanting to keep the place clean. I think you (the privileged members reading this) forgot how long it takes to gain power. I contribute a lot to videosift with the amount of free time I have and yet I can't make one of my favorite websites a better place.
I had an older account and lost the password. Since it was a standard non probation account which held no abilities I was too lazy to try to recover it and made a new account.

I am not begging. In fact I want this change for all of us lowly regular users (the 99% if you will haha)

My question is - Why can't regular non probationary members help out? Is it out of fear that someone could abuse these commands? It seems unlikely that someone would take the time to get out of probation just to troll around.

My second question - If I submit a video and later find it to be dead or a duplicate why cant I, the SUBMITTER, call a dupe or dead or backup command?