IIRC there was a request for donations late in 2020 then in 2021 a joining fee
Not sure what the current situation is for new members - joining fee ? annual fee ?
I'm thinking the OP must have joined at the point membership 1st reopened once the technical issues were resolved and literally a day or two before the joining fee was introduced
It's been discussed many times but there is also an annual fee that needs to be paid if you joined once a membership fee was implemented, existing members who joined before the fee are currently exempt
Recent thread on the payment method and reply #6 Head1 says there is now also a 4 year option to pay which avoids having to mess around with Bitcoin every year for those who don't regularly use it