My opinion was aired before this whole situation to a few others but I'll do a quick and short.
I think small unknown and new private breeders should be allowed to be in the independent section if they are willing to provide seeds to test. I dont however think everyone and their cousin's dog's water bowl should have access to/be given testers to grow these so we can be sure that the new breeders and potential breeders get their chance to shine or fail well with a few good growers. Now that's not to say new growers shouldnt get the chance, just that a mix of old and new growers should get the chance to give a broad swath of growing abilities. I dont think it should be exclusive but I think gladiators should have first dibs for a percentage of sponsored positions for x number of days before the spots are open for grabs by the general afn membership who has x posts and y grows over z period of time only because they've been proven to stick around and will contribute to the grow from start to end.
I do feel all of this allows for additional potential gladiators to be to train for the gladiators ranks next season while giving them a taste of what a few free seeds are like.
What I'm worried about is opsec by giving away addresses of our members to anyone who claims they are a breeder just for testing seeds. You dont know if they are potentially scoping out others grows.
I also think since itll be a new Avenue of approach the transparency of total seeds received for redistribution (like currently done) is going to continue to be great, maybe if the grow goes well also have the breeder have a pack of a few strains, or if they have x or less strains, y seeds or more of the strain.
Just mostly stuff to make sure that the breeder has the ability to produce the product they go for.
A basic online exam about breeding techniques and cannabis terminology and other basic agricultural and horticultural sciences and biology should be required for new breeders wanting to come on the site. These exams can be reviewed by some of the well respected and educated people on this site. An automatic scoring system is easily possible. I think a breeder should be able to answer 50 questions out of a pool of 500 questions which are provided on AFN for one to study. The test requires a scoring at 70% or better (that's 15 questions you can get wrong out if 50). I know a 70% sounds like a high score to require but... what do they call the doctor that finished last in med school? Doctor.
And a C is the lowest you can get in med school and we want to have our new breeders to be able to know what the problems are so they can breed their strains further to refine them and not just go "idk what the problem is".
So theres my rant.