with this version the wsod no longer occurs.. 
i can assign 'featured member' status with this plugin.. and that is all i can do on my test install.
the members list doesn't have a tab for featured members and i have no way to add a featured members widget to the homepage as i am using homepage-cms plugin and it is not detecting the featured members.. though it does appear for profiles.

i was expecting to have access management as you wrote:  

The proversion available in plugin home page will allow you to configure access to different areas, widgets, actions etc.. easily from the admin backend.

Update (24th January 2013) : Due to the continuous request by members, we have made this plugin free. You can now download this for free from our site or elgg community repo.

is this the pro version? (it is called galliprouser)..
or is this the non pro version of the prouser plugin? lol 

@ura :

the members list doesn't have a tab for featured members

It doesn't have that feature. if you need, you can show the featured members in your members plugin by extending the members plugin. Look inside the lib folder for the API to get the featured members.

 i have no way to add a featured members widget to the homepage as i am using homepage-cms plugin and it is not detecting the featured members

We cant make it work with each and every plugin available in community. Now the code is open and you can explore it and make it work with other plugins. It will show the featured members if you have an index/righthandside view exist. If not you can call the featured members view in to your plugin.

i was expecting to have access management as you wrote:  

It is available with only the Elgg Access and Role Manager plugin in our site.

is this the pro version? (it is called galliprouser)..
or is this the non pro version of the prouser plugin? lol 

The original /previous releases of the premium members plugin was not open source and it had limitation that you can only mark two members as featured. Now we have released the code of same plugin popular with no limitation on the number of users you can promote as featured and You can revert back the status of featured users to normal users. 

How about paid member access only?  Otherwise the site is private. 

How about paid member access only?  Otherwise the site is private. 

With some additional development it can be implemented in this plugin.

it seems that there is not opportunities to configure roles unless you buy  Elgg Access and Role Manager plugin. AFAK the plugin has function then.

I bought Elgg Site Access Manager. The plugin is fantastic and perfectly fulfilled what I needed. Also very important are the people who work in webgalli that have helped me a lot in the implementation for my site works perfectly. Worth the price it has.

@Kretio : Thanks for the testimonial :)

Any chance someone could explain how to do this:

the members list doesn't have a tab for featured members

It doesn't have that feature. if you need, you can show the featured members in your members plugin by extending the members plugin. Look inside the lib folder for the API to get the featured members.

In more detail?

@Krischan: you should have some basic knowledge of elgg views / overriding / extending views. You need to override / extend the members filter menu for "featured members" too. After that you need to hook into the "members" page handler and create a new page for featured users. In this page, you can call the API's of premium user plugin to list these users.

Ok, I understand (after reading the Elgg getting started and plugins page). Maybe I will come up with a hackish solution ;)

Look here for a way to hack elgg to list the featured members:

http://community.elgg.org/discussion/view/1468616/categorizing-members-and-listing-them

I also found that switching the widget code to list view is nicer, as otherwise it looks just like another "friends" widget.

options to featured members plugin doesn't show???

Can you clear one thing out please?
What does this do other then 'let you mark a user as premium' and 'show them in a widget'?

Maybe you should change the title, imo: "and can define some special functions or privilages for featured users alone, If needed" is confusing, because there is no such option in this plugin, only in a complete different plugin which you sell for $200 on your site.

is there a way to make them featured, and there will be a tab in the activity page for each object (blogs/pictures/groups/pages etc) thst says featured, where featured members posts would show up? Featured Members plugin does that, but only for the blogs. Any help would be appreciated, thank you!

@Josh Levine :

is there a way to make them featured, and there will be a tab in the activity page for each object (blogs/pictures/groups/pages etc) thst says featured, where featured members posts would show up?Featured Members plugin does that, but only for the blogs. Any help would be appreciated, thank you!

Out of box, this plugin wont support that feature. Only with some custom developments, it will be possible to implement what you are looking for.

1. Access to different pages,
2. Restrict widgets for regular users,
3. Restrict actions for regular users etc.. easily from the admin backend.
4. Payment gateway integration also is available as custom developments.

I am not able to find any of these functionalities. In admin backend I only find "number of featured members to display". Can you help me ? Thanks

Plugin Update Request

Dear Sir,

Could you kindly update the plugin with functionality to display Featured users in widget. It would be cool if One or Two Featured Member can be displayed in Registration Page!