what does it mean?

Being certified shows that you are who you are. Pictures for certification are only for the site owner and will not be used for any other purpose, unless you choose to show them. Private profiles or people without a photo are not taken seriously on here, because they are assumed to be hiding something.

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You have asked two separate questions; one about being a paid member and the other regarding certification. It appears that there are only two benefits to being a paid member: being able to see additional pictures being the primary benefit. The secondary benefit of being a paid member is to give back to help defray the expense of running a huge site that is shouldered by the site owner(s).
I prefer to believe that many of those who are paid members do so in order to show their appreciation fort the owners providing this site to us. I certainly hope it's not so that they can view more pictures of nudes! I find the selling of nude pics to be antithetical to the basic tenants of nudism.
Being certified will help add credibility that one is who their profile pictures say they are. It does not certify that one is who they say they are. To the best of my knowledge there is no need to prove your identity i.e. with photo id.
Since there are so many who claim to be females, with incredible looks and photos that seem to come from porn sites it most certainly is something for females to consider. I don't know of many instances of females pretending to be males on the site so it may be a bit less important for men.

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Nood-dood,
You had some good questions and I believe they were answered very well by others.
You say that you are interested in networking and meeting other people. There are some things you can do to help make that happen. First you could get certified. Then you could fill out your profile completely and open it up for everyone to access. A lot of people will not even look at a profile restricted to friends only. You have to be a friend to make a friend. Remember when telling about yourself, you do not have to divulge any personal information that you want to keep private. There are a lot of thing that you want to tell everyone about yourself. They include that you are a nudist, your taste in music, food, travel, entertainment, etc., etc.
So go to your profile and make it happen.

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So why is it that some of the most vocal people on the forums aren't certified and provide absolutely no proof of their commitment to nudism?

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Some people will set search criteria, etc. for "certified only" - so you are somewhat less available to other members if you are not certified. Certification does not require that you identify yourself, on the site or even to the site administrators, and it does not require you to post any photos, nude or otherwise. You submit certification photos directly to the site administrators, who review them but do not post them, just to be sure your age and gender are reasonably related to the photo, to see that you will take your clothes off at least for them as an indication of nudist bona fides, and to serve as a reference if you do post photos, to see if it's the same person. If you are mechanically capable of printing up a sign and holding it for a digital camera, you should get certified - there's no downside.

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If you are a "Certified" member there is a greater chance you are who you claim to be by photo, but as all ways there are ways around it such as having people pay to pose for you but there is a greater chance they are true. You will find there is a very few people are "Certified" and there should be things only "Certified" members can do to encourage members to do it.

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