long-time member since 2009, used to hire lots of people in the services forum but now its not letting me and asking me to pay premium membership of 25.00 to post. is that the way it is now?
No, you just need to be an established member. https://forums.digitalpoint.com/help/established The underlying concept is the same as it's always been (Buy/Sell/Trade has always been a bonus strictly to contributing members). The only thing that has changed is the measurement used to gauge what a contributing member is (before it was based strictly on quantity, now it's based on quality).
You require 3 likes to become established. Really not difficult as many members have managed to accomplish this with one single post. Simply observe and make a note of posts that score likes and get with the program. It's all about making things difficult for spammers to do their thing, and encouraging members to contribute to the forum.