Actually, I'd like to know how he got regular? He doesn't have an app on the new forums, or even on the old forum from what I could find. I don't know much about him, but if he's just getting active lately, I think he should wait a bit more to get to know the rest of the community a bit better, and get some stability within it; since he might seem "active" and "useful" now, but he needs to prove his consistency. So as of my now
Connections Found: (156 hits in 46 files)
User: DocSnapple
SteamID(): STEAM_0:0:19868354
Connection Ratio: 4.2 Times per day.
Connection info based on 2 month time span.
For the second point that was made, community involvement is fairly unimportant for VIPs as they're solely promoted to kick and ban players in-game to help manage them. Sure involvement outside of the servers such as in teamspeak or the forums would help, it's not required and as far as I know that has never changed. I don't really think it's fair to just say someone doesn't deserve a promotion simply because one individual doesn't know them, especially considering how active he is on the servers. Sure he has had periods of inactivity though, but I'm sure there are reasons for that and he's always seemed to turn around and rejoin and be extremely active for periods which I think can be a definite benefit.
However, I haven't played with Snapple enough recently or seen his interactions with players enough recently to be confident enough to +1 him. Not to his fault though, I just haven't been on the same times he has quite as much as I'd like to. Though I know Snapple was previously a very good player when I last noticed his activity but it was some time ago. If I'd seen him active from that point until now I would be +1'ing but people change so I'd best consider that and hopefully update my opinion after playing with him more.