The 500 posts is not set in stone rule. For example your join date is 4 years back so you've been around long time enough to make up for the 40 posts
The rule is there only because we need trustworthy and loyal members for the program. And a member with 10 posts is not something we can trust straight away to represent the site, if you know what I mean
Feel free to sign up and if you haven't had any beefs with the moderators or had any infractions on your account, you're more than welcome to join us!