Member: A distinct part of a whole.
Customer: Someone who pays for goods or services.
(From dictionary.com)
Me, I’m a member. I consider this place a really neat, peachy keen club, and while it used to be free, it isn’t anymore, and I’m cool with paying membership dues to be able to hang out here in the clubhouse and enjoy. I have fun, I learn a lot, I get pissed off, I relax, and overall the pleasure I take as a member of this club is worth the cost. If/when that equation changes enough so it’s not worth it, then I’ll let my membership expire.
Others say that they’re customers, and expect certain levels of performance for their money. While I would like my SDMB club to be cushier and niftier (do the young folks use that word, niftier?) than it is, and be able to do more things, that doesn’t seem to be in the cards so I’m not sweating it.
Doubtless some folks consider themselves both members and customers. While I can theoretically grasp that position, it doesn’t work for me viscerally. I just can’t see being a member of this (pseudo?) intellectual community as goods or service to be purchased, anymore than I can see someone as being a customer of the Masons, or the Water Buffalos, or similar organizations which require membership fees.
Definitely a member. If I was a customer I would demand that the Pit be shut down (“I’m not paying good money so people can make fun of my opinions!”). As a member I can revel in it whenever the mood strikes me (“Yeah, well your opinions are silly too. So there!”). The membership is by and large genial, and generally keep their own areas clean. If they make a mess in the den, they usually clean it up. Oh, the waitstaff can be a bit prickly at times, but they’ve been with the club forever and know where all the bodies are buried, so what can you do? As long as I get my martini reasonably quickly and they don’t eat all the cashews out of the nut mix, I’m willing to put up with their eccentricities.
I do think that the membership committee should be restricted from the drinks cabinet before meetings, however. They seem to be letting some riff-raff past the portals.
Is the kitchen doing a trifle for dessert tonight?
I agree with you. I do get frustrated by the lack of working hamsters sometimes, but if it were really that bad I would leave. I throughly enjoy the time I spend here.
It’s going to take some cojones to come into this thread and self proclaim one a “Customer” of the SDMB.
I’m a Member, it says so right under my name. I discovered this board just before it went to paid membership, then lurked for a few years before coughing up to post. I was inspired to do that by someone who needed a favor done in my area. Turns out by the time I got paid up and returned to the thread, the situation had been resolved, but I never forgot the circumstance. So, Member, for sure.
Definitely a member. If I get annoyed here, I just visit any other message board for flashing avatars, multi-color fonts, l33t, and endless flame wars.
I am a Member and like FaerieBeth, an addict.
The customer service complaints gets ridiculous. $15 a year or $7.99 for Charter Members does not entitle someone to much customer service. It is a message board, a fun addicting eclectic message board. I think you summed it up perfectly Qadgop the Mercotan. It is peachy keen.
Jim {BTW: I gave up and finally added Qadgop and Mercotan to my spell check dictionary}
Definitely a member. I’m usually the bitchiest of consumers, but I’m a little baffled that anyone thinks that $.04 per day entitles them to much of anything.
I rather feel like a customer, despite what my title says.
Not because I’ve got some “My eight bucks makes me entitled!” mentality but rather a vague notion that my continuing membership helps keep the place going, and I get far more information and entertainment out of this place than I contribute.
A member. I certainly don’t think of the resources here as ‘customer service’ issues, despite having paid for membership. And I don’t think (at least I don’t like to think) that my only contribution to this community is my 8 bucks.
