But this isn’t about retroactively changing people back to Charter Member… this is just renaming the current titles to something a little less dismissive of those who view ads (or that’s how I see it). Guests become Members, Members become Subscribed Members and Charter Members remain as they are, with the same rules in place regarding payment and the half price for Charters. It’s also about just turning on the post count and location fields for everyone, because there’s no reason to pretend it’s somehow a perk of payment.
Good point, I think I’ve been conflating two different threads about titles. I really don’t have an objection to making Guest -> Members or some other name. Maybe Members -> Subscribers so you don’t have two kinds of “members”?
Carry on.
If paying a subscription and viewing ads are the same, then why the need to create perks for one option over the other?
Ok, no arguments there. My problem is with people who are somehow suggesting that TPTB are dodging the issue. They have a position. It might be an unpopular one, but they have it, are making no secret of it and are sticking to it.
Re-read my post and show me where I said it was “the same.”
Exactly. They are not. We can go back and forth about how preferred and better loved are the same or not. Whatever. Bottom line, there are two options for a visitor to chose, TPTB like one over the other and, as good business owners, they are trying to steer their customers to the choice that is more beneficial to them.
People from the lower tier are asking for the perks of the higher tier without paying the price. That’s just not how businesses work. You don’t get a free soda with your burger if you don’t overpay for the fries.
A better angle for those pushing for changes would be showing how at least seeing the post count and location of Guests is a perk not for the Guests but for the Members who could then make use of that info for whatever it is they find it useful.
Maybe, and this is more of a long shot, you could argue that seeing a title that recognizes a non-paying poster as a long-time regular poster is desirable since the title is right under the user name and more visible to someone just giving it a quick look.
A lot of boards award titles more so based on post count, popularity, longevity, etc. So one might be a “Newbie” from 0 to 100 posts then a “Member” from 100 to 499 and a “Super Guru” at 10,000 posts or whatever. Or a board might have a rating system where other users rate each others’ posts and high-rated individuals wind up with cooler titles. For some, sheer longevity awards a new title. (because if someone managed to survive X years without being banned or driven away by other users they must be ok). All these factors seem more important to me in terms of using a title system to gauge a posters overall credibility or status within the board community. Whether or not they pay to subscribe really isn’t of any value in terms of board titles as they are generally used. The Guest/Member/Charter Member system seems to be based only on payment method chosen, and I think more often people are looking to titles as a way to signify something more about their relative status within the board community.
My opinion is that I do pay to post here. I want to be able to see post counts and locations without the hassles of having to click on every single posters name I am curious about. Sure Jerry may be busy, but as a system administrator myself, I know it would only take a very short time to fix something that would make a lot of people happy. Sure he has to prioritize his work, but be for real, it’s not like we are asking him to write new code. I think it’s pretty obvious this board ranks low on CLs list of assets. So be it. But by paying for the product it would be nice just once if we were treated as valued customers instead of whiny pains in the ass. If some one asks me to make a system change that is not going to hurt anything and will make a lot of users happy I see it as a win-win and implement the change.
On the face of it, the request seems very reasonable. (Because it is. Takes maybe 2 minutes in the Admin Panel to create a boardwide group that kicks in at so many posts or whatever.) Despite what you may think, this board is not being run out of someone’s basement. Just because someone has the word administrator under their username doesn’t mean they can make a decision like this. The board is owned by Creative Loafing. I’m guessing doing something like what we want would require TubaDiva to fill out form 105-d-625a, submit 3 copies to Legal, Administration, and Personnel for God only knows what reason, wait 3 to 5 weeks while a committee debates the merits of creating a sub-committee to discuss the relevance of her request in light of the company’s internet publicity front, get back a response to her that before forward motion can be taken they need a mission statement and a 5-year forecast, after which, the proposal languishes in the mailbox of some middle manager who was fired 2 years ago but no one remembered to remove him from the system. Basically, what we need is a Vogon.
I doubt it. An admin could probably change the board to umop ap!sdn pink text on green background and it would be months before anyone in CL noticed and years before anyone cared to do anything about it.
This describes my thoughts perfectly. I don’t care about any board politics or titles or what’s fair and what isn’t.
I want to see these things without needing to dig into the profile because it’s convenient for me and for no other reason.
I would like this request to be considered from the perspective that I am a paying member of the board. I am a customer.
Please don’t treat me like I’m a problem or an annoyance.
And feel free to say “We are not going to do that”. I will get over it.
I think you’d be surprised. And not everyone breaks policy just because they can.
Well said. Of course, that would be easier than the path they’ve chosen on this issue, but honesty is the best policy with your customers. But since they dug a big hole with 1) Too busy, 2) Too hard, 3) and whatever other nonsense they have used, it just seems like they can’t write that one sentence.
As a Guest of the board, I thank you all for letting me post in your sandbox. And until Ed Zotti helps with my membership fee, I’ll be a Guest forever. I don’t think this is an accident, since I’ve asked Ed for his help before.
SFP
Still waiting for Ed to pony up and make me a Member. C’mon Ed. You can afford it! And I promise never to ask for “Charter Member” status.
What nonsense. You can have membership bought for you by someone else; happens all the time for people who make a good case for it. Happened for me, once, and I paid it forward to someone else.
[Secret Invisible to Everyone but Mods Mode] He’s on to us. We’re gonna have to disappear him.[/SItEbMM]
All kidding aside, yeah, the board moderating staff aren’t allowed to make these decisions, or these changes, for the most part. We have to suggest it, wait for the suggestion to percolate through the management, and wait for permission to implement it. Some stuff has to be hardwired into the system, from what I understand. Usually, if the change involves a hack, only one of the tech support personnel is allowed to make it, not one of the message board admins. In other words, CL or Ed has to approve it, and usually Jerry’s the one to implement it. Sometimes, if it’s just a matter of clicking on a few buttons in the Admin Control Panel, we’re allowed to change things, but that doesn’t happen often.
I probably have the ability to make this change, but I certainly don’t have the authority. I very much doubt that I’ll ever get that authority, either.
I want to be a pirate! Please change all admins to “Captain,” moderators to “Crew,” charter members to “scalawags,” members to “mateys,” and guests to “cabin boys.” Also the '99ers should have “crusty” before their title.
ARRRR
As much as I hate pirates (I’m a ninja fan), your post made me literally laught out loud. I do hereby withdraw my suggestion of guests being changed to squid fodder.
Sorry squiddy, maybe next time. 
A ninja eh? Then I propose that we *must * have themed titles to suit every faction on this board. Pirates, Ninjas, and those rather confused individuals, the Ninja-Pirates.
Yarrrrr! I would subscribe to the Swashbuckler level if it were available.
To the question of just allowing everyone to see each others locations and post counts, that would be a lot simpler technically than trying to create new titles based on various subscription/payment criteria. It is a modification made on 10-04-08 right in the section of code after the join date is displayed. It has been set to only show that additional information for user groups greater than 4. (View source of this page and find the line beginning: “<!- start SDMB modification, jed, 10-04-08 ->”)
Allowing everyone to see everyone’s location and post count, technically, is just a matter of changing that 1 number, (a 4) to a different number. That’s it. Save the change, and everyone sees locations and post counts immediately!
But, the reason it is coded the way it is, is because obviously people with the authority to say so want it coded that way. It really isn’t much incentive to subscribe just so that others might be able to see my location and post count, but someone thinks it is. It seems a better incentive would be to allow paying members to see that information about everyone including guests and only guests would be limited by the current code. Anyway don’t blame the board mods they could, technically, make that one change in 30 seconds. Blame TPTB!
Maybe threads like these eventually get sent up to TPTB, and this printout will sit on a conference room table at corporate headquarters getting coffee rings on it while awaiting further review. Hey TPTB - I’m writing to you from out here on the intrawebs: You’re taking a feature away from the subscribers this way, rather than adding a limitation to the guests.
Now, back to the thing about pirates, how hard would it be to add a plank to The Pit and get some eye patches over here stat?
Being a pirateninja can be hazardous to your health. Warning: this comic and the one it’s a spinoff to contains violence, semi-nudity, a pirateninja, and very, very geeky roleplaying humor. It is not suitable for younger readers. I am going to break the link for added protection.
You have been warned.