# Buying Someone Else a Membership? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [December 22, 2016, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-someone-else-a-membership/775401 "2016-12-22T21:05:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-someone-else-a-membership/775401/1 "2016-12-22T21:05:35Z")
In a Pit post (I won’t link, because it’s Pitworthy) **bobot** says, “I offered to pay for someone’s [SDMB] membership once, and it was not possible to accomplish.” Is it not possible to accomplish? My first SDMB membership was a gift; someone else did pay for it! Is there a process? ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-someone-else-a-membership/775401/2 "2016-12-22T21:15:16Z")
Apparently not, as of 2014. > [@gift memberships are not working](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gift-memberships-are-not-working/682670/3): > > The gift subscription plugin was broken by the recent upgrade to the vBulletin version. If you have submitted a gift subscription that did not work correctly please send an email to [webmaster@straightdope.com](mailto:webmaster@straightdope.com) with the details. Include your username and the username of the person you were giving a gift subscription too. I’ll make manual changes to apply the gift. > > For the time being I’ve disabled the ability to give gift subscriptions until I have time to analyze the old plugin and determine what is needed to get it to work on the new version. > > Jerry As far as I know, they haven’t been reenabled, but I’ll leave it to one of the mods to confirm or dispel. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-someone-else-a-membership/775401/3 "2016-12-22T21:20:39Z")
Gift subscriptions are still broken and that feature is currently disabled. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-someone-else-a-membership/775401/4 "2016-12-22T21:40:12Z")
Because Og forbid we should be able to do something nice for someone else and make the SD some money at the same time. That way lies Madness! ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-someone-else-a-membership/775401/5 "2016-12-22T21:49:48Z")
I still feel real guilty about letting down the person I’d promised. I suppose I could have looked into it before I made the promise, but I just assumed it was possible. (The promisee was most understanding that I’d tried.) ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-someone-else-a-membership/775401/6 "2016-12-23T02:44:31Z")
Gift subscriptions were one of the nicest things about this place. They were one of the things that made the SDMB special. I myself benefited in the past from the kindness of a fellow Doper. I think it nothing short of a disgrace that it’s been broken so long. Can’t **Ed** light a fire under someone and do something about this? ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-someone-else-a-membership/775401/7 "2016-12-23T05:08:20Z")
Why not just give the lucky donee $15 and let them buy their own subscription? Just paypal them the money or email them an amazon gift card number. Yes, I know you can’t use paypal or amazon to buy an SD subscription, but you can use them for something else you were going to buy anyway and take the money you would have spent at amazon and use it to buy an SD subscription. Now waiting for 15 people to post that they have moral or political objections to amazon, they never buy stuff over the internet, or “is this ‘amazon’ something the kids are doing?” ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-someone-else-a-membership/775401/8 "2016-12-23T05:48:44Z")
No real objection, but it’s indirect, and susceptible to re-direction. (“They’re just gonna spend it on booze!”) ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/buying-someone-else-a-membership/775401/9 "2016-12-23T06:11:30Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > No real objection, but it’s indirect, and susceptible to re-direction. (“They’re just gonna spend it on booze!”) I agree. I know it’s illogical but I’d feel most uncomfortable accepting a Paypal donation in the place of a gift subscription. And as for Amazon gift certificates I can assure you, having been there, that when you’re broke they wouldn’t help. There’s nothing at all on Amazon that you’d be spending money on elsewhere and you still couldn’t spare the cash for an SDMB subscription.