Charter Member vs Member

In this thread nonpolar says that he paid his Straight Dope subscription yesterday. He is shown as a Charter Member.

I thought that only folks that sent their subscription pennies in before the initial deadline date were designated Charter Members, and all those after the deadline are designated Members. Am I mistaken?

I’m not picking on nonpolar, he’s just the first person I noticed this on. I’m just curious is all.

I asked a similar question in this thread http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=266553 under my old (guest) name of bodswood.

You will note that although a lot of folk chipped in (some of them old-timers), the dope that was achieved was by no means the straightest.

Does this question need to be forwarded to “Cecil”?

Thanks for your response. I reviewed your thread and still come to the conclusion that Charter Members and Members (new ones anyway) are/were determined solely based on whether or not the paid their subscription before or after the deadline. :confused:

Is this just a glitch that the mods and admin are aware of but either

a) Don’t have the time to correct it
b) Don’t care to correct it.
c) ??

It’s not within the Moderators control, it’s got to be a system change and there’s just not been time or personpower to fix.

It’s a technical issue that will be addressed at some point; right now, what’s the difference, who cares?

My understanding is that at some point all paid members will be just that, “Members.” The Charter Member designation was needed at the beginning as we sorted through the sign-up process, but it’s not necessarily needed now.

We don’t hold it against you that you just got here and you don’t necessarily earn brownie points because you came to us earlier. It just doesn’t matter.

What does matter is that you’re here now and we’re happy to see you.

your humble TubaDiva
Administrator

Yes, you’re mistaken.

your humble TubaDiva
Administrator

You need to email an admin and let them know that you had a guest name and now have a different one. This is a bannable offense.

If you already have, good job. I really like this name, by the way. :slight_smile:

You know, it might be nice to keep the “charter member” vs “member” difference. Assuming this board lasts another decade, byt that time there will be damn few Charters still around.

Would it be that difficult?

The sticky that announced the switch to paid subscriptions says:

It never said anything about different titles for early and late subscribers.

My mistake.

:cool:

I agree that is a cool idea too, but then don’t forget about the “join date”. Assuming this stays listed then there isn’t really an issue. Personally, I like the join date since I don’t post much and you can see that I’ve been around the block for a while - but being a “charter member” is pretty cool and definitely resume-worthy!

cheers,
Powers

I’m still trying to work out whether C.K. Dexter Haven is a relation.

The name change was necessitated by the fact that the SDMB didn’t like my credit card when I tried to subscribe by my original name. No, not George Kaplan - bodswood. I emailed admin - who hadn’t run across this kind of problem before - and decided to try again under another name and email address. Bingo!

I feel, well, I feel like an innocent man caught up in a chain of events that I cannot control…

And some people seem to be ‘members’ when it seems (to me) that they should be Charter Members.

That’s usually due to there having been a manual status change. If the status is set manually, the system won’t perform global changes on it.

An interesting question. We could be identical twins separated at birth, except that you look a little older.
Middle initial “O”, eh? and matchbooks labelled R.O.T.?

I thought the title of “Charter Member” (for those who subscribed before the cut-off date) was to differentiate those who will be given a 50% discount on the renewal rate for subsequent years?

I also have “Charter Member” under my name, and, as I’ve only been a member for about a month, I’m pretty sure that I signed up after any kind of cut-off date (and I don’t remember seeing anything about a discount on next year’s subscription renewal). :slight_smile:

I like the idea of all paid members eventually becoming just “Member:” I’m a case in point of the fact that a separate “Charter Member” designation wouldn’t make much sense these days. And Powers106 has an excellent point: we’ll always know who the ‘old timers’ are as long as our Join Dates continue to be visible.

:confused: :confused:

Oh, now, steady on, old boy! A little older than my mother, I grant you, but no one’s perfect.

I confess, I confess.

I’ve been listed as a Charter Member although I accidently paid a couple of hours late. I hadn’t mentioned this before because I thought it was pretty cool to be considered “old school”.

I’ve been a doper since my friends and I discovered the television show, late night in a Montana bar. Ever since I’ve had an image of Cecil in my mind, as an hot intelligent bald guy with beautiful eyes and a great smile.

I wonder…

Anyhow, I’ve been spreading the dope ever since, but it won’t really hurt my feelings if I’m re-relegated to lowly Member status.