# Charter members can now show both a custom title + CM! **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [March 2, 2010, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-members-can-now-show-both-a-custom-title-cm/531060 "2010-03-02T23:52:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ed\_Zotti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/fbc32d/32.png) [@Ed\_Zotti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ed_Zotti)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2010, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-members-can-now-show-both-a-custom-title-cm/531060/1 "2010-03-02T23:52:19Z")
After more finagling in the bowels of the system, the details of which I’d just as soon not know, **xash** has figured out a way to let Charter Members purchase custom titles while continuing to show their Charter Member titles, like so: User Name Custom Title Charter Member Note: 1. If your Charter Member subscription expires before your custom title subscription, you’ll lose the remainder of your CT subscription - NO REFUNDS. 2. Charter Members may only give a custom title subscription to other Charter Members. 3. For reasons I don’t have the strength to explain, when a CM’s CT subscription expires, their title will revert to: User Name Charter Member Charter Member Please advise when this occurs and we’ll fix it, or else just renew your CT subscription. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2010, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-members-can-now-show-both-a-custom-title-cm/531060/2 "2010-03-02T23:57:20Z")
Charter Members who have previously purchased a Custom Title subscription don’t need to do anything at this time. I will move you to the new subscription later this evening. When I do, you will see your Charter Member title below your custom title. - **xash** Administrator ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-members-can-now-show-both-a-custom-title-cm/531060/3 "2010-03-03T01:01:05Z")
Sadly I let my subscription lapse once and lost the Charter Member title and was informed that there was nothing that could be done. Glad they have the titles thing now…not because I necessarily wanted one, but as with my membership I hope the funds help. -XT ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-members-can-now-show-both-a-custom-title-cm/531060/4 "2010-03-03T07:42:03Z")
In the other thread, weren’t there people who did not want the Charter Member tag? Can they still opt out? BTW, I understand if you don’t want to share, but I’m curious to know how you figured it out. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-members-can-now-show-both-a-custom-title-cm/531060/5 "2010-03-03T21:36:19Z")
Nice job xash! Now if you could apply the “marquee” tag to my username so that it scrolls across the screen every time I post, that would be great. ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-members-can-now-show-both-a-custom-title-cm/531060/6 "2010-03-04T08:44:45Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > In the other thread, weren’t there people who did not want the Charter Member tag? Can they still opt out? Sure, I’ll take requests by PM. > [@](#): > > BTW, I understand if you don’t want to share, but I’m curious to know how you figured it out. There’s no reason to not share. Some of the posters who helped my thought process in the [other thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=552618) might like to know as well, and this info might also be useful for the Giraffe Boards or Mellophant or any other members who run vB boards. Initially, I didn’t think any solution was workable without a hack, but with 36 Charter Members responding to the poll saying they would purchase a custom title if this feature were offered, I thought it would be worthwhile (both for them and the SDMB) to spend some more time trying to figure out a way to do this. As you probably saw in the discussion in the [other thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=552618), it was complicated because not all Charter Members would purchase a Custom Title. Any change to Charter Members would apply to all Charter Members, including Charter Members who did not purchase a Custom Title. And any change to Custom Title Members would apply to all Custom Title Members, including Custom Title Members who were not Charter Members. In the first case, Charter Members who did not purchase a Custom Title would end up looking like this: **username** Charter Member Charter Member In the second case, Custom Title Members who were not Charter Members would end up looking like this: **username** custom title Charter Member Neither of these scenarios were desirable. I then tried to find some setting which would change the title or rank of Charter Members who were also Custom Title members, without changing the title or rank of Charter Members who were not Custom Title members, and Custom Title Members who were not Charter Members, and do this without moving anyone out of the Charter Member group (because of additional billing integration complications). The solution was to create a new paid subscription and link it to the billing system (to keep track of Charter Members purchasing a Custom Title), and create an extra secondary group (to make changes to the rank of Charter Members who are also Custom Title members). So, now, when a Charter Member purchases a Custom Title, they get added to two secondary groups, one which gives them the permissions to edit custom titles, and another which gives them the rank of Charter Member in a line below their custom title. When their Custom Title subscription expires, they get removed from both secondary groups. When their Charter Member subscription expires, they get removed from the Charter Member primary group, and both secondary groups. The two minor issues with this solution are: 1. When a Charter Member first purchases a Custom Title subscription, they will show up as: **username** Charter Member Charter Member When they make their first custom title change (usually immediately after purchase), they will change to: **username** custom title Charter Member If they wish to display only Charter Member at any time, they can use Alt-255 or other escape sequences as their custom title, which will essentially make their custom title blank, and it will look like: **username** Charter Member They can switch between the two at any time, and as often as they like. 1. The second minor issue is that on subscription expiry, their title will again look like: **username** Charter Member Charter Member This can easily be fixed by a passing admin, or on the poster’s request. This is more an issue with updating counters rather than anything to do with the above solution, but since we don’t run a cron job to update counters for any other reason currently, this is not done automatically. If we have any PHP/SQL experts on the board, I would like to hear from them if they are interested in helping me write a script to do this. Hope that satiates your curiosity. It’s not as straightforward as it looks to end users 🙂 - **xash** Administrator ---
**Author:** ![xash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/c6cbf5/32.png) [@xash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xash)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-members-can-now-show-both-a-custom-title-cm/531060/7 "2010-03-04T08:51:16Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > Nice job xash! Now if you could apply the “marquee” tag to my username so that it scrolls across the screen every time I post, that would be great. As soon as you change your username to **Annoyold Blinkelread** 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2010, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-members-can-now-show-both-a-custom-title-cm/531060/8 "2010-03-04T23:29:53Z")
That would almost be worth it. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-members-can-now-show-both-a-custom-title-cm/531060/9 "2010-03-10T17:03:11Z")
> [@xash](#): > > The solution was to create a new paid subscription and link it to the billing system (to keep track of Charter Members purchasing a Custom Title), and create an extra secondary group (to make changes to the rank of Charter Members who are also Custom Title members). So, now, when a Charter Member purchases a Custom Title, they get added to two secondary groups, one which gives them the permissions to edit custom titles, and another which gives them the rank of Charter Member in a line below their custom title. When their Custom Title subscription expires, they get removed from both secondary groups. When their Charter Member subscription expires, they get removed from the Charter Member primary group, and both secondary groups. > > The two minor issues with this solution are: > > 1. When a Charter Member first purchases a Custom Title subscription, they will show up as: > > **username** > Charter Member > Charter Member > > When they make their first custom title change (usually immediately after purchase), they will change to: > > **username** > custom title > Charter Member > > If they wish to display only Charter Member at any time, they can use Alt-255 or other escape sequences as their custom title, which will essentially make their custom title blank, and it will look like: > > **username** > Charter Member > > They can switch between the two at any time, and as often as they like. > > 1. The second minor issue is that on subscription expiry, their title will again look like: > > **username** > Charter Member > Charter Member > > This can easily be fixed by a passing admin, or on the poster’s request. This is more an issue with updating counters rather than anything to do with the above solution, but since we don’t run a cron job to update counters for any other reason currently, this is not done automatically. If we have any PHP/SQL experts on the board, I would like to hear from them if they are interested in helping me write a script to do this. > > Hope that satiates your curiosity. It’s not as straightforward as it looks to end users 🙂 > > - **xash** > Administrator Any chance that some more of this manipulation with extra secondary groups would allow people to get their Charter Member titles reinstated?