# Charter Membership -- Maintain **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [April 21, 2024, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-membership-maintain/1000567 "2024-04-21T01:27:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-membership-maintain/1000567/1 "2024-04-21T01:27:52Z")
I’ve not renewed my Charter Membership since migrating to this crappy software. I think I’m due, and I’ve gone through every option in my profile. It’s one of the few things I pay for on the internet, and I’d like to maintain it. Can someone point out the path I need to follow to stay current? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-membership-maintain/1000567/2 "2024-04-21T01:30:46Z")
There’s no way to pay them right now, and since our admin is deceased and hasn’t been replaced there hasn’t been any development in that area for some time. Honestly, it’s probably for the best that the Powers That Be not notice us. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-membership-maintain/1000567/3 "2024-04-21T01:31:21Z")
There is no mechanism for making payments now, and hasn’t been since we migrated to Discourse (and since TubaDiva’s sudden passing). As far as I know, there are no active plans to implement a method for paying, but I also think that the mods aren’t taking away Charter Member titles due to this. ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-membership-maintain/1000567/4 "2024-04-21T01:36:37Z")
Add to the fact that Discourse is about 1000x better than the old software. The board would have crashed and burned years ago if they hadn’t ported it. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-membership-maintain/1000567/5 "2024-04-21T01:40:54Z")
No way… can’t pay. As said above. You can send it to me. I’ll see Cecil gets it. 🤭 Seriously, I figured Charter members didn’t have to ever pay. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-membership-maintain/1000567/6 "2024-04-21T01:50:50Z")
Okay, thanks, everyone! Since we moved to Discourse I’ve not been as active as prior, so I wanted to be sure I didn’t miss anything. And, yes, I do still appreciate the TubaDiva loss. RIP. I’m willing to support the SMDB, in case anyone in power notices. 😉 Edit: sigh. I can’t even write a smilie without this POS software turning it into a stupid, f’ing emoji. To be clear, I wrote a SMILIE, not an EMOJI. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-membership-maintain/1000567/7 "2024-04-21T01:54:13Z")
Nm….nm nm ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-membership-maintain/1000567/8 "2024-04-21T02:30:47Z")
There is only one way to resolve this: One of us has to win Mega Millions and/or Powerball and buy this place from TPTB. 😁 ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-membership-maintain/1000567/9 "2024-04-21T04:17:42Z")
We just one millionaire. Just one. I bet it’s on half price with a coupon. BTW @Balthisar you may have written a smilie but you got an emoji. I felt the earth shift a teeny tiny bit. 🤭 ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-membership-maintain/1000567/10 "2024-04-21T05:57:18Z")
You can just get creative! (• ◡•) or ☉ ‿ ⚆ Or any other number of options: [https://asciimoji.com/](https://asciimoji.com/) works as a reference. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-membership-maintain/1000567/11 "2024-04-21T10:07:49Z")
Now that the OP’s been conclusively answered … Semi-related to Charter Member titles, you can now get a title of your own choosing. Which title, like mine, can include you grandfatherly status of Charter Member plus additional witticisms. Or like @ParallelLines just above me here, can simply be your own clever creation showing no memory of your former and now mostly virtual exalted status. They’re becoming commonplace; almost all the cool kids have one now. So join the clique before somebody decides we’re not taking more members. After all, what good is a clique if you let the riff-raff in? 😁 If OP or anyone else is interested, see this thread for the how-to and to make your request for a custom title at no additional cost. > [@Custom Titles Queue](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/custom-titles-queue/998955): > > Please enter your current title and what you want the new title to be as a post in this thread. The basic rule for Custom Titles are that they are supposed to be fun, so nothing offensive. You can’t use something that is already a title of some sort in the system (Moderator, Admin, Charter Member, etc). Self-deprecating titles are Ok, but you can’t insult someone else. So I could change my title to “old fat guy” but I couldn’t use “Ned is ugly”. In the past, the staff had to change a couple of… ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-membership-maintain/1000567/12 "2024-04-21T10:59:00Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > riff-raff I’ll finally do this, then – inspired by your post, I’ll go with “Last of the Riff-Raff” ETA: Hmm, the thread for declaring/requesting a title change is locked (it’s called “March 2024,” but the most recent post was April 17). I’m sure a Mod will fix that soon. ETA again: [Found it](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-change-the-guest-moniker-in-ones-profile/999909). ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-membership-maintain/1000567/13 "2024-04-21T12:18:58Z")
> [@FinsToTheLeft](#): > > Add to the fact that Discourse is about 1000x better than the old software. The board would have crashed and burned years ago if they hadn’t ported it. IIRC that wasn’t the software, that was the server they were using at the time. There’s still plenty of VB boards and none of the ones I’m aware of have ever had problems like we did. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-membership-maintain/1000567/14 "2024-04-21T12:26:38Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > I’ll finally do this, then – inspired by your post, I’ll go with “Last of the Riff-Raff” > > ETA: Hmm, the thread for declaring/requesting a title change is locked (it’s called “March 2024,” but the most recent post was April 17). I’m sure a Mod will fix that soon. > > ETA again: [Found it](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-change-the-guest-moniker-in-ones-profile/999909). I was confused. LSLGuy set me straight: "The “Custom Titles Queue” thread is NOT locked right now and IMO has never been locked. There is a different Mods-only thread called “Completed Title Changes Thread” that is always locked to us mortals. “You post your request in the former and when it’s done, they move your post into the latter. The former thread generally looks empty of requests because the mods are pretty quick to act on those requests. And the latter looks like it’s full of title requests, because it is. But those are the ones already done.” ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-membership-maintain/1000567/15 "2024-04-21T13:26:18Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > IIRC that wasn’t the software, that was the server they were using at the time. There’s still plenty of VB boards and none of the ones I’m aware of have ever had problems like we did. My understanding is that they were on an old version of VB that had been heavily customized which made upgrading very difficult. A simple server migration with the same software would have taken 4-6 hours tops. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2024, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-membership-maintain/1000567/16 "2024-04-21T14:03:08Z")
Charter Membership will not be running out any time soon. There is no mechanism for taking payments for the SDMB at this time. This appears to be unlikely to change anytime soon. * * * * * * I tweaked the OP of the Completed thread to make it easier to find the Queue. > [@Completed Title Changes Thread {Mar 2024}](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/completed-title-changes-thread-mar-2024/998987): > > This is the thread to move completed title changes to, from [Custom Titles Queue](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/custom-titles-queue/998955). Request changes in the [Custom Titles Queue](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/custom-titles-queue/998955). Direct Link to the Q: > [@Custom Titles Queue {Please make your requests in this thread}](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/custom-titles-queue/998955): > > Please enter your current title and what you want the new title to be as a post in this thread. The basic rule for Custom Titles are that they are supposed to be fun, so nothing offensive. You can’t use something that is already a title of some sort in the system (Moderator, Admin, Charter Member, etc). Self-deprecating titles are Ok, but you can’t insult someone else. So I could change my title to “old fat guy” but I couldn’t use “Ned is ugly”. In the past, the staff had to change a couple of… ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2025, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/charter-membership-maintain/1000567/17 "2025-01-16T19:35:33Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > No way… can’t pay. As said above. > > You can send it to me. I’ll see Cecil gets it. 🤭 > > Seriously, I figured Charter members didn’t have to ever pay. Beck, you’d be wrong here dear. I’m a 99er. When Charter Membership was introduced, I got onto it because I was proud to be an AOL Board Member before it migrated off of the AOL Boards. I’ve been paying ever since they instituted payments to maintain that status/ identity.