No matter where you draw a line, someone is going to end up on the other side of it, unless you draw no line. If you draw no line, then there’s not much point to having a condition of a special type of membership, is there? :dubious:
It’s not “fuck them.” It’s “we’re sorry, but the agreement you agreed to says you are no longer a Charter Member.” 
No, its not a people issue, it’s a money issue. The SDMB has been given a mission by the owners to make money. If Jerry has to spend X minutes maintaining the Charter Members who forgot to re-up, it pretty much negates the $7.48 they pay annually, and probably ends up costing the site money. Multiply that by all the people who, despite weekly posting of threads like this, can’t figure out why they have been dropped as CM’s, and you have an pretty obvious money leak for bean counters to hone in on and plug with the edict not to spend any time coddling those who are victims of their own poor planning.
TubaDiva, I know this is the rule, and I know this has been beaten to death, but I really wish there was some way you all could deal with this without the public gestapo slap.
Perhaps an email or a PM to the person who has been impacted by this would be appropriate. Missing the renewal date by a day or so is not like he/she is a scofflaw, but just missed it. Things happen. I think the board policy is right, a line has to be drawn, and this is about as black and white as it could be. If you miss your deadline, you miss it. That’s fine.
I don’t know. Perhaps my tone-meter needs reset. Your reply just seemed a bit snarky to me. I don’t think this is a matter that needs to be rehashed in public over and over. The person who missed the deadline could be told the info required in private.
That way, they could be spared all the pile-on comments from people that are unnecessary. The rule is the rule, and it’s a good one, IMO. Others don’t need to stick their beaks in. Honestly, do we need to read “you snooze you lose”, or “it’s your responsibility” every time this happens?
SFP (just sticking my beak in to make this a friendlier place).
Meh, I like the perks I DO pay for.
Dudley, it’s called sarcasm. I really don’t give a shit if I have it there or not. The whole, “Oh my god, they don’t CARE about their customers, how dare you not change their titles back!” is getting to be ridiculous.
To be fair to TubaDiva, I suspect that if the the OP had PM’d TubaDiva, she would have replied with a PM. He didn’t, so she didn’t.
Just for another perspective- I thought TubaDiva’s response sounded fine. She reiterated the policy, explained that there was no extention this year, expressed empathy but left no room for negotiations, since she has no authority to grant such exceptions.
She sounded professional and empathetic to me.
Another one bites the dust.
Getting more exclusive every year.
+1
I agree.
That sort of behavior is bound to cause trouble here.
Fair enough. Perhaps my tone-meter does need that re-adjustment.
I have expressed my displeasure with Tuba’s tone in past threads, but I’m with everyone who thinks that in this thread she’s been nothing but professional.
Not-really-joking idea: Can we just have a big argument about renewing charter membership in one big thread – maybe leave it open for a set period of time, like one week – and then lock it, and in the future just refer all of these discussions to that thread?
Better yet, just leave it open, and merge all new threads into that one.
Like the OP, I was blindsided by the resubscription and lost my charter member status. In my defense, I WAS in the middle of a cross-country move at the time, and didn’t have access to the internet at the time. Of course, I could’ve paid up before my internet access was shut off, but I was a bit distracted at the time.
Whatever. The only perk (besides the title) as a Charter Member was that I didn’t see ads- and I don’t see ads, anyway. As such, I’ve elected to not resubscribe… so they aren’t getting any money from me, now.
I miss the title, but not enough to pay the full price.
Do you really think using the word “gestapo” is a good way to do that?
Yes, or I wouldn’t have used it.
I already admitted I was wrong in my interpretation of her note. That’s the best I can do.
I’d love to chat, but a Hogan’s Heroes marathon is starting.
One thing I’ve never understood is that they are always talking about how desperate they are for cash and the demands from CL to increase the revenue – now why on earth don’t they offer Charter Membership to those who lost it at a significantly increased price?
Say $50 per year if your forget to re-up. That will probably help incentivize people to remember to re-up in time, but if they forget it will still give them the option to buy it back instead of losing it forever.
I’d be willing to bet at least 10 people would pay that much for it, if not more. That’s five hundred bucks in the door pretty fast – would that be enough to pay Jerry to put them back on?
It sucks to lose your “charter member” status. You were once part of the aristocracy and yet, through your own negligence you have lowered yourself to a commoner with no chance in hell to get it back.
Still, think about those who still are charter members. Something tells me that their delicate egos are so important to them tha they anally, annually take the neccessary steps and reminders to ensure that they do not fail to renew their status on time.
It ain’t for the money, thats for sure.
I tend to agree with you, but there are some people who take it very seriously and I imagine would be willing to pay dearly for it. Which would of course help with the cash problem here.
Can someone tell me where my logic fails?
No. No one can, because it doesn’t.
So far as it goes, your logic does not fail. But it discounts those who do not fail to do what is needed to stay a Charter Member.
And we could take it one step further. How about an even higher amount of money to allow those who were members on or before the date the Board went to Pay-to-Post to become Charter Members? Undoubtedly there are those who, like me, passed on the opportunity to gain “Charter” membership who would be willing (I’m not) to pay to gain that status?
But some people here have done what it takes to become Charter Members, and stay Charter Members. If someone who didn’t do that is allowed to simply attain or regain the status through the payment of money, it cheapens the efforts of those who did what they were supposed to.
And in the grand scheme of things, $500 is peanuts, anyway.