# Did we screw ourselves by signing in too early? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [March 24, 2004, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-screw-ourselves-by-signing-in-too-early/236122 "2004-03-24T14:03:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-screw-ourselves-by-signing-in-too-early/236122/1 "2004-03-24T14:03:07Z")
I got a one year subscription on March 21st, 2004, due to expire March 20th, 2005. However, the “rules” say: > [@](#): > > **When does this go into effect?** > > On Monday, March 22, at 9 a.m., we’ll take the board down for an hour or so to load some new code. This will accomplish two things: > > (1) All users who are currently “members” will become “guests.” The guest privileges described above will apply. > > (2) We’ll start accepting subscriptions at the charter subscriber rate of $4.95 for the first year. > > On April 21, two more things will happen: > > (3) The annual subscription rate goes from $4.95 to $14.95. > > (4) All guests who registered before March 22 and haven’t subscribed will have their accounts inactivated. They’ll be able to read the board but not post. To reactivate their accounts they have to subscribe. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=245825](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=245825) Had we waited until April 20th to sign up, then we would’ve gotten one last free month out of the SDMB. Instead, the CR cunningly used the herd mentality on a group of otherwise rational free-thinking “individualists” and compelled us to give up that last free month at a benefit to them of $.4125 per user. That might sound small, but every 500 people that signs up on the first day or three amounts to an additional ~$200 going in the CR cash flows for this month. Chicago Reader? Might as well be Capitalist Reader. 😉 🆒 Anyway, it seems that everything is going pretty smoothly. Congratulations! ---
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-screw-ourselves-by-signing-in-too-early/236122/2 "2004-03-24T14:54:23Z")
I’m waiting until around the 15th of April to sign up. OK, a part of that is me being cheap, but mostly I am letting them work the bugs out of the system first. I also don’t want to wait until the last minute and have to pay the full amount because of a board problem, or a swarm of last minute registerers killing the system. I wonder what I will do with my extra 41 cents? Spend it all in one place or save it and watch the wonders of compound interest take effect? Hmm, if I stay on this board for 15 years and make 5% interest by may calculations I will have an extra $13.68! Wooo hooo! ---
**Author:** ![Algernon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Algernon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algernon)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-screw-ourselves-by-signing-in-too-early/236122/3 "2004-03-24T14:58:06Z")
In one of these innumerable threads, it was announced that everyone who signs up before April 22 will have an expiration date on their membership set to the same date. Therefore, there is no advantage to waiting until later to sign up. ---
**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 24, 2004, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-we-screw-ourselves-by-signing-in-too-early/236122/4 "2004-03-24T14:59:41Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Had we waited until April 20th to sign up, then we would’ve gotten one last free month out of the SDMB. Instead, the CR cunningly used the herd mentality on a group of otherwise rational free-thinking “individualists” and compelled us to give up that last free month at a benefit to them of $.4125 per user. That might sound small, but every 500 people that signs up on the first day or three amounts to an additional ~$200 going in the CR cash flows for this month. > > Chicago Reader? Might as well be Capitalist Reader. 😉 🆒 We’re capitalists, but we’re not stupid capitalists. We don’t want to give people an excuse to wait till the last minute. On April 21 Jerry will globally change all the subscription expiration dates to April 21, regardless of when you signed up. So if you sign up now, in effect you’ll be getting a free month of charter membership.