First, I must say I’m always amused when “the wingers” feel so outraged by a post they consider to be trivial and petty that they feel it necessary to spend the time and effort to submit a trivial and petty post complaining about it. Always good for a laugh…
Second, what part of “Note that my post there and this thread here is not a request to restore my status” is so confusing to so many of you? All the posts mocking me for trying to get my status restored at this late date are considerably more than a little pretty and absurd given the actual words of my OP.
The point of my OP is that the word “cannot” means that there is no way that something can be done. On its own, as Tuba repeatedly used it in this context, I can see no genuinely honest way it can be asserted to mean that something is against policy. If it is against policy, say that, not that it “cannot” be done. My point that using that word in place of an honest declaration is disingenuous stands. I’ve seen no hint of any intellectually honest rebuttal to that observation.
And TubaDiva is not the only person who misuses that word, which really is a disingenuous cop-out when used in that manner. It’s been abused by plenty of others as an evasion to conceal the fact that someone can indeed do something but simply chooses not to do it (for whatever reason).
Here are just two among many examples from real life:
(1): A slimy company named Trilegiant tricked me (and a million or so other people) into a “free” membership in something that turned out not to be free at all. When I discovered I had been conned, I finally got through to the company (after 25-30 attempts) and demanded a refund. They replied that they “cannot” do what I asked. It was just as disingenuous for them as it is for Tuba. When I contacted the Attorney General and they contacted Trilegiant, it turned out that they could, in fact, do it after all and then did so.
(2): A credit card company wrote me that they were going to jack up my interest rate to effectively usurious levels at a date that corresponded with my normal payment date unless I chose to close the account. But then they messed around with the payment date such that I missed the magic date by one day. When I called them and asked them to close the account and leave the old interest rate in force, they sent me up and up the chain of command whereupon the high-ranking person emphatically insisted: “I cannot do that for you, sir”. When I contacted the Attorney General and they contacted the company in question, it turned out that they could, in fact, do it after all and then did so.
Lesson? People should not use the word “cannot” when in reality it could indeed be done. If something is against policy, be honest enough to say so and do not hide behind that disingenuous evasion of claiming it “cannot” be done.
Here is just a small sampling of the background of this issue showing that I am far from alone in criticizing this disingenuous choice of words:
And here’s more proof that few critics here bothered to read the OP with care, such that not even TubaDiva bothered to read it with any care:
:: sigh ::
What part of “Note that my post there and this thread here is not a request to restore my status” is so confusing to you, Tuba? Surely I have a right to expect you to read OPs more carefully, especially before being chastised by a senior authority for requesting something I actually had not requested, don’t I?
:: sigh ::
A request was made by Jerry (or whatever tech person was involved) that we didn’t bother him with complaints about title changes because he was much too busy dealing with all the technical problems. He asked that we just wait it out and see if it fixes itself.
I was also waiting for Dex or whoever to publicly issue a decision. To the best of my knowledge (and I was watching for some time) that never happened.
As a result, I felt it was incumbent on me to substantiate my bona fides as a charter member, but my entire history since 1999 showed me to be a “guest” (as one would expect given how this software works), so I had to turn to external documentation. I discovered that nothing on my current hard disks or (apparently) in the Internet archives documented my status, so I was forced to spend a great deal of additional time trying to find such, which I eventually did. That was when I requested that just my title be restored, since I didn’t care much about the lower price. I considered that a valid compromise.
And that was when you told me that you “cannot” do anything about it; that it was utterly beyond even your capabilities. After hearing that, can you blame me for thinking that nothing could be done at all? When I tried all that time later to purchase a regular membership, I did so on a lark. Since you told me that there was nothing that could be done, I was quite surprised to learn that that wasn’t entirely true and that by paying for a membership at least restored my join date.
Look, we paid you for a service; to deny any responsibility on the part of the SDMB whatsoever would make you a truly execrable service provider, and I certainly don’t believe you deserve such criticism – except if you try to deny all responsibility.
I am almost always ridiculously overburdened with responsibilities already, what with caring for two seriously ill parents and all the other heavy responsibilities I must bear. Is it really so much to ask that my service providers work with me and offer some reasonable flexibility when I fail to keep track of all my 38,172 (RaftPeople’s estimate) responsibilities? Not one other of my service provider’s rules are as draconian as that!
And as many have pointed out, many of us did not receive the renewal email. Pointing out that there are other alternatives, especially after the fact (as has been overwhelmingly the case) is simply not good enough.
Why? Because with all of my responsibilities, I can almost never afford to take the time to browse around and visit ATMB or even the header of each forum during renewal season (although I only now know I can renew at any time). All I usually ever have time for is reading and responding to threads in which I’ve made comments. To do that, I go directly to search for my username to see where I am due to issue replies. That being the case, I would not see forum headers or visit ATMB. Going out of my way to check these locations should not be a hard and fast requirement to maintain a membership; the SDMB should bear much more responsibility than that.
But again, my purpose here is simply to point out that using the word “cannot” is disingenuous.
There! Was that really so hard to say in place of “cannot” do it? Sheesh!