You don’t need to have a PayPal account – there’s a way to go through them but use your credit/debit card directly. (See the thread in ATMB for more info.)
twicks, who appreciates the reminder to reup
Ready for this? I renewed not to keep “Charter Member,” but to keep the membership number. Gus was the lowest number that was not a moderator or administrator, but he stopped posting years ago. Opal has a lower number, but she posts sporadically. Amazing what we think $7 is worth.
I just renewed, but I’ll let it lapse next year. The adds don’t bother me, but the five minute wait between searches does.
I kind of like the way the ads change depending on the thread topic.
I love the way the atheism threads generate christian ads, and the fact that a ‘what do they wear under the burqa’ thread gets a ‘Muslim singles’ ad. I think every thread with Muslim or Islam gets a “Muslim singles” ad, a fact I guess I am now testing by turning the guest/member thread into a “Muslim singles” thread.
Nope, so far it’s still all about back pain and bedwetting. Stay tuned.
By Allah, I will help you! We must know more of Islam here if I am to find a bride for my next haj! I will only marry a Muslim woman, as Barack Obama has commanded!
(That last sentence was a gift for the OP.)
I note that Google has blessed me with $5000 per month at my home job.
However, I still can’t seem to meet muslim singles on the internet.
Maybe I should pay the $15.
I renew annually, because it’s worth $7 not to see ads, and because I feel like my $7 is supporting something that adds a lot more than $7 value to my life. I’m happy to support something that makes me life a little better.
StG
We would never put up with such a feckless, un-Islamic attitude of giving up on meeting a hot chick under a burqua at my mosque. I’m ashamed of you.
I’d like to keep my Charter status, but I’m suddenly unemployed and in a dire financial situation. I can’t justify even the $7 half-price deal.
I don’t have a Paypal account, either.
It’s going to bug the crap out of me to see ads and lose whatever other priviledges I get, but I just can’t swing it right now.
I was prefectly happy being a guest, and I wasn’t really bothered by the ads.
Then one day, I found I had $15 to spend and I didn’t have anything better to do with it. I’m betting I’ll re-up it when it comes due … unless I decide to go on another 3 year hiatus.
I intentionally let my Charter Membership lapse because I was going to grad school and figured I didn’t need the distraction. I was browsing the SDMB the day my membership was going to expire and felt last-minute regret and nearly paid for another year…but although I’d thought I had until midnight, my membership actually expired at noon. I realized this only when I tried to write what I thought would be one of my last posts. My temptation vanished the moment I realized that because I hadn’t understood the deadline correctly I’d have to pay twice as much and lose my “elite” title to renew my membership. Not worth it, especially since I was trying to cut back.
If it had been easier to keep (or possible to regain) my Charter Member status then I probably would have done it, but I don’t particularly miss it. The ads don’t bother me much, we didn’t have PMs before anyway so I don’t miss having a quota on them now, and I don’t care if people can see my post count or not. The location field was nice, but not worth $15 a year.
I’m with Skald: I was under the impression that viewing the ads actually brought in more revenue, at least more than Charter Members pay.
And you don’t have to have a Paypal account to send OR receive money from them, oddly enough. But I do think subscriptions are going to go down because of the change.
How do you find your membership number? I know it has been stated before but I forget.
Okay, my first day as guest. The ads are not so bad, but they are annoying. I won’t have $15 to spare until July, so I’ll give it a couple of months’ trial. Today I’m annoyed at them and I’d pay to get rid of them, but I’ll probably get used to it quicky. Certainly better than the L.A. Times site.
I consider it a sign of how my perception has been changed by modern technology and marketing. It seems so much on-line (and IRL) involves annoying little pop-ups and banners advertising and reminding of countless things I have no interest in. Hell, even software loaded on my computers gives me regular updates and requests to upgrade. And many sites do not allow memberships which avoid ads. Even watching TV requires turning a blind eye to the annoying little teasers that crowd a good portion of the screen during the show.
I have apparently gotten so good at ignoring and scrolling past them that at times I find do not even realize whether I am logged onto a site and missing the ads, or viewing as a guest and subjected to the ads. I’m not entirely sure whether I should view that as reason to be happy or sad …
I think you actually get half the amount of PMs, too - I think charter members or whatever get 100 PMs. But since What Exit showed me a neat way to save them, that works fine for me.
I originally let my membership lapse due to financial triouble. Went thru the whole period where I couldn’t post again, and that sucked. But now I’m back, and really the onlly thing I miss is seeing my post count, that was kinda cool. I rarely get a PM so the reduced count doesn’t bother me, and the ads are not really an issue. So I see no reason to pay $15 again for it just to be a ‘member’.
Go to your profile; it’s in the URL. Doug’s is 39, yours is 13806, and mine is 27422.
Oh? And how do we do that?