My guest membership will expire soon. If I don’t subscribe and decide to wait until the free memebrship period starts, can I keep my username?
Yes, you’d be able to keep it. In fact you’d have to, unless you requested a change.
User names do not expire; once you sign up with it, it’s yours for always or until you request a name change.
If you become a subscriber and then let that subscription expire you STILL get to keep your screen name.
If you don’t become a subscriber you still get to keep your screen name anyway.
It’s one screen name to a human being, please, one is all you need.
If I understand properly ( please correct me if I’m wrong–I’m used to it and you won’t hurt my feelings) At some point, the board is going to be open for free membership again, but I can’t seem to figure out when this will happen.
I’m currently a guest to the boards, and have a feeling that the free membership (commercials included) won’t get rolling until after my 30 day guest posting limit.
Am not sure what to do. Will the guest membership expire after 30 days, in which case I would no longer be able to post until the free memberships were up and running. Will the guest membership be extended to allow me to post past the 30 day limit? When the new system goes into effect, will I need to just sighn in like I have been doing, or will I need to renew my membership?
Thanks in advance for answering these questions. I’m sure that nobody has asked them before. ( I wonder sometimes how many hours a week you put in answering questions like these. You must have calluses on your fingers that you could strike matches on)
Thanks again in advance for your answers/advice.
At some point – Ed said “June or July at the earliest” in his last communication – the board will switch to a free posting with lotsa display ads model.
When that happens – June or July at the earliest, that’s what he said – you don’t have to be a subscribing member to post. You will, however, see big honking display ads if you are not a subscriber, so there’s some benefit in being a subscriber, that being if you are a subscriber you will not see or hear display ads between the posts, you will only see the Google ads on the bottom inviting you to lengthen your missing foreskin or buy any number of exciting products such as, oh, restaurant checks. Or lederhosen, perhaps.
Until that time – which could be June or July at the earliest, I dunno – once your 30 day free trial runs out you will need to be a subscribing member if you wish to continue posting.
If you would prefer to wait until such time as the free posting window opens – which could be in June or July at the earliest, though I note no year was given and you never can tell around here – if you are not a subscribing member of the Straight Dope Message Board your posting privileges will be suspended until such time as the era of free posting returns to the board.
Which could be in June or July at the earliest maybe.
Sorry we don’t have more/better information to give you, but that’s all we know.
So I gather that you’re not really sure when they plan/hope to start making the change. Thanks for trying to find out for me–I really am grateful for your time and effort.
By the by, if the board does start taking ads telling you how to lengthen your foreskin or buy Lederhosen,I hope the administrative staff will make a point of letting us know that those services are available.(I’d really not go any further into the reason for this request if that’s OK.)
Thanks again for the help.
(I really got to start reading stuff from the administrative/moderator types a little more carefully)
By the way–how did you happen to know the status of my foreskin? Do they give you some sort of set of special abilities when you become a mod?
This is just too creepy
Tubadiva,
At some point last week, I had posted some questions regarding membership, remaining a guest until my 30 days were up and then waiting until the new system fell into place ect…
I truly hope that we haven’t gotten off on the wrong foot, or that I haven’t done something to upset you–I firmly believe that “Don’t be a Jerk” is one of the best rules on the board.
At the time of the post, I honestly do not remember if I had seen the post from Ed Zotti regarding the time frame for the “No Charge” option for the board members, but I did remember reading somewhere on the boards that it was going to happen sometime after my guest membership had expired.
Not to get too far into it, but due to my mental illness, the effects of the illness itself and the side effects of what my psychiatrist calls “a truckload of medications” have shredded my memory. and it’s real easy for me to forget things–sometimes I can remember some of what went on, and sometimes I lose an entire comment/conversation/day.
So in some way, I hope that somewhat explains why I didn’t remember that Ed had even put dates on the proposed change–I only remembered that changes were going to occur. I
When you responded to my question (and I really am grateful you did respond–I’m sure you have lots more important things that leading newbies around by the hand until they “get it.”)
Your reply contained multiple refrences to the change occuring in “June or July at the earliest.” Please, no insult or name calling meant, but I couldn’t tell if you were joking about how things are so rigidly planned to happen, and then the plans go right down the drain, or if I had upset you somehow by asking some really basic question, or that I should have tried harder by myself to find out when this was going to happen.
I pretty much tried to look at it as a joke, as each paragraph seemed to indicate that Things might not go as planned (" until that time which could be June or July at the earliest, I dunno" ) and Indicating that no actual year had been mentioned for this to happen.
I sent back a reply, trying to keep in in the same mood as the one you sent me.
But I kept thinking that I might have cheesed you off with such a simplistic question, and just wanted to be sure that I hadn’t managed to violate the “Don’t be a Jerk” guideline on my first day out.
Again–if I’ve committed some kind of screw up–please let me know (have gotten used to screw ups in the past year. If indeed I have, I’m very sorry, I didn’t mean to, and I hope you can forgive me and give me another chance. (I really am trying to be good.)
BPG I have read the thread, and while I can’t speak for TubaDiva I don’t think you pissed her off. TD has a pretty thick skin. She has to in order to keep this bunch of loonies in line. Does the term hearding cats bring anything to mind?
A lot of other people who don’t have the excuse of medication have also asked this question.
If you are still worried, you can always send her chocolate. I have it on good authority that it works wonders to calm a pissed off administrator.
Edited to add: :smack: I forgot. Welcome to the dope Bi-polar Guy!
No apology necessary, no harm, no foul, we’re cool.
Please don’t worry, you didn’t do anything wrong.
(I don’t even need chocolate right this very minute, though it’s always appreciated.)