I have registered; made a few posts, but still an listed as “Guest.”
What’s up?
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Also, reported for a move to our About This Message Board forum.
Guest means you’re not a paying member. To become one, sign up for a yearly subscription:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/payments.php
The ads go away then.
Charter Member means you’re a paying member who’s been around a long time.
Moderator Action
Since this is a question about the message board itself, let’s move it to ATMB (from GQ).
“Guest” is the title you get for the first month. If you make it to month #2, we all get to vote on a new title for you. So be nice!
As was already stated, Guests are non-paying members. As a guest, your membership here is paid for by advertising (don’t worry, we don’t check whether or not you have an ad blocker or anything like that).
If you choose, you can pay to become a Member. The benefit of paying is that you do not get served advertising in threads. You also get marketplace privileges, though admittedly a lot of members do not take much advantage of our marketplace forum. Guests are not permitted to start threads in the marketplace.
Charter Members are members who became members when we first went to a pay system and have kept their paid membership since then. Unless you can go back in time, you can’t become a Charter Member.
Charter Members have all of the same benefits as Members, but as long as they keep renewing their membership, they get a discount on it.
You are not required to pay to post here. You can remain a guest and have your time here supported by advertising. If you do choose to become a paying member here, simply go to your User Control Panel (User CP in the upper left area of the page) and scroll down to Paid Subscriptions and follow the on-screen prompts.
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Everybody (predictably) is glossing over the bits about the goat. Well, far be it from me to spill the [del]bucket of chicken entra[/del] Imean beans.
Yeah, that’s it. Beans.
ETA: Welcome aboard, bikerdruid!
The squid will demand that the goat relinquish his fair share of those – beans.
The hamsters demand their cut as well.
Same here. And with that name I think we may be friends in the future. Considering this is me.
We upgraded to capybaras long ago. Only way to handle the modern Intarwebz. 
Especially with global warming. Hamsters would drown when the oceans rise.
Nutria maybe? Then we could claim the bounty for removing them and get rid of the paid ads!
The best thing about the capybaras is that our Catholic moderators and staff members can eat them in a pinch on Fridays and not be violating fast rules. 