# How did I get downgraded from Charter Member to Guest?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-i-get-downgraded-from-charter-member-to-guest/497936>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [May 28, 2009, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-i-get-downgraded-from-charter-member-to-guest/497936 "2009-05-28T15:57:17Z")\
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**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2009, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-i-get-downgraded-from-charter-member-to-guest/497936/21 "2009-05-29T13:25:31Z")

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> [@leander](#):
>
> ETA - if you wanted to, you could change any and every title you wanted to CM. But you \*choose \*not to. That pisses a lot of people off. And suggesting you cannot is disingenuous.

I have just been assuming that they are saying “we can’t do it” because that forestalls a lot of the complaints about “But I only missed the deadline by 2 hours/didn’t get the email/was in a foreign country” etc. I have additionally been assuming that it’s absolutely not true, because the idea that there is some kind of magical database that cannot be altered by human hands is a little bit ridiculous. I’m sure that if TPTB wanted to, they could rework the Charter Member database so that people could be moved back into it, or whatever. But the policy is that once you’re out, you’re out. I understand, but saying that it is physically impossible and beyond the ken of human understanding to be able to reinstate a Charter Member seems… silly. 🙂

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