bbs2k claimed he was mad in the Got a SDMB problem? thread because he wanted to pony up but couldn’t. I didn’t see a reply.
May I join him in lunacy? My membership was up in August, but what with all the changes a-happening I thought I’d best wait. But now I am a guest again, and I want to re-enlist.
While we have been going through the upgrade Jerry turned off the subscription system – the links got broken in the upgrade and Jerry has some patchwork to do before that part of the system is operational again.
Your further patience is requested here as we move through all these changes.
As soon as the subscription system is turned back on we’ll let you know.
Subscriptions have been re-enabled with one remaining issue and one thing to note.
Issue: The logic that gives Charter Members half price subscriptions is not in place yet. If you’re a Charter Member and you’re trying to re-subscribe you’ll be charged the full $14.95 rate. Almost all Charter Members’ subscriptions expire in May 2009 so this shouldn’t be much of an issue at the moment. It will be fixed before it does become an issue.
Note: I’ve made a decision that the only payment gateway the SDMB is going to use going forward will be PayPal. In the past we primarily used a credit card transaction server at the Chicago Reader and provided PayPal as another option for those that didn’t have credit cards. Besides the reduction in payment processing cost when we used the Chicago Reader server there is no real benefit to continuing to have two different payment processors. There is however some downside to having to manage payment processing in two separate systems. We’re therefore simplifying subscription administration by now having it all go through one.
I would also like to respectfully request that the decision to accept PayPal transfers exclusively be reconsidered. I had some technical difficulties with an account there several years ago which PayPal was unable to remediate. Their only solution was to lock the account. I have since been unable to either restore the account, or register a new one. I’ve given up with them.
If, however, PayPal is implemented exclusively, I’m sure I can somehow make the necessary arrangements to continue my membership here. It’ll just be a little more inconvenient.
My understanding is that you can use PayPal simply as the conduit for most any financial transaction and use your credit card or bank account – it just goes through PayPal.