I got an email today informing me that my “Charter memberships expire TODAY”…however, according to my user CP data, my membership doesn’t expire until 07-19-2012. Was this an automated email sent out to all members, or am I missing something here?
-XT
Yes, automated email sent out to all Members.
If you have already resubscribed you are good to go and need do nothing else.
Ok, thanks. Just wanted to make sure…didn’t want to have my subscription lapse again if I was missing something.
-XT
It looks like an automated message.
I have to say, though, that I’m really surprised the only reminder I ever received was on the day my subscription is assumed to have lapsed. Fortunately I re-upped last month, but that’s some pretty last-minute notification otherwise. Were no other ones sent previously? A zero-day notice is probably not the best way to contact your subscription base, no?
Just a thought.
Esprix
Well, there is the announcement at the top of each of the forums, too.
Ed thought an announcement would be sufficient but we’ve had reason to reconsider that idea, so we sent out the automated notice today.
Many current Charter Member subscriptions expire today but the actual expiration date may vary a bit. May 20 is the sweet spot, so to speak.
This notice was sent to all members, whether they had resubscribed or not – there was no way to filter out those who had already hit the button. We apologize if some are annoyed by receiving email from us when they have already taken care of business.
You can check the expiration date of your subscription by going to the UserCP and then clicking on “Paid Subscriptions.” This is also the portal to resubscribe.
BTW: If you indicated in your profile you did not want to receive email from us, then you didn’t get this one either.
Not annoyed here (in fact, thanks for the message, even if I didn’t need it this time!), just worried I was missing something. There is no way to filter your script to look at the actual expiration date for the members and send out notices individually, instead of a mass sending?? Or is it just to much of a pain in the ass to write the scripts to do so?
-XT
And for those who don’t visit the forums often? Granted, an argument could be made that those people are unlikely to re-subscribe, but still, it seems a tad more notice might be appropriate for those who are (like, for example, me).
Again, just an idea.
Esprix
Oh, not annoyed at all - in fact, thankful to have received the notice, even though I already re-upped last month. It’s just confusing that such a notice would go out literally on the due date for a lot of people, if the intent (I’m assuming) is to try to get as many people as possible to re-subscribe.
Also, if an e-mail went out previous to today’s, I, for one, never got it, but yet I got today’s, which I find odd, as I both accept e-mails from the SDMB, and it obviously isn’t going into my spam filter.
Just one user’s experience.
Esprix
Ignoring the year, why would a Charter Member have a renewal date of 7/19 (as opposed to the more common 5/20 date)?
This is just out of curiosity; I’m not trying to pick on xtisme. Given the limited time “get your Charter Member staus back” drive, I could understand if a Charter Member now has a renewal date between 4/2 and 5/20. But why July?
Again, just simple curiosity. Not a pressing concern.
Thanks!
It’s a vb thing, not a lot of options. We’re looking at ways to tweak it further but didn’t want to mess around with it today but just get the message out, so it’s a broad brush stroke.
See above re “broad brush stroke.”
The system was supposed to send you a notice at one week out from expiration, I do believe. If you resubscribed prior to that time you would not have received the email.
We try not to be annoying with email and hope today’s mailing gets out to all intended recipients.
My guess is it has something to do with getting my Charter Members status back. When I did that I seem to recall that I actually paid for two years of membership (hopefully I’ll last that long and won’t get banned in the mean time). Perhaps they kicked in 3 extra months as well (I in fact renewed it in early April, IIRC).
-XT
Actually Charter Member expiration dates are clustered all around this time – with a large number on May 20. But it does vary a little.
Over the years there’s been a bit of slippage – in the past we’ve given people a grace period and they might have resubscribed a day or two days or week later or even longer. That moved the expiration date further down the calendar.
I do not think there is a grace period this year, I need to check with Ed on that.
Some people are returning Charter Members who took us up on the renewal offer. If they had also resubscribed as a Regular Member and still had time on the meter that later expiration date would apply, as renewal of Charter Member subscription just adds time to what’s already there.
We’ve also had a couple of people that had odd dates due to odd reasons – for example, we have a couple of people who were in the military and could not renew at the standard time and they got pushed to another date as we handled their situation.
Thanks for the responses xtisme and Tuba. Curiosity sated.
Ah, that makes sense, then.
I suppose, though, that you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t - if you send out more reminders some might complain of spam, but if you don’t send out enough people will complain (as I think they may today) that they didn’t get enough notice. Personally, I think a blanket notice a couple weeks before a massive deadline like today, in addition to a one-week notice for those to whom today doesn’t apply, isn’t a bad idea, and isn’t too much. As a less-frequent visitor these days, I wouldn’t have any idea when my subscription lapsed unless you guys reminded me, so I appreciate advance notice, myself.
Esprix
The message gave me a bit of a fright: I thought I’d renewed nearly a month ago. When I checked my subscription, fortunately this turned out to be the case.
A man with two watches is never sure what time it is. I checked last month, and was fine. I checked yesterday, and was fine.
Then I got the e-mail, and checked again.
Regards,
Shodan
I think.
I just re-up every time I get a notice. That’s why my subscription now runs through 2015.
Strange.
I got the mail on the 18th. I would have ran out on the 20th.
You’re going to feel silly when the world ends in 2012.