Now that’s customer service. If I could only find my credit card.
Gawd almighty. Seven thousand posts, man. Don’t you have a life?
No there isn’t, and you should stop bothering the moderators, who are fantastic people doing an awesome job despite unjustified abuse and lack of pay.
If they choose to hand out status points for whatever reason, that’s their business. You rock, guys!
I wholeheartedly endorse your blubbering adoration of the Luminous Ones, who sit at the right hand of The Cecil and embody all that is wise and good.
Damn straight. 
TubaDiva = Ms. Irlweg
United Breaks Guitars!
I don’t know if I qualify as an old-timer, but at least for another week or so you can see my location and post count.
Savor it. 
I’ve been mooching subscription fees for several years, but I’m not going to this time.
Son of a bitch. I have over 10,000 posts. I remember back when Handy broke the (not-quite-so) profound barrier, and I thought how sad it must be to spend so much time here…
I just think that it’s sad that the policy dictates what can and can’t be done here. TPTB have access to just about any and all data that has ever been recorded on the SMDB. Those we can ask things from, just aren’t able to.
Can all “Charter members” and members be restored their post counts, and titles, yes. Can they, given the current hierarchy? No. The data is still there, when and if that data is made public, is up to someone that feels that it should not be, unless specific conditions are met.
That gets right to the heart of my confusion. I only have about 1,600 posts, but Patty O wants us all to say we have 6,981. I think it’s a Harrison Bergeron kind of thing.
Join Date: May 20, 1999
Male/45/Washington DC
Posts: 6,981
Where did you get 6,981 from?
I’m going to be a little proactive on this one.
Join Date: May 20, 1999
Male/45/Washington DC
Posts: 6,995
6,981 · 2[sup]310359[/sup]-1 is prime. So that’s pretty cool.
I thought the major difference was that the “members” don’t see the ads. They don’t bug me, so I don’t pay. I don’t really care how many posts a person has, or how often they pay SDMB.
Not sure I am following your point, let’s recap:
- KlondikeGeoff cares about number of posts and opens a thread
- Fetchund doesn’t care about number of posts
Therefore what? Is the conclusion supposed to be “Fetchund doesn’t care therefore KlondikeGeoff shouldn’t care?”
Whoa there. Why do you think I am making any sort of judgement about KlondikeGeoff?
That is certainly NOT my intention. My point was closer to: If the only way to see posts is if we all pay up, it isn’t important enough for me to join. AND that I believed the main selling point for paying up was that you don’t see the ads. That point seems to be missing in this thread.
Ok, thought you were saying that Klondike shouldn’t be asking for it because it’s not important.
I don’t understand this. I paid the price to be a charter member for a long time and then got careless and missed the window. Why couldn’t we have a new category named “window missing morons” or some such? Or what if we paid double or even triple the old rate? I hate being a guest. I want some recognition.
No.
Not being a charter member, I’m not directly involved in this, but I’ve always thought that because of a moment’s carelessness, years of recognition can be ‘disappeared’ is wrong. There is a disconnect, I think, between TPTB and the user base. Some posters feel like they belong to a club; they feel emotionally involved, they care about their ‘status’ and their history. TPTB either don’t recognise that, or don’t think it is important.
TubaDiva has repeatedly said that the policy will not change. TPTB have a history of not giving in to popular opinion. They have repeatedly not allowed compassion or a sense of understanding in to their policy making. That is what the Straight Dope is. The only choice is to accept that, or stop participating, because I don’t see them changing.