It also occurs to me that a member of long standing might be banned for some reason; it seems to be no trouble at all to substitute the word “banned” for “member” in every post that person ever made and yet it is an impossibility to substitute “charter member” for either “member” or “guest.” And there are cases, I believe, in which banned members may be returned to their previous status, dependent on some act of contrition. But this is simply an observation of mine and not a complaint; I would never complain about any rule of the SDMB.
That’s all handled by the board software. Your status is your status, it’s only kept in one place.
My memory is vague on this but I recall that there is special code (tied to a separate DB IIRC) that runs though nightly to check memberships and charter memberships and updates your status. Since it’s tied to money, it’s out of the hands of the admins here. They could change your membership status, but it would be changed back by the script if my memory is correct. Yes, there are plenty of technical solutions to the problem but TPTB don’t feel that this issue is worth the effort to change. Frankly (even though I’d be upset if I lost my charter status) neither do I.
Thanks for the info; it was more informative than "no.’
Here is a post in which TubaDiva explained in detail why once a charter membership is gone, it can’t be easily restored.
And as for this, I assume that you know that you could pay fifteen bucks (i.e., twice the original rate) and become a regular member. It would be some recognition.
No, that would be me saying that.
I could and I probably will. If my smart mouth doesn’t get me banned before hand.
Just so I’m clear then, your logic is this:
“I Lanzy don’t think it’s important, therefore nobody should think it’s important”
We’ve already got that.
This and other complications involved with the billing system make it a feature that won’t be implemented.
I see the disconnect, and I agree that it would be better to have paying members be able to see everyone’s post count and location. Is this something that the vBulletin software supports? I don’t know. If it doesn’t, it’s probably not going to be changed and this whole discussion is moot. If it does, there’s still a chance it might not be changed, because that’s a decision not for mods and admins to make, but for the management of this board, and I don’t know if it’s a priority for them at this time. However, to answer your questions, yes, I see the disconnect too. I will bring this to the notice of the management.
This is one of the primary benefits of being a paid member.
The billing side of things is out of our purview as mods and admins, and yes, the member status is tied to billing, which makes it more complicated even for small changes.
Things that we have the authority to change, we can consider and make changes to if we agree they are necessary. Things we don’t, we can only recommend up the line.
Thank you for your understanding.
-xash
Administrator