I just noticed that Q.E.D.'s last post was in July 2009, yet he is still shown as a Charter Member. (Didn’t he die?)
Did he pay for membership four years in advance, is someone paying for him in his memory, or do Charter Members never die?
Otherwise, I’d expect lapsed CM’s to no longer show as such.
He did die. I think that the title actually changes the first time that one logs on after the change happens.
I am not sure how it was set up, but Q.E.D. was also a member of the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board and as such his membership would have been free.
When posters die, we placed their accounts in a Posting Sabbatical category that keeps their membership status as it was. We do the same for posters who want to take a break from the board.
Q.E.D. was indeed comped as a Charter Member, he paid his dues by being a member of the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board. And we have left things as they were when he left us.
And I think that’s a good idea. I’m not suggesting a change, I was merely curious, and always hyper-sensitive to potential bugs in the software.