# Petition to Mods/Admins Re: Charter Membership
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/petition-to-mods-admins-re-charter-membership/519681
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [December 2, 2009, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/petition-to-mods-admins-re-charter-membership/519681 "2009-12-02T06:41:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2009, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/petition-to-mods-admins-re-charter-membership/519681/1 "2009-12-02T06:41:21Z")
This is pretty much idle curiosity, no real expectations, but I figured I’d ask.
Back in the Great Meltdown of '04, I rather hotheadedly asked to be banned. I emailed a Mod directly (unfortunately don’t remember which one) and received a reply to the effect that I couldn’t be banned but they could downgrade my status from Charter Member to Member.
Four years on, it seems like a really stupid thing to have done on my part. So is it possible - since the downgrading was done at my own request, and not linked to any violation or infraction of SDMB rules - to have my Charter Membership restored?
Thanks in advance.
---
### Author:  [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2009, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/petition-to-mods-admins-re-charter-membership/519681/2 "2009-12-02T07:08:53Z")
I don’t know who told you that but whoever you talked to gave you bad advice and wrong information and that is unfortunate.
It does appear that you were a Charter Member and you allowed that Charter Membership to expire. We did nothing to change your status; you simply failed to renew your subscription when it came time to make a payment.
When you did that you no longer were a Charter Member and became a Guest. You did not become a regular Member; you have not been a subscribing Member of the Straight Dope since you allowed the Charter Membership to expire. You have remained a Guest since that time.
The number one rule of retaining Charter Membership is that you continue to keep that subscription in force. Failing to do so – as in this case – means the Charter Member status is lost. Once lost it cannot be restored.
I’m sorry we cannot fulfill your request.
---
### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2009, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/petition-to-mods-admins-re-charter-membership/519681/3 "2009-12-02T07:38:17Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#):
>
> The number one rule of retaining Charter Membership is that you continue to keep that subscription in force.
I thought the number one rule of retaining Charter Membership is that you don’t talk about Charter Membership.
---
### Author:  [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2009, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/petition-to-mods-admins-re-charter-membership/519681/4 "2009-12-02T07:50:11Z")
No worries, **TubaDiva** , I’d put the blame for the misunderstanding more on myself than anyone else. I probably misremembered the information. Absolutely no big deal.
---
### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [December 2, 2009, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/petition-to-mods-admins-re-charter-membership/519681/5 "2009-12-02T22:21:25Z")
Welcome back, Olentzero! 🙂
---
### Author:  [@ambushed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ambushed)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2009, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/petition-to-mods-admins-re-charter-membership/519681/6 "2009-12-08T01:41:26Z")
> [@TubaDiva](#):
>
> The number one rule of retaining Charter Membership is that you continue to keep that subscription in force. Failing to do so – as in this case – means the Charter Member status is lost. Once lost it **cannot** be restored.
>
> I’m sorry we **cannot** fulfill your request. [emphasis added]
I’ve received the same ill-considered reply from a much stronger argument involving the fact that at the time my posts showed a change from “Charter Member” to “Guest”, the board tech person reported that people were being _misreported_ as “Guests” who were actually still “Charter Members”. Thus, having not received the renewal email, I let the matter slide until I later learned I had missed the deadline.
I also emphasized that I was _not_ asking for the reduced price but simply that my status be restored because the loss was a consequence of board tech problems and/or the confusion that resulted.
So what do I consider to be “ill-considered” about these replies? That word “cannot”. When these issues were most prominent, here in this forum **Dex** came right out and admitted that they certainly _could_ restore someone’s status (technically and procedurally), and do it easily, but there might well be difficulties in verifying that someone actually _was_ a Charter Member. So I spent _weeks_ scouring my old hard drives and old Internet archives for such proof, but after all that effort, when I presented this evidence along with my request to repair my status, you, **Tuba** , again relied exclusively on the word “cannot”.
At this point, I just want to call you, **Tuba** , on your insistent use of the word **cannot** in this context. It’s not the honest word choice. I suggest telling people the truth by using the only appropriate and candid word: “ **won’t** ”
-
-
---
### Author:  [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2009, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/petition-to-mods-admins-re-charter-membership/519681/7 "2009-12-08T10:09:52Z")
Oh no, not in my thread you don’t. Start your own if you want a kvetch session.
Requesting a lock.
---
### Author:  [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2009, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/petition-to-mods-admins-re-charter-membership/519681/8 "2009-12-08T13:09:33Z")
Closed at the request of the OP – asked and answered.