I know it is of extremely low priority, but are we ever going to our titles fixed. If I remember correctly:
Guest -> Member
Member -> Subscriber
everything else -> the same
I’m probably being OCD about it, but, it bugs me that someone who has been posting to the boards for over 8 months is still called a “Guest”.
I’m going to essay an answer to this, and bear in mind that I do not speak in any way for the boards; I’m guessing what the situation is.
Jdavis said that, when the new server and software were being implemented, as one item on his list of things-to-do, fairly low on the list IIRC.
Ed has since told us that the Reader has had a bunch of cutbacks, including Jerry’s staff – so he’s keeping the Dope, the Reader, and anything else managed from Chicago in operation singlehandedly. He’s coping with fun stuff like the perennial search malfunction/
And my guess is that, simple as it sounds, modifying automatic titles is something he hasn’t gotten to, doesn’t have time to get to, and willl take care of sometime before the world comes to an end – but don’t hold your breath waiting. (And knowing a very little about VBulletin, I have a hunch that telling the software, “Call everyone meeting these criteria X, except those that meet these criteria, who are Y, and call everyone else Z – except for special tites; don’t change them at all.” is a bit more complex than it sounds.
Just bumping this for comment or correction from somebody who actually knows what’s going on, as opposed to my educated guess.
I think the idea of the new titles was abandoned. I’m not sure why and I don’t remember exactly when. Ed did say so once, but I couldn’t find the post in a quick search.
@Marley Well, in that case, if you find it, I’d love to know why.
The idea was that everyone would be the same. After that announcement was made – considerably after that announcement was made – it was decided that it would be nice to retain some subscriber revenue. (And there was some “you will take my Charter Member from my cold dead hands” sentiment, which may have had something to do with that, I don’t know.)
So Member = Subscriber, which is as it has been for a bit and will continue. Members have more options than Guests but everybody gets to write posts, search, etc.
Is that perhaps the reason that posts in CCC and CSR disappear after a certain amount of timefor me, yet I’ve seen other people ressurect them?
The posts don’t disappear; they just drop off the display. At the bottom of the forum, there are options for how far back you want to see. You’re probably only noticing this for those two fora, because for most of them, threads will end up on the second or third page before the time cutoff.
When the upgrade got close over the summer, what was proposed (as I remember it) was that Charter Members would stay the same, with the other titles changing as BigT described.
So why not just make everyone a Charter Member?
What for?
Marley’s version is what I remember, as well. That’s why I said that all other titles would stay the same.
And, no, not everyone should become a “Charter Member”. The title only seems to mean something to those that already have it.
ETA: Thanks Chronos for the info. The whole reason I joined when P2P was over was because there were threads that I had read in those sections that I wanted to comment on, but I thought they had disappeared when I finally joined.
BigT’s got it right, at least from my original understanding.
I have a technical background, although I admit to a limited knowledge of this bulletin board software. I can’t for the life of me understand why this is so difficult.
Any special title (admin, SDSAB, mod, etc, remains the same)
Charter Members should remain so.
Members are changed to Subscribers (which they are and are identified with a special title)
Guests become Members
This can’t be that hard.
However, when it was asked a while back where this was (I didn’t bother looking for a post and it’s not worth the time), the response was “low priority”.
Jerry has a finite amount of time. That’s understood. But the idea that this is a major fix or time consuming task mystifies me.
The posters of this board have become used to things being pushed off, but this one has been pushed off to the point of actually being, for all practical purposes, cancelled.
Polycarp, I hear what your are saying about vBullitin software… I know less than you. But a simple global search/replace? If the software is so convoluted to not allow this simple action, vBullitin would cease to exist as a message board software option. vBullitin is everywhere.
Before I call “bullshit”, I’ll make some inquiries about vBullitin. But it sure smells funny.
There’s no technical hurdle to overcome. As Tuba said, the decision was made–after the initial discussion–to keep guests as “Guests”, subscribers as “Members” and “Charter Members” as “Charter Members”.
In this link from January, Ed confirms Stink Fish Pot’s understanding of user titles.
SkipMagic, thanks for digging that out. I knew I looked around for that stuff in the past, but my patience with the search function isn’t with me at the moment.
It does seem to me, however, that this question keeps popping up, simply because folks either:
Now, considering everything else, this is peanuts. However, after the amount of time wasted over the past two plus months, where more nonsense was hashed and rehashed about what can and cannot go into the pit, thread titles, etc., perhaps another towel could be thrown in and a bone be tossed to the “Guests”.
Or not. After all, it’s the principle of the thing. :dubious:
A suggestion: Change Guests to Member, without the additional functionality given to paying Members and Charter Members. Everybody’s happy, no more threads like this exist, and free posters don’t get any functionality the paying folks get.
As an addendum, it appears from my limited reading on the subject, that titles can be changes with a post counter. So a “Guest” could become a “Member w/o Privileges” after 100 posts or so.
Not all of us. I could care less that I’m a “Charter Member”.
I (and some others) have been trying for a while now to get a response to this idea, most recently here:
This seems like an uncontroversially good idea to me. Is it not feasible for some reason? Thanks.
If, as Tuba pointed out, people were so adamant about not letting go of the title, why not just say, “okay, you’re all charter members!” Otherwise, the whole thing is ridiculous.
I still don’t get the big deal about “Charter Member”, other than it’s because you resigned up by a certain date. (Originally, I thought it was going to be those who had been here before PtP?)
Seriously, I’m not being nasty, I just never got the big fuss over it. Why can’t we have something more fun, like “Teeming Million” or something like that?
What would that have accomplished? People were asked to pay if they wanted the title, so giving it away for free later would have been a slap in the face. I know not everybody cares about the Charter Member name, but some people do, and they were told they could keep it.
I know-I personally just feel that it’s silly for people to put so emphasis on a title.