Well, damn. I guess I missed the resubscription window.

[What_Exit]

@DSYoungEsq

I’m sorry, Marley. I dislike whining in all its forms. I deal with students every day who have come to expect that deadlines are meaningless, thanks to way too many teachers (and other aspects of society) who act as if a deadline is nothing more than a suggestion (part of our continued effort to delink choices and consequences).

When that whining starts to get snarky, more than just a “dangit, I missed the window, is there anything that can be done?” I get cranky about it.

How is an apology insulting the poster even more you already snarked? Obviously you are not really sorry, just sorry you finally got a slap on the wrist.

Left Hand of Dorkness I hope you return when you have more time and some spare cash. I’ve always enjoyed reading your posts.

[amarinth]

@hajario

Some of you are acting like the deadline was some sort of arbitrary date that appears out of the ether. Every year it’s either the same as the prior year or a few days later because of outages. Any reminder sent is just a courtesy. You should be able to keep track of it on your own.

Well, before I’ve never needed to keep track of it on my own and if I’d had to guess, I would have come up with “spring-time-ish, I think.” That simply wasn’t the pattern that has been set up for the past few years.
For most things, someone sends me a bill and I pay it. Or they send me a reminder that payment is going to be expected and I pay it. Or they auto-renew and the bill gets paid automatically.
For this, my notice was “hey, there are ads on the page, wtf?”

[MaxTheVool]

@hajario

Some of you are acting like the deadline was some sort of arbitrary date that appears out of the ether. Every year it’s either the same as the prior year or a few days later because of outages. Any reminder sent is just a courtesy. You should be able to keep track of it on your own.

Except that in previous years they HAD sent emails.

If the policy from the beginning was “you have to renew every year, and we will not remind you, and it is totally up to you”, well, then that would be the policy. A pretty dumb one*, if you ask me, but a stated policy, and no one would be complaining about it.
In any case, here’s my suggestion: If someone had a May 19 resubscription deadline (one week ago) and misses it, there’s absolutely no reason they shouldn’t be able to pay now to resubscribe, BUT their deadline next year would be May 19 again. So they’re effectively only getting 51 weeks for their $7.50. The point being that they are not in any way gaming the system or getting more value for their money or anything.

To be blunt, I really like the SDMB, and I like being a charter member, and I’m happy to pay money for it. But if my only choices are pay-nothing-and-see-ads and pay-$15-and-feel-grouchy-and-ripped-off, I’ll probably choose the former. I would like to continue to support an organization which I respect, but I really resent feeling screwed.

*I mean, really, when you sign up for things with a yearly renewal, you sure as hell expect them to remind you of it. That’s just how things work.

[Maeglin]

@hajario

Some of you are acting like the deadline was some sort of arbitrary date that appears out of the ether. Every year it’s either the same as the prior year or a few days later because of outages. Any reminder sent is just a courtesy. You should be able to keep track of it on your own.

I have a lot of tables to wait here.

[Zhen_ka]

Every year you people fret about this. The SDMB does not notify people. We can’t search. The board crashes…

It’s free now, you don’t need all of this DRAMA! For H-E-double L.

If holding on to some stupid title is so important to you, pay in FUCKING advance.

@hajario

Some of you are acting like the deadline was some sort of arbitrary date that appears out of the ether. Every year it’s either the same as the prior year or a few days later because of outages. Any reminder sent is just a courtesy. You should be able to keep track of it on your own.

Or what that dude said…

Shit be on…

[Atrael]

That does bring up a question. Does it help more if I become a member or read the ads? The ads don’t really bother me and I don’t often search. Since the “Charter Member” is gone never to be reclaimed, I don’t really care too much about the regular member perks. So if a mod or Tuba could chime in and let me know what helps out the most I’ll either re-up as a regular member or stay guest.

Thanks.

[Marley23]

@Atrael

That does bring up a question. Does it help more if I become a member or read the ads?

Quoting from TubaDiva a few days ago:

@TubaDiva

At the present time while the Straight Dope is making some money from ads subscribers are also greatly appreciated. All bux to the plus side is good news.

It was once believed that potential ad revenue would far exceed subscriptions and would have the added bonus of not requiring customer support, which is an expense of time and money. For example, if it takes an hour of technical time to chase down a glitch in the system because someone’s $7.48 didn’t register, you’ve not really made any money and have in fact come out on the negative side of that transaction.

Anything that you do that throws bux our way is helpful. If you choose to subscribe that is helpful. If you click on ads, that is also useful.

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=11163707#post11163707

If your subscription expired and you’ve lost Charter Member status, even if you didn’t get an email notification, there’s nothing we can do, and I’m sorry about that. If your subscription expires soon and you’re having a problem resubscribing, there are ways we can help. You can check your User CP if you are not sure of your status.

[Atrael]

Meh, since I’m unlikely to ever click on any ads, I just resubscribed. Thanks Marley.

[DSYoungEsq]

For what it is worth, I recently re-subscribed, since it appears that they still need our $15 more than our ad views.

[amarinth]

@Marley23

If your subscription expired and you’ve lost Charter Member status, even if you didn’t get an email notification, there’s nothing we can do, and I’m sorry about that. If your subscription expires soon and you’re having a problem resubscribing, there are ways we can help. You can check your User CP if you are not sure of your status.

Even if you can’t undo the price change, can you change the title back?

[MaxTheVool]

@amarinth

Even if you can’t undo the price change, can you change the title back?

Yeah. It seems silly, but that’s an irky point for me too.

[Darth_Nader]

You have 55 messages stored, of a total 50 allowed.

Heh. Neat trick.

[photopat]

Ah, it’s okay. I should have anticipated and re-upped sooner.

I’ll always know I was a charter member and my profile still says 1999, so I’ve got that going for me. Which is nice.

[Qadgop_the_Mercotan]

@photopat

Ah, it’s okay. I should have anticipated and re-upped sooner.

I’ll always know I was a charter member and my profile still says 1999, so I’ve got that going for me. Which is nice.

I’d swap ‘charter member’ for '99er status!

[sub]never should have lurked so damn long, mutter mutter[/sub]

[DSYoungEsq]

Hey, I always figured you were just busy dealing with the important business of outer space.

[imthjckaz]

Isn’t the re-up window something like 364 days?

[pravnik]

@TheFaerie

Me sad, too. I was on vacation when the notice came.

So was I. Then when I came back, I found out I lost my charter status on my birthday. (violins playing)

[panache45]

I never received a notice at all. Am I responsible for knowing when to resubscribe? All of a sudden I started seeing ads. Took me a while to figure out what had happened, then it took several days for my payment to finally take effect.

I have been a Member since 2000 (and lurked for a while previously). This totally sucks and is inexcusable. I don’t believe it can’t be remedied retroactively.

[DSYoungEsq]

Yes, it’s inexcusable. You are correct there.

[Ruby]

I think the idea is that it WON’t be remedied the way you’d like. This happens to some every year and the PTB have been consistent about their willingness to change individual titles. Agreed it sucks, but at least is consistent.