Also, Why do some users have “member” under their name, while others say “charter member”?
Why do some posters not show a post count?
White check marks mean the user is on the boards currently, right this second. Blue means that they decided to go see about that supposed “real life” thing some members claim to have.
I dunno about the Members/Charter Members thing. But a poster lacking a post count is probably a guest. They don’t get one of those things until they pay.
My, my some of you people are observant. I’ve never even noticed the check marks before. I wonder what else I’m missing?
Well, I COULD tell you what you’re wearing. 
Except that I am 99.99% sure I have seen members with no post count listed.
Thanks for the checkmark clarification.
It’s also important to point out that you can deactivate the “I’m currently online” thingy, so people with a blue check can still be here…
[sub]watching us…[/sub]
[sub]waiting for us to drop our guard…[/sub]
<shivers>
/runs out of thread as quickly as my feet can carry me
Charter Members joined before or when the boards went to paying mode, or in the couple of weeks interval thereafter before they realized they needed to switch it to “Member.” Members are people who joined after the cutoff date for charter members.
This is incorrect. All paying members (so far, at least) have the title “Charter Member.”
For example, the OP’s join date is February 2005 (nearly a year after Pay-to-post), and his or her title is “Charter Member.”
A “Member” is someone who was a member in good standing before Pay-to-Post but didn’t pay.
Guests don’t have post counts. Members get post counts AFAIK.
We used to able to, anyway. That option isn’t available anymore.
I believe this is wrong. Guin used to be “member” even after she paid, because she changed her title back when you could still have custom titles, and they manually changed it back to “member”, and this was never rectified after they introduced “charter member” status.
Perhaps the changing member titles when we were “allowed” to screwed things up with that.
However, I was mainly clearing up the misconception that there was some sort of a cut-off date for Charter Members. Anyone who signs up today and pays will be a Charter Member, just like (most of, apparently) everyone else who paid a year ago.
The majority (and I think probably “all,” even if the admins had to do it by hand) of the members in good standing who have paid are called Charter Member (excluding mods, admins and SDSAB).
Guests are those who signed up for 30 day trial memberships, but did not end up paying (I believe these accounts say “Guest” even after the 30 days are up. (NOTE: Sometimes “guests” occur in really old threads too. I’m not sure why.
Thus, I’m unaware of any way in which a currently posting name can have the moniker Member (unless someone changes it manually). Most (all?) names with the member designation were members in good standing before the switch to pay to post, and chose not to pay.
Well, it was rectified eventually. Guinastasia now shows up as a Charter Member. And I think I heard that her case was somewhat different anyway.
The short answer is that there are many different reasons why a person might show up as a “Member”, but the most common nowadays is someone who was a member but didn’t subscribe. Unless their last post was a long, long time ago (I think the cutoff was when we switched from UBB to vB), in which case they’ll be a “Guest”.
Guests’ post counts are listed in their profile.
Never noticed it, either. And I’ve been here for a while, now…
ah HAH! astro’s title is member too, and he’s actively posting. smug look
“Charter member” was supposed to appear under the names of people who subscribed on or before April 28, 2004, when our charter membership deal expired, while those who subscribed after were supposed to be “Members.” However, Jerry never got around to fixing the code. He’s going to do it in the next few days and adjust all the titles retroactively.
He’s on “posting sabbatical” right now; “Member” is the default listing under that category.
We need to adjust that. I have done so manually in his case.
your humble TubaDiva
Heres what I’ve gathered.
The board does not update your status until you post. Everybody who has posted after the start of subscription is either a guest or a charter member depending on whether they have paid. People who registered before the subscription date but have not posted since subscription are members because the board hasn’t changed their status.
This isn’t spelled out in subscription information. It still says you get “Charter Member” as a title under your name. If we don’t qualify (or if we’re going to be retroactively disqualified) would you please update the subscritption info here?
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/subscriptions.php?
Thanks