But you have a little man! I have no little man. Unfair say I.
But the little man is yellow as illustrated by his running away.
Yellow? He looks orangy-red to me.
That would be the doppler effect. If he were perfectly still he’d be yellow. My guy runs really fast. So fast that he has his own red shift.
Agreed. I’m with the “it’s no big deal” crowd, but to suggest that charter members did absolutely nothing that could deserve special mention seems erroneous, as a point of logic. Charter Members decided they liked this place so much they’d pay, which was an (admittedly very small) leap in the dark. This place might not have survived or standards may have dropped, however slightly, leaving us a few bucks out of pocket with nothing or insufficient to show. To pay money after you’ve seen that this place is still worth being a member of with the new pay to play format is not quite the same deal.
I think they should ditch “member”.
And replace it with “dick.”
That’s what I think of anyway when I see it under everyone’e username. Might as well make it official.
But it’s not worth ditching the discount for those of us who kept up our dues because some people can’t read the stickies or use the control panel.
Given all the disappointments and unfulfilled dreams that this flesh is heir to, “Charter Member” may be the greatest accomplishment in my life.
But, if it will assuage one poster’s discomfort over their misperceived lesser status on these boards, I will go Spock-like into the night and agree to give it up.
Well, I didn’t know about this board until well after the original Charter Member offer expired (September 2004), so I don’t think I did it “wrong.” It’s not a big deal anyway.
If I’d known about the difference I would have joined a long time ago. I’ve been a doper since the seventies. I started to read the column online in the nineties. Once or twice, I wanted to comment, but for some weird glitch, the system wouldn’t let me register. I just shrugged my shoulders and went on. I guess it doesn’t matter now, but that stupid glitch sure did bother me. Finally, after getting a new email address, it worked, so I registered.
Oh, absolutely, I agree. I just don’t get the fuss over having “Charter” under your name. When I lost it due to some glitch, a couple of people said, “Well, you should e-mail the admins so they can fix it!” And I didn’t see the point in worrying about something so trivial.
See, there seems to be people who don’t care what their status is, and then there’s some who like to have the distinction. There doesn’t seem to be many (if any) who actively dislike having Charter Members. As the people who don’t care, don’t care, then there should be no problem keeping the status quo.
Keep it. Stand by your agreements.
Like many I had been reading the boards since about mid-1999. I didn’t join because I didn’t even understand how message boards worked, in fact this was the first one I read and the first board (out of 3) I’ve joined. It’s the only one I care about. looking back I wish I’d joined in 1999 so I could see that cool pre-millenial number above my post count. Oh well, water under the bridge.
But when they offered the option to show your support and pay I was happy to oblige and pay early for that small little distinction of Charter Member under my name.
Big deal? Not really, but I like the fact that they said “thanks” to the first folks willing to pay.
No, it isn’t.
In the upper-right corner of every post it shows a member’s (or charter member’s) “join date.” That shows if a member was added since the inception of pay-for-play. As an example, I wandered off for a few months and came back to find that the board had instituted fees. I pondered it for a while, and paid up. I’m not a charter member, even though I was a member before the fees came about (I don’t get the discount, but Ed still slipped me a free goat, so I’m happy).
I don’t think the title matters one whit. If people like having the title “charter member,” then why take it away from them? It doesn’t affect the rest of us either way.
Just give me the title of **Founding Overlord ** or **Already here when Cecil moved in ** and I’ll be happy.
I agree with this idea. Once a Charter Member, always a Charter Member. I don’t understand why charter members have to beat a deadline every single year. We made the deadline the first time around, that should be enough (especially since that’s what the designation is about anyway).
I don’t really think that anyone should get a discount…the initial discount offer last year was fine but after that I think everyone should pay the same amount. The CM designation should be the continued reward for signing up when the subscriptions first started. IMO
*Then quickly, Sylvester McMonkey McBean
put together a very peculiar machine.
Then he said, "You want stars like a Star-bellied Sneetch?
My friends, you can have them . . . . for three dollars each. *