I have forgotten how I find that number? Can anyone help?
When you or anyone clicks your name and then view public profile the URL is: Straight Dope Message Board - Your direct line to thousands of the smartest, hippest people on the planet, plus a few total dipsticks.
and the 33 is at the end.
Or, just mouse over your name and look at the URL.
Just a WAG but it sounds to me like the reason it is “impossible” is that it’s a policy change instituted by the ‘suits’ of whoever-the-heck owns the Straight Dope now–I’ve lost track–and forced upon the SDMB bigwigs (i.e., Tubadiva and C.K. Dexter Haven, and possibly but not necessarily Ed Zotti too–I don’t know where he sits on the totem pole, “order-giver” or “order-taker”). The calculus seems to have been that the $7.98 price for Charter Members is a loss-leader, and those who lose the Charter status will re-up at the more beneficial $14.95 rate to remain a Member.
Since the primary benefits of being a Member are no ads and the glory of seeing one’s post level / location (well, and PMs too, I suppose), I’m not convinced that’s worth $14.95 to those who now have bad feelings toward the SDMB for dumping them as Charter Members. As seen above, those who resent having lost that status (speaking purely for me, it’s less about the “Charter” than the cheaper rate–yeah, I admit it, I like that half-off benefit!) are now likelier to just fall back to Guest status and use an ad-blocker.
Have the “suits” behind the scenes, no doubt a group consisting of corporate fatcats sitting on plush leather chairs within Cuban cigar-smoke-filled, cognac-swilling boardrooms,* taken this into account? Do they care? Is the ad rate set purely on basic surfing numbers rather than actual ad views? If the former, then as much as people protest using ad-blockers, they won’t care. If ad views are what drives the [del]hundreds[/del] thousands of dollars into the owners’ pockets to offset the [del]thousands[/del] hundreds it costs to maintain the board, then this is fairly typical short-term thinking.
To make that $14.95 worthwhile, assuming it is, it’s way past time to look into extras and add-ons that could be free for the SDMB and enjoyable for paying members. As far as the usual “we don’t want to add anything because then it’s a pain to upgrade…” excuse, that doesn’t quite fly anymore. This is the very last vBulletin 3.x.x iteration since it’s at end-of-life–and frankly I’m hoping they won’t upgrade, because vBulletin 4.x and 5.x suck ass (I’m speaking as a vBulletin alpha tester for both versions, for all the good it did; if you think the SDMB’s owners aren’t hugely responsive to users, you should see the company that now owns vB!). Anyway, if we’re sticking with 3.8.7 (plus any sec. patches that may come up), then it’s time for the owners to unleash Jerry et al. from the ridiculous “WE CANNOT ADD PLUGINS OR ADDONS!” rule and look into some of the most popular, secure and stable addons, which have been around for years and are perfectly safe. They’d be optional but fun. God, even a few new style possibilities (wholly an optional choice for those who want it) would be nice. Anything to make membership seem more worthwhile than it is now.
But that’s only if they want paying members. If they actually don’t, if even the $14.95 fee is a loss-leader, this whole thing is moot.
FWIW, I don’t know what setups y’all have, but I got an email reminder every day for the past four days. I also saw the announcements. I also also have a brain that manages to remember “hmm, doesn’t my membership renew in either March or May?” thus ensuring that I look at my UserCP to check. And that’s why I’m still paying only $7.98, baby!
- Joking. Seriously. It’s probably two guys named Moe and Fred in a room full of filing cabinets and two broken swivel chairs.
Just in the past week or two several posters said they wanted to subscribe but wouldn’t if they had to use Paypal. Others said they would happily pay a premium to get back a lost charter membership, Others wanted to buy gift memberships for regular and ongoing giveaways.
I remember a lot of people said they would buy SDMB t-shirts and cups, etc. when they shut down the SDMB online store a few years ago. Volunteers even offered to make Cafe press templates so they could set up a new online store in minutes, already loaded with merchandise. Just create the account, upload the templates, and tell them where they want the checks mailed.
Members and guests were dismayed about the new board smilies that appeared after applying an update recently. While this seems like a small thing, a lot of people who have been using the boards for years really didn’t like the new ones and complained bitterly. As trivial of a thing as board smilies might be, it is even more trivial to just put the old ones back again. Much less effort than answering posts about it to say there is no time to do it.
All such requests involve “doing something” at the webserver. For whatever reason nobody budgeted routine, ongoing maintenance, improvements, software installations, etc. into the equation when they ran the numbers on ways to generate revenue with a high-traffic website.
The ads are nice. They keep us all on our toes and help us stay educated about how to protect against malware, but they can’t run a website on their own.
Huh, on top of the distractions I had and being sick I thought I had until the 25th to renew my charter. Just found that I’m late now.
I really wonder aloud why asking for just a little bit more would be out of the question because I would do it to become a charter member again. As it is, the unpleasantness of the malware warnings I got while I was even a charter member made wonder if it was worth it while I paid for it.
Oh well, if better ways to do ads are found I will become a member, but you guys should consider more revenue with the ones that let their Charter slip for an error or misunderstanding.
I for one think it’s shameful policy that someone who has been paying the bills around here for someone as long as GusNSpot suddenly loses his special title forever during the stupid malware scandal (or at least, near it), with no chance to get it back.
I certainly won’t be paying for a renewal on my membership ever again after all the horrible, horrible decisions that have been made around here recently (malware, turning it on again just to test it, refusing to put the old smilies back, refusing to do charter membership forgiveness anymore, etc).
It really pisses me off as well. I had browser problems and was a few days late in realizing my subscription was due. Although I am not a heavy poster I have been around since the beginning and the charter member status meant something to me, it doesn’t seem fair to loose it over being a few days late!:mad:
Hmm. I must amend my theory. The two guys in the owners’ seats aren’t Moe and Fred: they’re Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom.
These threads in ATMB are pretty entertaining.
I picture a restaurant deep in the woods full of people that have been served their dinner already and all are happily socializing, but some want a refill on their drink or a new napkin, occasionally looking around for the waiter or waitress, maybe mumbling something about how it’s taking a while or with a confused expression periodically scanning the entire place for any of the wait staff…never realizing that there is nobody there, everyone went home an hour ago.
A email notice of upcoming expiration is sent, starting with a week out and I do believe other emails are sent as well. That is a reminder.
Ah, yes, for me there is also an explanation for that one, for security reasons (and justified in light of the recent hack that also left many scrambling) I changed my contact email to a disposable account, so there they are the notes, unseen.
Yeah, pretty deeply disappointed by this.
I should be more specific; if the policy was “take note, this is the last year we’re doing this,” I’d be less inclined to complain, but instead we’re getting “last year was the last year we’re doing this, and if you don’t happen to click on this sticky you’re screwed.” Had the sticky been titled “IMPORTANT NOTE: CHARTER MEMBERSHIP POLICY CHANGING” I might have realized I can’t just renew a day or two late for an extra five bucks like I have the last couple of years. Now I can’t.
FWIW, I got a reminder on three consecutive days (seven, six and five days before my membership expired).