You can please some people all the time, or you can just sit back and watch 'em bitch
Fun with billing at the Straight Dope Message Boards!

Apparently a whole bunch of Charter Members of the SDMB forgot to renew their subscription when it came due, so now they've been charged the regular rate and lost their speshul user titles. Oh noes.

Board admin Ed Zotti posts:

I knew this would happen. We've received numerous heart-rending pleas from ex-charter members claiming they slept through the thunderstorm of subscription renewal announcements, e-mails and FAQs we cranked out over the past month and asking to be reinstated.

Here's the deal, Ed continues: you don't get a refund, but you do get your title back and you'll get the discount next year if you don't forget again. Deal?

Follows the whining:

Hey! How come I have to pay fifteen whole dollars just because I wasn't paying attention?

I specifically made it nearly impossible for you to contact me, so it's your fault none of your reminders reached me. (Debaser appears to have a healthy young sense of entitlement there; if he cultivates it, he'll be a first-class wanker in a couple of years.)

And the smugness:

I paid on time, so why should the rest of you punks get a break?

"What I am having trouble with is that these people that caused all the extra work not only get to be charter member again, but have their discount reinstated next year."

And the "dude, WTF?":

I used to hang out here before it went paid and then forgot all about it until the other day. Is it too late to be a charter member?

So... if I pay you, you'll unban me, right?