ACM *SO* gets the web
Today I finally got around to renewing my ACM membership. I have a bad habit of letting it lapse for a few months between renewals, primarily because I almost never use the digial library and both their primary mags, CACM and Queue, offer the CS equivalent of Vanity Fair in terms of substance.
Anyway, in the past I’ve dragged myself over to acm.org and clicked ‘Need to Renew’. New this year is a special feature for ppl like me who allowed their memberships to lapse: the ‘fuck-you’ promotion. Here’s how it works:
ACM Online Purchase – Processing Message
Your membership expired on January 31, 2005 and cannot be renewed online.
Please contact the ACM Member Services Department and a Customer Service Representative will assist you with your membership renewal.
WTF? The professional society for professional computer scientists and engineers doesn’t have online renewal of expired memberships? Astonishing, but true. In fact, for the longest time, you couldn’t even get a membership online, and throughout the Internet age the ACM site has consistenly presented a 1st/2nd generation, so-called ‘Bed and BReakfast’ feel.
I wonder if IEEE grok this Internet thing…
Tags: acm, Migrated from Drupal, sucks