I see your point. Perhaps what's needed are two controls:
- checkbox for "I will be late" which can only be added at signup
- generic note field which can be modified at any time
Right now I see the "late" indicator used mostly as a generic note. For example, we're putting together a run to get people keyed for instances and create a calendar event. A number of us are already keyed, so we signup, hit the "late" checkbox, and then put a note of "I don't need it, but am available to help." Specific example: event details for first event on 5.2.2007 on hawt.dkpsystem.com.
Or maybe I'm going about this the wrong way. I just read about the new raid categories feature, but don't quite grasp the details yet. Could this problem be solved using that feature? Something like create two categories, "need to be keyed" and "already keyed but can help"? Not sure if that would work ...