attempt to index local 'ply' (a nil value)

[EmilHem]

I'm trying to fix ULX's autopromote for gmod 13 but I keep getting this error:

[ERROR] addons/autopromote/lua/ulx/modules/autopromote.lua:43: attempt to index local 'ply' (a nil value)
1. checkExcludes - addons/autopromote/lua/ulx/modules/autopromote.lua:43
2. unknown - addons/autopromote/lua/ulx/modules/autopromote.lua:100

The parts of code that is relevant to the errors:

local function checkExcludes( ply )
	for id, eX in pairs (excludes) do
		if ply:IsUserGroup(eX) then --line 43
			return true
		end
	end
	return false
end

function promotePlayer( ply )
	if not checkExcludes( ply ) then --line 100
		if  groupSet( ply ) then
			if settings[1].msgOn then
				for ud, blank in pairs( player.GetAll()) do
					ULib.tsayColor(player.GetAll()[ud],false,settings[1].msgcol,ply:Nick().." has been promoted to '"..getPromoteName(ply.promote).."'.")
				end
			end
			if settings[1].effOn then
				effectS( ply )
				WorldSound( "autopromote/promote.wav", ply:GetPos( 0, 0, 0 ), 160, 100 )
			end
			ulx.adduser(nil, ply, ply.promote)
		end
	end
	if not timer.Exists("Promotion-" ..tostring(ply:SteamID())) then
		timer.Create("Promotion-" ..tostring(ply:SteamID()), 10, 0, promotePlayer, ply)
	end
end

local function timerStart( ply )
	timer.Create("Promotion-" ..tostring(ply:SteamID()), 10, 0, promotePlayer, ply)
end
hook.Add( "PlayerInitialSpawn", "timerstarting", timerStart )

Anyone knows why?

My guess is that ply isn't passed in the timer.

[.\\Shadow}]

timer.Create( "Promotion-"..tostring(ply:SteamID()), 10, 0, function() if not (ply and IsValid(ply)) then return end promotePlayer( ply ) end )

[EmilHem]

Thanks!! It worked!