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FAQ  

TimSstripersonlinehuddlehiland
By: TimS, stripersonline, and huddlehiland
Posted 05/09/11 • Last updated 03/22/12 • 4047 views

 

Community Posting Policies and Rules


(if you need to contact me, my email is tims@stripersonline.com)
 

*We do not allow links here - we do not promote specific shops here - we do not promote other websites here - so please do NOT ask people to post links or tell you where to shop or ask them to post websites here - thanks.

 

*We do not allow selling or buying outside the BST Forum - if you are new, and cannot use the BST Forum, that is not an accident and it is not an excuse for you to try to contact a seller or solicit a sale using our other forums - that is cause for instant removal.

 

*New members cannot respond to PMs - again, not an accident, it is not a bug - read the section below on "New Members"


Registration Issues

 

Using The Site

 

Product Page & Review Questions

 

Internet Browser Questions

 

Community Posting Policies and Rules

 

Please read through the entire guideline section - you agreed to these guidelines when you joined.  We strictly enforce these guidelines in order to be as fair as possible to all members. As a New Member, you do not have full access to this website yet. This website is run like a community - only those folks that contribute to the discussions are welcome to use all the features of the site. New members cannot:
  • Use private messages - they are for participating members here - that means for members that have been here for more than 7 days and have made more than 15 RELEVANT ON TOPIC posts. Anyone blasting up 15 useless "me too" posts will find themselves unable to ever use the BST Forum or private messages.
  • Participate in the Buy/Sell/Trade forums (see the thread locked to the top of the BST Forums for explanation)
 
New members are welcome to purchase items from the Commercial BST Forum sellers, but you will get an error message if you try to post in the regular Buy/Sell/Trade Forums. 
 
If you have any questions, feel free to email me - tims@stripersonline.com
 
TimS

 

- We do not allow links of any kind in your signature - they will be removed immediately. Advertisers paying for "Insider" packages are permitted to put certain links in their signatures, but they are very clearly identified as "Insiders".
 
- We do not allow advertisements, promotional text or contact info in your signatures - this is a non commercial website. 
 
*(When we get images back in the signatures - presently they do not work in signatures) Please keep your signature images appropriate for a PG website and to around 100 to 125 pixels in height and the total combined width, including text to less than 1024 pixels wide- larger images, signatures that are wider than 1024 pixels, inappropriate images and obnoxious animated gifs will be removed or edited, often without notification. 
 
After you have registered, you may set your signature. This is a piece of text that you would like to be inserted at the end of all your posts, a little like having headed note paper.
 
If the administrator has enabled signatures, then you will have the option to include your signature on any posts you make. If you have specified a signature, then the forum will automatically append your signature to any messages you post. You can disable signatures on a per-post basis by un-ticking the 'Show Signature' checkbox when you compose your message.
 
You may turn the signature on and off on posts you have already made by editing the post and altering the state of the 'Show Signature' option.
 
You can set your signature by editing your profile.

 

 

1. No links in your signatures - ever. 
 
2. Avatars/Profiles - we do not allow any promotional, advertising or website information in avatars or profiles. They will be removed immediately.
 
3. Do not post (or PM) links or URLs or cutesy "add dot com" verbiage to commercial websites, blogs, forums or any sites that have discussion or comment sections in your posts or Private Messages.
A commercial website is one that sells products, services or advertising or promotes websites that sell products, services or advertising. For example, a club website, while not selling products or advertising, would be considered commercial if they trade advertising for products or money in the form of sponsor links to commercial websites. We allow links to educational institutions, appropriate governmental agency websites and websites for which we presently have a link exchange arrangement on our "additional resources" web pages. If you are unsure, don't PM or post the link until you contact one of the forum leaders or admins and ask them for a ruling. Anyone private messaging inappropriate links, URLs or promoting them to any other member here will lose their ability to send or receive private messages - period. They may also be removed from the entire site.
 
4. No solicitation in the forums or via Private Messages. 
We encourage contribution to this community and very much discourage solicitation and self promotion. We have and will continue to allow appropriate announcements provided that they:
A. Do not contain advertisement information such as URLs, phone numbers, email addresses and "for more information contact" text in them.
B. Are not overly biased self promotional product endorsements by the manufacturer, designer and/or distributor. 
C. Do not contain lists of sponsors, shops or businesses.
 
We welcome and encourage any manufacturer of products that we offer, sell or publicly endorse here to keep the entire community up to date on their product line through announcements and posts on this website. We also welcome all manufacturers to participate in any and all discussions relating to their products, provided they do not post links, contact information or other information to direct members to their business, service or products.
 
Thank you for your anticipated cooperation,
Tim Surgent and StripersOnline

 

 

- We do not allow folks to discuss, recommend, promote, insult, criticize, ostracize or refer to other websites.
 
It's that simple, don't do it - we don't want it here. If you need to contact someone from another website, use their website, don't announce it here - we don't want it here. It's not our job to keep tabs on other websites, their owners or their members. We don't promote other sites here, we don't insult other sites here and we don't discuss other sites here. That includes sales, promotions, fights, discussions, articles or videos. Leave stuff from other sites on those sites, we don't want it here - thanks.
 

Buying/Selling/Soliciting

1. We do not allow buying, selling, offering to buy, offering to sell or any other form of solicitation on any forum EXCEPT the BST Forums. 
*New Members: This means you will not be able to register and offer to buy or try to sell anything. You are not welcome to post outside the BST Forum that you are trying to contact someone to buy something you saw in the BST Forum. The BST Forums are for contributing members of this website - you are welcome to stick around, participate a little bit and then use the BST Forum. That is the only way you can ever buy or sell something on this website. 
 
2. Buying/Selling/Soliciting via Private Messages is absolutely prohibited - there are no exceptions.
*If you are caught buying/selling or soliciting via PMs, you will very likely lose access to your Private Messages. Asking someone for prices via PMs would be soliciting - asking someone to sell you something they posted a picture of would be soliciting - making arrangements to buy something not listed on the BST Forum would be soliciting. 
 
3. Commercial Use - if you made something and post a picture of it and post a price or discuss where folks can purchase it or how they can purchase it, that's advertising and it will be removed. If you make a product that you feel would be well received by this community, contact TimS privately and we can discuss possible access to the Commercial BST Forum.

 

If something you typed was automatically changed into asterisks, that means we, the owners of this website, have decided that we do not want that word, link, shop or website posted on our website or PM'd to our members. When you make heroic efforts to post or PM that blocked word, after you realize that we, the owners, have chosen to block that word, you have crossed a line - you are no longer making a mistake, you are now intentionally undermining our right to decide what we want and don't want on our website. I assure you, we will view your actions as a great disrespect and a challenge. In short, please don't circumvent our autocensor, it won't end well. Thanks. Tim Surgent and StripersOnline.com
 
At StripersOnline, we have always put more emphasis on helping people learn how to fish, not sending them to specific fishing spots. Someone that knows how to fish will be armed with the skills it takes to find and figure out an unlimited number of locations and conditions. The internet is a huge place, these forums see tens of thousands of visitors every day, we have watched places become unecessarily overcrowded through the years resulting in litter, noise, parking problems, poaching, and eventually, closure. 
 
As such, we encourage fishing reports and discussions about general locations only. We do not allow very specific locations to be posted on these forums. Instead of posting about a specific street or town, use a more general description of the area. For example, instead of saying you caught fish at Anystreet Avenue, just say you caught them in northern Anycounty. Instead of saying Anystreet Bridge, say Anywhere River area. There's nothing good that can come from being too specific, but by being general in your discussions, you can share the important parts of your report - the tackle, lures, bait, conditions, tide, moon phase, etc.
 
Our forum leaders have all been instructed to edit out any overly specific location information. Please do not get angry with them, it's a site-wide policy and they are volunteers doing their best to keep these forums as useful, respectful and fun as they can be. 
 
Thank you for your cooperation, 
The crew at StripersOnline.com
 
We do not allow discussion here about what happens on other websites. 
We are not interested in garbage from other forums...leave it where it happened. We are not interested in the rules of other forums, just like we expect they are not interested in our rules. We are not interested in fights, site specific events, promoting member only events on other sites, sales, free offers, solicitations, bickering, whining or name calling from other site.
 
Bottom line is, if it happened somewhere else, leave it there, we don't want to know about it. And for those that have to know the "why" behind the rules, here yah go: Getting into discussions about what happens on other websites invariably leads to pissing contests or he said/she said type arguments. Neither of which adds anything of value to this community. So please, leave other sites out of your discussions here. If you feel you have something monumental that absolutely must be made public here that you read on another site, contact a forum leader or administrator and let them decide. Thanks.

 

A long time ago, when this site was first started, I asked folks to please do two things while contributing here:
 
1. Let everyone who registers here do so with a clean slate - I don't care what they've done or said or written on any other site. Primarily because I don't read any other site and if folks were to judged by members here on their actions elsewhere, I'd have to familiarize myself with those actions on other sites. Instead of having to do that, it was simply a much better model to just let everyone registering here start with a clean slate. 
 
2. Don't discuss the goings on of other sites. I have no interest in who's doing or saying what on other sites...I don't read any. So just like #1 above, if people started threads discussing what's going on elsewhere, it inevitably ends up with someone from elsewhere getting defensive and starting a war. I don't like war, we're a peaceful people. So rather than have to be up on all website's current events, battles, and garbage, I've asked folks to simply not discuss what's going on elsewhere in these forums. It's of no consequence here who's saying what about whom somewhere else or who's thrown off another site or why. What happens elsewhere should simply stay there. 
 
This policy remains today and is known as our "Clean Slate Policy" - we thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation :)
 
Please do not post or link videos here if they contain any of the following:< /b>
1 - vulgarity - I don't care how funny you feel the video is, if there is vulgarity, please do not link/post the video here.
2 - advertising/promotion - if the video can be considered advertising or promotion for any company, product or service, please do not link/post the video here.
3 - nudity - self explanatory
4 - commercial website reference - if the video discusses or mentions contains the URL for a commercial website, please do not link/post it here.

 

Registration Issues

Why do I need to validate my email?

In order to get e-mail digests of your subscriptions (stuff you care about around the site) and notifications of private messages and bulletin board posts from your fellow users, you must validate your email. We also may send a newsletter periodically to update you on the goings on of the community. You can choose to receive any, all, or none of these by clicking the "My Profile" tab at the top of this page, then the "Edit Account" button at the top of that page.

 

I never got my email validation email!

If it has been more than fifteen minutes, check your Spam folder in your email client to ensure that it was accidentally quarantined. To resend your verification email, log in.  On your logged in home page, if you have not verified your email you will see an alert next to your avatar that says, "Your email address has not been verified. Please click here to re-send."  If you're experiencing additional issues, please contact us.

 

I forgot my password. What should I do?

Head over to the login page.  Below the fields to enter your username or email address and password, you'll see a "Lost your password?" button.  From there, you can send a password reset email which will include a link to change your password.

 

How do I change password, email address, and my user name?

When you're viewing your own Profile page, there is a button that says "Edit Account." From there it's very easy to reset your password, email address, and other account details.  At this time, you cannot change your user name after you have registered.  

 

 

Using The Site

Forums, wikis, product reviews...which one do I use? How are they different?

There are countless stand alone discussion forums online as well as several prominent review engines and Wiki sites, but never before have these mediums for content generation been so effectively integrated as they are in our community. With so many options, which medium is appropriate for what type of content? While we believe it's ultimately up to you to decide, here's a bit of guidance. 

 

First, forums, Wikis, product pages (and reviews of those) are all separate features and different ways you can interact with the site and its members.  They are tied together across the site to make related information easier to find, but there are in fact many differences.

 

Type

What is it?

Suggested Use
Forums
  • ideal place for group interaction
  • here each user can start new threads, respond to existing threads and posts, etc.
  • learn more about using the forums in our Discussion Forum Tutorial
  • ask questions to the community
  • post links to interesting articles and start a conversation
Wikis
  • "collaboratively editable articles"
  • wikis allow many individuals to work together to write and edit an article
  • learn more about writing wiki articles in our Wiki Article Tutorial
  • "How-to" instructions and guides
  • lists
  • informational articles
Reviews
  • personal opinions of products AFTER having personal experience with those particular products
  • learn more about writing reviews in our Review Tutorial
  • candid and respectful personal opinions

 

Don't forget to tag your threads and Wikis, so that it shows up on the appropriate product pages and other areas so that others can respond and contribute!  

 

 

Can I search for information?

Of course! At any time, you can search all of the site, from discussion forums, to Wiki articles, from reviews to images. At the top of every page, you'll see the search bar. Type in your keywords and click "Search."  You also can use the Advanced Search form to narrow down your search results. *If you don't find what you are looking for with the site search, go to Google, type: site:www.stripersonline.com and your search terms - Google will search this site for you :)

 

Where is my forum signature?
Members may post text and smilies in their signature file - we will continue trying to get images included in signatures as we also feel they are beneficial to the community.


To edit your forum signature, navigate to the My Profile tab.  Below your image gallery, you will see a section called "Your Forum Signature."  Below that is the "Edit Signature" button.  Click here, format your signature (text, bolding, smilies and italics only), and click save.
 

How do I personalize my Profile and change my avatar?

*We do not allow advertising, commercials, URLs or promotional information in your profile images or avatars. That means no business names, URLs, product names, etc. Personalizing your community profile and adding items to Your List are two of the best ways for you to tell the rest of the community about yourself.  Feel free to answer any or all of the profile questions, add items to your List, and change your avatar.  

 

What are subscriptions? How do I use them?

Our members create A LOT of content, but not all of it will be for you - that's why you can subscribe to what's interesting. You can subscribe to specific threads in forums, to individual wiki articles, or to tags, or users so you receive updates of all of their content.

 

One very powerful feature of the subscriptions is that you can actually subscribe to whole categories of products/content. You can just subscribe to a category tag and it's as though you subscribed to every single item underneath that heading. Browse here to see what categories you can subscribe to.

 

We don't want to inundate anyone, so you can determine the frequency with which you receive these updates. When you're logged in, go to your profile and click "Edit Subscriptions" - here you can set the frequency of each subscription to Immediate, Daily, Weekly, or Never. 

 

Can I remove someone else's public message on my profile?

Of course - if you're logged in and looking at your own Profile, each public message should appear with a "Delete" button underneath it. Clicking that link will delete the unwanted message immediately.  

 

What's the deal with tags? They seem important but how exactly do they work?

Tags are a vital component of our system - they are the means by which we can tie together the forum, wiki, review, product profile, and other content. 

 

If I read something that violates the site rules or just isn't helpful, what should I do?

Most all content in the site has the option to rate or vote it up. This helps the best content rise up above the mediocre (or downright bad) content.  Beyond that, you can flag or report a forum post or Wiki article with the "Report to Admin" button.

 

Why did I receive an error when I tried to download an attachment?

Only users in certain user groups are allowed to download attachments.  If you received an error message that says "Sorry, you don't have the required permissions to download attachments.", then you are not in one of those user groups.

 

 

Product Page & Review Questions

What is Your List?

Your List is a way of organizing the items you Own, Want, and Had. When you want to add an item to Your List, simply go to that item's product page, and click "Add to Your List."  You can create new lists from your user profile at any time.

 

Lists are a means to connect you with other members with similar interests and experience who you can hopefully learn from or at least enjoying talking to. We also compile everyone's List data to provide you with unbiased statistics about what products the community is actually using. 

 

Items I "Had"? What does that mean?

If you used to own a product, but don't anymore, that means you "had it!"  The "Had It" category allows you to reflect this knowledge to your fellow users.

 

I have a bunch of stuff that I want to add to my List, but it's not in the system.

At any time, you can add a new item to the database. It is, however, very important that you don't add a duplicate of something that we already have. If it's just a different color of something else in the system, please don't add it. If we really don't have it and it fits within the existing categories, then go for it! Clicking the "Add Item" links throughout the site will prompt a wizard that will take you through the process of adding it to the correct product category.

 

The stuff I want to add doesn't fit in any of your current product categories.

If we are not covering a product category that you think is vital to this community, please let us know via our feedback form. We need your help to make this the best resource possible!

 

Can I delete a review once I've written it?

At this time, once you post a review, you cannot delete it.  However, you can always edit it! 

 

Internet Browser Questions

The site doesn't appear properly in my browser.

If you're having browser problems, please check to see if you are using an A-Grade Browser.  Our site performs optimally on the browsers listed in the A-Grade Browser Support Chart.
 

I keep getting a popover asking me to allow access to my Clipboard.

Unfortunately, this is an issue with Internet Explorer 7 and 8.  To deactivate this popover, you will need to change your browser security settings:
 

  1. Go to Tools -> Internet Options.
  2. Go to Security tab.
  3. Select “Internet” zone, then click on “Custom level…” button.
  4. Scroll down to “Scripting” section (at the bottom few).
  5. Under “Allow Programmatic clipboard access” option, check or select (tick) Enable. Default action for this option is Prompt, which cause the pop-up message whenever there is any attempt to access the Clipboard.
  6. Click Ok twice to exit from Internet Options.

Why can't I right click and use Firefox's spell checker?
Because we use a fully WYSIWYG (What you See is What You Get) editor, the right click is needed to be able to pull up image and table properties, cut and paste, etc.  However, fear not.  There is a work-around to be able to keep using it.

If you hold ctrl (PC) or Command (Mac) when you right click in Firefox, it will treat the right click as though it's outside of the text editor.

This is an extra step for folks, but the idea was to provide the power of the context sensitive menus in the editor (to align images, add borders, color table cells, etc.) but also enable you to take advantage of Firefox's spell check.

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