  or click on an individual question below to view the answer.  this help icon is located in various sections of the site and provides explanations and tips for using various features.[Q] - I did not receive the confirmation email to activate my account after signing up?
Many E-mail services and Internet Service Providers (ISP) such as AOL, Yahoo, and Hotmail have SPAM filters to give you greater control over what e-mails reach your inbox to help you avoid unwanted junk e-mail. Unfortunately, these filters are often turned on and set fairly strict by default which will often block e-mails you wish to receive unless you add the sender to your e-mail address book and/or update your e-mail program's white list and/or turn off your spam filters if it's possible.
If you don't receive the confirmation email within 15 minutes, try checking through your spam, junk or bulk email boxes in your online web based email account. If you still can't find it please contact us and we will manually activate your account for you. Before you contact us you will first need to add us to your contact list, since you never received the confirmation email in likelihood you also won't receive our response notifying you that your account has been activated, furthermore all future notifications from our site, such as when a member leaves you a message, will also most likely be treated the same by your email provider. Go here for intructions on how to add us to your contact list. Also make sure your online inbox isn't full, this can also be a common reason for not receiving emails. [Q] - Which is the best browser to use for this site?
Although we make every effort to make our site compatible with Microsoft's IE 6/7, Mozilla's Firefox is by far the most web standards compliant browser available and has become the main browser used by most top web developers and designers for testing to ensure optimum web compliance.
If you are experiencing any issues using our site, or if your browser just isn't performing as well as you feel it should be, we highly recommend you try Firefox, it's 100% free and the fastest growing browser being used today. The Firefox browser makes surfing the web faster and safer.
[Q] - How do I edit or correct information in my profile?
Click on the "My Profile" link in your My Account menu. You will then see edit links for editing different portions of your profile. Simply correct or edit your information and click the save button.
[Q] - I forgot my username or my password, what should I do?
If you registered with a legitimate email address your username and password can be sent to you. Just click on a "Forgot Password" or "Lost Password" link and enter the email address you registered with. Your username and password will be sent as long as the email address you enter is found in your files. You cannot enter a different email address from the one that you registered with.
[Q] - How do I change my account info, such as username, password or email?
You cannot change your username because this is a piece of critical information that uniquely identifies you on our system. You however can change your password or email address at anytime by clicking on the "My Settings" in your "My Account" menu.
Always make sure you're able to receive our emails [Q] - Problems being able to Login?
Your username and password are case-sensitive, please make sure you input them correctly. If the problem still persists, make sure you have cookies enabled (or allowed) for our site. Cookies are required as a means of keeping you active while you're logged in as a member. For more details on how to enable cookies, please check the "How to enable cookies" in the list of questions in this FAQ.
[Q] - I'm unable to save searches and/or I get a warning message?
* First make sure you disable any popup blocker programs you may have installed while using our site.
The most likely culprit is you're using Interent Explorer and you have your security settings set too strict. 1. Select 'Tools' then 'Internet Options' from the top of your browser window 2. Select the 'Security' tab 3. Select the 'Internet' icon (Globe of Earth) and click the 'Custom Level' button 4. Select 'Medium' security from the 'Reset custom settings' box Or if you don't want to change your security settings you can add us to your trusted site list. 1. Select 'Tools' - 'Internet Options' from the top of your browser window 2. Select the 'Security' tab 3. Select the 'Trusted sites' icon (Check Mark) and click the 'Sites' button 4. Enter www.hitching-post.net and click the 'Add' button 5. Un-check the box that says 'Require server verification ...' [Q] - How to enable cookies?
We only design and test our site around the 2 most popular browsers, Microsoft's IE and Mozilla's Firefox which make up over 90% of the browsers being used today to surf the Internet. If you choose to use a different browser you'll have to read your browser's help on how to enable cookies etc., the process is similar on most browsers and the following instructions provided should still give you a general idea. For step by step graphical instructions choose your browser.
[Q] - Why is my profile not getting very many responses from members?
Be sure to post some photos in your profile. Research shows that profiles with photos are 10 times more likely to receive responses. Write blogs and post comments in other member's blogs - this will increase your profile awareness on the site. The more involved you are on the site, the more likely you will be noticed!
For more tips and info on creating a profile that will bring responses, be sure to read our Profile Tips. [Q] - How do I cancel my membership and remove my profile?
You must contact us and request to have it removed. We will then email you back requesting a conformation before deleting it. This is for security purposes so your account and profile isn't accidentally deleted or maliciously deleted by someone other than you in the event your password should fall into the wrong hands.
[Q] - Do you do recurring subscription payments?
No, we do not offer recurring subscription payments, all payments are one time payments only, we do not auto-debit credit or debit cards or bank accounts to re-new memberships. When your paid membership expires you will be notified prior to the expiration date to submit a another payment if you wish to renew your membership and keep it active.
This is another advantage to our payment options, they are all one time payments which can only be made by YOU! Beware of the auto-debit monster with other sites! When you give a credit or debit card authorization for payment for your first subscription period, in many cases you're authorizing the site to automatically renew your subscription in perpetuity often without knowing it. So if you sign up for six months, at some point you may be debited another six-month charge without warning. This feature is nasty and it's usually stated in the small print, and many dating and social networking membership sites do it. [Q] - If payment isn't received by the renewal due date, is my account and profile deleted?
No not right away, if your membership is due and we have not received payment by the renewal date you may be restricted from accessing premium services until payment is received but your account and profile will remain in our system. Premium accounts that have expired usually will remain intact for at least 30 days after which time will be reduced to a free account which will limit access and could potentially cause certain info or settings that pertains to premium members to be lost. Free accounts that are inactive for 90 days are also usually deleted which will completely erase or remove the account from our system.
[Q] - If I cancel my account, can I get a refund on the remaining portion of my subscription?
No, the Hitching-Post does not prorate any unused portion of a subscription.
[Q] - Why can't I login into the classifieds with my social club username and password?
The Hitching-Post.net social club and the classifieds are totally separate entities (technically two different websites) and therefore you must register for each one individually. Your username and password for the social club won't automatically work for the classifieds. You can try registering for both using the same username and password and it will be accepted as long as they are still available and haven't already been taken by another user.
[Q] - Under "My Hitches", what's the difference between "Friends" and "Bookmarks"?
The difference between friends and bookmark is ... people in your friends list is a buddy list of people you are actual friends with or connected with. Whereas bookmarks are like bookmarking or adding a member's profile to a favorites list. Say for example you're browsing profiles and you come across a member you might be interested in, you can add them to your bookmarks list for future reference and continue browsing. Then later on you can browse through your bookmarks to see who you may want to try actually contacting.
[Q] - What are Blogs?
Blogs are basically a personal journal that are typically used for publishing news and articles or for expressing your opinions or observations about a subject, which could be political statements or views, providing tutorials, or simply telling the world all about your favorite horse breed or equine event, or even your thoughts about a movie you recently seen.
 Other members can read your blogs and join in by commenting or expressing their own opinions about the topic, often spawning lively discussions. In a way blogs can be considered like each member having their own personal mini forum where they are in total control of the topics, including moderating by removing inappropriate comments. Don't ignore this powerful tool - writing blogs expands on your profile and can drastically increase the odds of you being noticed on the site, and is a great way to make new friends and for people to get to know you better. Blogs allows you to write articles about any topic or interest you wish, and it can be as short or lengthy as you want. You can write an article expressing your opinions about a topic, describing your passions or interests, or it could be used to get feedback what others think about an issue or topic. Post comments in other member's blogs - this will also increase your profile awareness on the site. The more involved you are on the site, the more you will be noticed! People are naturally drawn to those that appear popular, supportive and helpful. [Q] - How many photos can I upload to my profile?
Both free and premium members are allowed up to 36 photos in their profile's photo gallery.
[Q] - What are the photo uploading requirements?
Maximum allowed file size is 150kb per photo. Photos should be in JPEG (.jpg) format with a maximum width of about 600 pixels. If you need help with your photos please check the Photo Tips which also includes downloads for free programs that will make it fast and easy to reduce the size of your large digital photos or scanned photos for uploading to the web.
Click Here to see a screenshot of Photo Razor - reduces photos in 3 easy steps. (opens in new window) [Q] - If I have a classified ad can I mention this in my profile?
Yes, if you have an ad in "our" classifieds you may make mention of it and post a link to it in the "My Classified Ads" field located in the "About Me" section of your profile. You may also indirectly mention it in your blog, but it must be your "own" blog and the blog topic must not be about what you have for sale, you may not post it on other member's blogs, if someone asks about an ad you have in another member's blog, you may only suggest they view your profile for more info. This is to curb and prevent the blogs from being abused and used for advertising or spam. You also must not engage in directly soliciting other members to buy or sell any products or services through our site's contact services, such as in-house emails.
[Q] - How do I know if I'm viewing the site's most recent and updated Information?
If you visit our site frequently, your web browser stores elements of web pages in a cache so that they do not have to be downloaded again each time you visit, making your browsing faster. These elements might include photos or profiles that you have already viewed, or site style sheets. Often members will edit and update their profiles, and sometimes we may change a style or element on the site, you may not be able to view all changes because you are actually viewing the cache.
You should occasionally consider doing a hard refresh, which loads the actual page as it is on the site and refreshes many of the cache elements, you should also periodically completely clear your browser cache, every site you visit stores cache elements causing your browser's temporary Internet folder to get huge over time which will eventually slow down your browser. To do a hard refresh - with your browser open to our site, hold down the Ctrl key while pressing F5 on your keyboard, or alternately you can also hold down the Ctrl key while pressing your browser's "Refresh" button. Both methods will work on all browsers. |
