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To make this Help document as useful as possible, please familiarize yourself with some of the basic terms we use when explaining how things work on our site.
- Member - Someone who has become a member of our site. You have to become a member to post any listings on the site. More information about our Membership Options can be found on the How It Works page.
- User - Someone who is not a registered member, but simply using our site to browse and search our listings. All users must read and understand our Visitor's Agreement.
- Areas - At this time, our areas are General Merchandise, Automotive and Real Estate. More areas will be introduced soon. A listing can only be placed in one area.
- Category - Each area has many categories under it. An item can be placed in up to three different categories. Example: an antique chair might be listed in both the "furniture" and "antiques" categories in the General Merchandise area.
- Listings - Anything posted on our site, no matter what area or category it is posted in, is referred to as a "listing."
- Fields or Headings - When members post their listings they have to first fill in a form. We call each part of that form a field. Some fields are required, some are not. Often, these fields appear as headings when viewing the details of a listing. Title, Price and Description are all example of fields. Please see the Field Index for an explanations about many of our most common fields and headings.
- Upper Menu Bar - The buttons that run along the top of every page of our site. For the most part, these buttons do not change. They include "Home," "Browse," "Search," etc.
- Lower Menu Buttons - The blue buttons that are located in the gray area directly below the upper menu bar. The buttons change depending on what function you are performing on our site. In certain areas of the site, there are no lower menu buttons available.
Browsing the listings
Click on the "Browse" button on the upper menu bar. You may then select any category from the major listing areas. The number in parenthesis after each category represents the number of items in that category. To view a sorted list of items in that category, click on the category name.
To browse in just one of our areas, you can click on one of the blue lower menu buttons that will be available in the gray area under the upper menu bar.
Sorting and viewing listings
Browsing or searching for listings will produce a list of items including the number of listings found. You can sort the list by clicking on the heading in the colored bar at the top of the list. For example, if you wish to sort a list by price, just click on the word "Price" in the red header. The list will redisplay from the highest to lowest price. Clicking on "Title" will sort the items alphabetically by title.
Note: If there are more items in the list then fit on one page, there will be a link at the bottom of the list to advance to the next page.
To display the details of a listing click on the title of that listing.
Note: When lists contain items from different areas (Real Estate and Autos) on one page, you do not have the option of sorting the lists. We are currently working on adding that feature to our site.
Viewing the details of a listing
What appears in the detail of a listing will differ depending on the type of listing. Real Estate listings display details like number of bedrooms, and baths. Automotive details will tell you the number of cylinders, make, mileage and model of the vehicle. What details you see in any given listing depend on what the member who posted the listing decided to include. If someone posts a Real Estate listing but did not fill in the square footage of the living space, you will not see any reference to square footage.
Real Estate and Auto listings also display feature lists that help you learn more about that item. If the feature has a 
next to it, it means that the item has that feature. If the feature is followed by: 
it means that the item does not have that feature or that the feature does not apply to the item listed.
For more detail on what each listing detail means, please refer to the Field Index.
Options you have while viewing a listing:
- Contacting the member who posted the listing
- The best way to make contact is by using the email, phone number or other contact information that the member included. To send an email, simply click on the "Email" link under the Contact Information heading.
Contacting the member anonymously
- Sometimes members choose to not post any contact information in their listing. Or you may wish, for some reason, to not directly contact them. If that is the case, you may opt to send the person a message using a blind box. Click here to get more help on contacting a member using our blind box feature.
- To look at what other listings the member has posted, click on the "View Member's Other Listings" link at the bottom of the item detail.
Reporting Abuse
- While we do monitor our listings as frequently as possible, there may be things that we miss. For that reason we ask you to please report any abuse of our service. If there is something about the listing or listing member that you find inappropriate, abusive or offensive, please let us know by clicking on the "Report Abuse" link at the bottom of the listing's detail. For more information on reporting abuse please click here.
Searching the site
To help you find what you're looking for in our listings, we provide you with many ways to search. On the upper right hand corner of every page of our site you will see our simple search form. Enter a search term in the box, select an area in which to search (Automotive, Real Estate, etc.) and click on the "Go" button. Titles and descriptions of the items in the selected area will be searched.
To take advantage of more search options, click on the "Search" button in the upper menu bar.
Just like our simple search, our main Search tool let's you enter a keyword or keywords and area in which to search. After putting in your keywords you can have the system search for items that have all of the words, any of the words or items that only match the exact phrase used. This tool also gives you the options of searching for your keyword in titles only or in both titles and descriptions.
Each area also has its own advanced search. Select an advanced tool by clicking on the appropriate blue lower menu button.
- General Merchandise Advanced Search
- Includes the ability to search in just one category and search for an item in a certain geographic location like "South County" or "Metro Providence" To learn more about our location field please view our Field Index page.
Automotive Advanced Search
- Includes the ability to search in just one category and search for an item in a certain geographic location like "South County" or "Metro Providence." The Automotive search also allows you to select a "must have" feature such as ABS or Power Seats.
Real Estate Advanced Search
- Includes the ability to search in just one category and search for an item in a certain geographic location like "South County" or "Metro Providence." The automotive search also allows you to select a "must have" feature such as an eat in kitchen or water view. Services Advanced Search
- Includes the ability to search in just one category and search for an item in a certain geographic location like "South County" or "Metro Providence."
Becoming a member
To post listings on our site you must first become a member. More details on our Membership Options are available on the How It Works page. To become a member, click on any of the blue "Become a Member" lower menu buttons or the "Sign Up" button found in the footer links at the bottom of every page of our site.
Filling out the membership form
Every member must fill in a membership profile form. Every field in this form except the second line of your address is required. All the information in this form is kept private unless you choose to display your first name, email address or phone number when you post your listing. For more information on our Privacy Policy click here. All members must also confirm that they are over 18 and that they have read and understand our Membership Agreement.
Verifying your email address
You cannot become a member unless you register with a legitimate email address.
How your email address is verified
After you complete the membership form an email is automatically sent to the email address you provided. The email we send to you contains a special confirmation key: a code that is a combination of letters and numbers. It also contains easy instructions of how to use that key to verify your email address.
Note: You cannot post listings to our site unless you have verified your email address.
Logging into the site
To post or manage your listings or upgrade your membership you must first log into the site. If you are not logged in, and click on any of the buttons in the upper menu bar that require membership, you will automatically be taken to the log in screen. You can also log into the site by clicking the log in button in the upper menu bar.
Your user name is always your email address. Your password is whatever password you selected when you filled in your membership profile form. Passwords are case sensitive - that means if your password is Catdog and you type in catDog your password will not work. Usernames are not case sensitive.
If you are a member and have forgotten your password, click on the "I forgot my password" link at the bottom of the log in form.
The log on page also offers you the chance to become a member.
The Welcome Page
Every time you log into the site, you will be presented with a Member Welcome Page. This page shows you important, up-to-date information about your membership. You also have the option on this page to change your member profile, your email address, your password or the type of membership you have. You can get to this page at any time by logging into the site or by clicking on the "My Membership" blue lower menu button in the "Post Listing" and "My Listings" sections of our site.
Forgotten passwords
We will be happy to email your password to you. Click on the "I forgot my Password" link under the log in form to display the Email My Password page. Enter the email address you use as your username and we will email your password to that address. For security reasons we can ONLY email your password to the email address you confirmed when you first became a member of our site. If the email address you enter in the forgot password form does not match your membership profile, our system will let you know that the address is not valid and will not email your password.
Changing your user profile
Because you have the option of automatically displaying your first name and phone number in your listing it is important that you keep that information current. To make changes to your address, phone number and name click on the "Change Profile" link which appears under your profile information on the Welcome Page. Change any information in the profile form you wish and click on the "Save" button to save your changes. It is important to remember that if you have used the "Show First Name" or "Show Phone Number" options when you posted a listing the information displayed in the details of your listing will change to reflect your updated information. These changes will take place as soon as you click on the "Save" button. After changing your profile, we strongly urge you to check your current listings to make sure that the contact information displayed is correct.
Changing your password
To change your password click on the "Change Password" link at the bottom of your member profile information on the Welcome Page. You will be asked for your email address and old password. If the information you enter is valid your password will be changed instantly. We recommend that you change your password every so often to help protect unauthorized access to our site and always make a note of your password so you will not forget it.
Changing your email
To change your email click on the "change email" link under your current email address in the member profile information section of the Welcome Page. When changing your email address it is VERY important to remember the following things.
- The new email address you enter will also become your new username.
- You will need to verify your email address in the same manner you did when you first became a member.
- You will not be able to manage or post listings until you have confirmed your email address using the confirmation key we will email to you.
- If you have used the "Show Email" option on any of your listings, the email address displayed will be automatically changed to reflect your new email address.
Posting a listing
To add a new listing to the site, you must first log in with your username and password. To post, click on the "Post Listing" button in the upper menu bar.
Next select the area in which you want to post, i.e. "Automotive," "Real Estate" etc.
Fill in the form. If an area has a yellow asterisk before it, you must complete that area of the form. For a complete list of each field and what it means click here. Clicking on any of the "HELP" icons will display useful instructions for that part of the form. It is suggested that you view the help on each part of the form so that your information is correct. If clicking on "HELP" does not open a help box, it is because you have JavaScript disabled on your PC. You need to have JavaScript enabled for this function to work properly. Please read the JavaScript section of our help to learn more.
Once the form is completed click on the "save" button. If there are no errors found, your listing will be accepted and instantly posted to our site.
Note: Once you get the "Your listing has been posted" message please DO NOT REFRESH or RELOAD the page. Doing so may post a duplicate copy of your listing.
We ask that when posting any listing to our site that you first read and understand the Membership Agreement. While we welcome most items to our site, we do ask that you do not list certain items. Please read our Posting Guidelines but remember that this is not an inclusive list. We reserve the right to remove any listing for any reason regardless of its content or your member status. We welcome your questions about our posting policies. If you want to know if your listing fits our guidelines, please send us a feedback and we will let you know.
If our system does find errors in your form, it will display a list of what needs to be corrected. Note what these errors are, click on the back link, make the necessary changes and click on "Save" again.
Including an image with your listing
Gold and Silver members of our site have the option of adding one image to each of their listings. Any image attached to a listing must meet all of these requirements.
- End with the extention .gif or .jpg
- Be less than 75k in file size
- Be less than 645 pixels wide
- Be less than 600 pixels high
If you are a Gold or Silver member you will see an image field on the Post Listing form. You may type in a path to where your image is on your local computer or hit the "Browse" button to open a window to navigate to where your local image is located. Click on the Open button after you have selected your image and the path to the image will be noted in the image field of the listing form.
Fill in the rest of the form and click on the Save button to post your listing. If the image does not meet our requirements you will be prompted why and given the option to try another image.
Important notes on images
- You may only have one image per listing.
- If you are editing a listing that already has an image you do not need to upload the image again. If you choose to upload a new image when you are editing a listing the old image will be replaced.
- If you wish to delete an image and not replace it with a new one check of the "delete your current image without loading a new one" box.
- All images will be deleted when you delete your listing or when it expires.
- Mac users may have to add the .jpg or .gif extension to their files or change the extension .jpeg to .jpg. Files with a .jpeg extension will not be accepted.
- If you have to use the back button to make a correction in your listing (for example if you forget to enter a required field) you will note that the image field is blank and you will need to select the image to upload again. This is a quirky HTML form thing and not our fault.
Managing your listings
You must be logged into the site to take advantage of this feature. Once you have logged into the site click on the "My Listings" button in the upper menu bar.
A page with all your current listings will be displayed.
- To view a detail of any listing click on the Title of the listing.
- To edit a listing click on the Edit button to the left of the listing's Title
- To extend a listing click on the Extend button to the left of the listing's Title
- To delete a listing click on the Delete button to the left of the listing's Title
Editing a listing
Clicking on the Edit button will bring up the form you first used to post your listing. It will contain the information you filled in. Feel free to make any changes you wish. Remember that if the field has an asterisk, it is still required. Once you have completed your changes click on the "Save" button at the bottom of the form. Remember that you can change categories but you cannot change the area the in which the listing was originally posted.
Extending a listing
This option is only available only to Gold and Silver Members. To extend a listing, click on the Extend button to the right of the listing title on the My Listings page. Use the drop-down box to select "Extend 30 days from today" or "Extend until my membership ends" option. It is important to note that Gold and Silver members can extend their listings PAST the time when their active membership ends. This has been done so that members have time to renew their memberships without risk of having their listings deleted.
Deleting a listing
To delete a listing click on the Delete button to the right of the listing's title on the My Listings page. The Delete Listing page will be displayed and give you the option of deleting the listing or canceling this action. It is very important to remember that there is no "undo" option for deleting listings. Once a listing is deleted it is gone forever.
Listing periods/Active dates of listings
How long your listing stays posted to the site depends on your membership level. Free listings posted by Trial Members last 90 days. Listings posted by Silver Members last 30 days. Gold member listings last the lenght of their membership (up to one year). Gold and Silver Members also have the option to extend the listing period. All members can delete their listing at any time using the delete option found in the My Listings page. All listings are automatically deleted after the listing period has ended. The active dates of a listing can be seen when you view the details of that listing.
Logging out of the site
For your own security, it is important to log out of the site when you are done posting or managing your listings. To log out of the site click on the log out button found in the upper menu bar.
Bookmarking pages/Adding pages to Favorites
We hope that you choose to bookmark our site using the bookmark feature or favorites option in your web browser. That being said, we strongly discourage you against adding any pages to your favorites when you are logged into our site. If you bookmark pages when you are logged in, the bookmark will retain your user information. What this means is that if someone else uses your computer and opts to load that bookmarked page they may have access to your membership options like Post Listings and the My Listings areas without having to log into the site. It is always best to log out of the site before adding any pages to favorites.
Sending feedback
We welcome all feedback about our site. You will always find a link to our feedback page in the footer links on every page of our site. Messages are read and answered by a real person. To help us track problems and continually improve our site, we ask people sending feedback to please select the main reason you are sending us your comment or question. You can do this by using the drop down "Reason" box in the feedback form. If you are unsure you can select "other" for the reason. Please make sure to double check your return email address, we cannot respond to email if you have not entered a correct address. If you are logged into the site your email will automatically be entered into this form. Please feel free to change it if you wish us to email our response to a different address. A copy of your feedback will be sent to you as a record of your message to us.
Reporting abuse
When viewing the details of one of our listings you will notice a "Report Abuse" link near the bottom of the listing. If you feel there is something about the listing that is abusive or offensive, click on that link. The Report Abuse form will be displayed. A link to the listing will be automatically inserted into the form. If you are logged into the site, your email will automatically be entered into this form as well. Please feel free to change the email address if you wish. While it may be obvious what the problem with the listing is, we still ask that you fill in the "Problem with Listing" area to let us know why you feel the listing needs our attention. When you have completed the form, click on the "Send Feedback" button to send us the message. We will give your report swift and appropriate attention. We ask that you do not attempt to contact the member directly. Be assured that we will keep your report to us confidential. A copy of your report will be sent to you as a record of your message to us.
Upgrading your membership
When you first log into our site you will see your current membership level in the membership profile area of the Welcome Page. You will also be presented with the option of upgrading your membership. Certain levels of membership require a payment. If you select a membership that requires a payment, you will be taken to our secure order form. Some parts of this form will be filled in with the information you provided to us when you first became a Trial Member of our site and filled in the member profile form. You must change any information in this form to reflect the information associated with your credit card. For example, if your name on your credit card has a middle initial, you must change your name on the form to include your middle initial.
Note: Changing the information in the form does not change your member profile information.
Once you have completed the order form click on the "Go to Checkout" button.
The system will display all your info including the amount we will charge to your card. Please make sure that all this information is correct. If you need to make any changes click on the "back" button on your browser or the "back" link on the page to go back to the form and make changes.
When you are sure that your information is correct click on the "Buy this Membership" button PLEASE CLICK THIS BUTTON ONLY ONCE! The process of checking your credit card can take up to a minute or two depending on your connection speed and network traffic. Please be patient. Once your credit card has been verified an email receipt will be sent to you and the "Transaction Complete" page with your updated membership information will be displayed. If your card is declined for any reason, the order form will be displayed again along with the reason your card was declined.
Our site uses industry-leading partners for processing your credit card information. All transactions are handled by our secure server, ensuring your privacy. Your credit card information is encrypted and sent to our merchant account provider. We do not store your credit card information anywhere on our servers.
Redeeming an additional free listing
From time to time, we run special promotions so that our Trial Members can an additional FREE listing on our site. You will find instructions for earning these free listings on our free listing page. Some of these promotions will automatically email you a confirmation code. Others require that we send you a confirmation code within a few days. Confirmation codes can be redeemed on the welcome page after you log on. Enter the code into the code number field and click on the "Authorize my free listing" button. If you have any problem getting your free listing, send us your code in a feedback email message. Once you use your free listing code, that code cannot be used again.
Sending a blind box message
To maintain privacy, members may choose not to include any contact information in their listings. Similarly, a user may wish to contact a member without revealing their contact information. Our blind box feature is designed so that you can communicate annonomysly.
Note: We strongly urge you to make contact directly, as soon as possible and not rely on this feature as your main means of communication.
To send a blind box message click on the "Contact Using Blind Box" link at the bottom of the listing detail page. The blind box form will be displayed. Enter your message for the member along with your email address. If you are logged into the site your email address will automatically be filled in. Your email address WILL NOT be revealed to the person you are contacting. Click on the "submit" button to post the message.
- The member will receive an email alerting them to the fact that there is a message waiting for them on our site. This message will have further instructions and a link to view the message, as well as a message ID code.
- Clicking on the link in that email will display your message to the member.
- The member can then reply to your message.
Viewing and replying to a blind box message
You will get a message alert email from us informing you that you have a message waiting for you on our site. DO NOT REPLY TO THE EMAIL! Follow the instructions in the email to use the included link to view your message. If the person sending you the message included contact information please use that information for further correspondence with the other person. If there is no contact information, fill in the reply form and click the "submit" button. Once again, your email address will be hidden from the person you are posting a message to.
Notes: The messages you write using our blind box feature are not sent in email - instead they are saved on our site. You can view the contents of messages only by following the instructions in the message alert emails we send to you. All messages are coded with an expiration date. If you wait too long to view a message it will expire and the message will not be available again. The expiration date of messages is included in our message alert emails and also displayed when you are viewing a message on our site.