free roommate search
roommate cities roommate contracts
roommate rules
WHY find a roommate? add URL
roommate rants
roommate guidelines
questions to ask when looking for a roommate

(just click the question you'd like answered)

What IS roommateroommateroommate.com? (back)

A 100% free place to find a roommate. Free roommate search, browse roommate ads, look at rooms for rent, all features free, no charges anywhere, not even hidden away in the fine print. Even if you really wanted to, you can't give us your credit card number. We don't accept them. Not for anything.

What is roommateroommateroommate.com NOT? (back)

It's not an extremely structured, hold your hand type experience. It's a "free for all" roommate locator. You can place roommate ads, find rooms for rent, all for free, but your roommate ad will only be as good as YOU make it. It's like the "Roommates Wanted" classifieds section of a newspaper, except it's free, you can access it anywhere you can get on the 'net, you can get responses sent to you automatically, and you're not limited on word count.

But, to successfully find a roommate here will require a bit of thought, a bit of actual typing (in addition to mousing) and some ability to read and follow instructions.

For those looking for a more directed roommate search experience with an in-depth questionnaire covering all manner of relevant questions to ask when looking for a roommate, we can also recommend:

Roomie Match Roommates - Find a roommate - not just any roommate or the roommate from hell but the best possible one for you. Free Roommate Search/Cheap Roommate Search options - detailed roommate matching profiles with lifestyle and personality factors. US and Canada.

How do I use it? (back)

Here's the best way:

1. Register (please read our tips on registering)

2. Post your own roommate ad (how to do that)

3. Read through the other ads in the other topic area for your city (the folks you'd be looking for, right?) to see who interests you, then use their contact info to contact anyone of interest.

4. Click the "Watch this topic for replies" link at the bottom of the category of roommates that interest you most, so you can get notification via email when someone else posts an ad that might be of use to you in the future.

You are not required to register or place your own ad just to browse the ads of others and contact anyone of interest. However, other folks browsing won't know YOU are available as a roommate if you don't register and post yourself, so the "just browsing" option is much less efficient and effective. Both having your own ad and reading the ads of others would be the brightest way to go, especially if you're in anything close to a hurry. Up to you! And again, in case you didn't already notice, there's zero charge for absolutely everything here, so no worries there. But there are some commonsense requirements, please keep reading for those to avoid your ad getting deleted.

How do I register? (back)

Quite simply, you select your city, go the forum, click the "register" link in the top blue toolbar, then follow the instructions, but here are some tips to help make sure you succeed on your first try:

1. Have a valid and currently active email address before trying to register. In addition to just having the email address, you have to know what it is and be able to type it correctly, no typos. If you're not sure how to type your email address (not just your screen or user name or User ID, but the whole entire email address, we'd strongly recommend finding out before you try to register or post anything. (We know, many of you are saying, "Well, DUH!" but you might be surprised.) All email addresses contain an "@" sign and a period, and exceedingly few start with "www." (Those are URLs, people.)

2. Your email address must not only be valid in a general sense or be able to accept mail from some senders, but also specifically be able to accept mail from:

roommates@roommateroommateroommate.com

Most major email providers these days DO employ "spamblockers," and all of them make mistakes in blocking email from time to time (meaning, send email to a "Junk" folder when you really didn't consider it junk . . or just plain delete it for you entirely). No, we DON'T send spam, but any site that sends a lot of email gets spamblocked periodically due to email provider spam paranoia. Even if you're NOT AWARE you have any spamblocker active or don't recall requesting anything like that, most email providers do this by default and not necessarily with your permission.

So we strongly recommend placing:

roommates@roommateroommateroommate.com

on your "whitelist" (also known as Safe Sender List/Custom Sender List/Allowed Sender List/Address Book/Friends list/Buddy List) BEFORE trying to register. If you or your email provider has employed any form of spamblocker that rejects your validation email, you won't be able to finish registration and post here.

In addition, some email providers are now allowing an opt-in (at least, we think most are opt-in only??) process where users can require any new and not-as-yet-whitelisted sender get an email directing them to a website where they can type in digits/letters to "confirm their identity." We don't respond to those. It's all up to you on your end and your end alone to make sure you can get our email, or you won't be able to post here.

After you fill out the registration form, the forum will send you an email confirming your registration and requiring you to click on a weblink before you can post. This email should arrive within a few minutes. If you attempt to register and the email the forum sends to confirm gets blocked or rejected for any reason, you won't be able to confirm the validity of your email account by clicking on the weblink, and then you won't be able to place an ad. In addition, whitelisting is always a good idea because even if the initial email we send gets through, other stuff from the forum you may or may not elect to have sent (all up to you, more on that below) might not get through unless you whitelist us. We've found that some spamblockers will allow some but not all email from the forum to get through if left to their own devices, so you really do have to whitelist the email address above to make sure.

We've attempted to provide some more specific whitelisting instructions below for some of the more popular email services, but ultimately, figuring this out is up to YOU, since . . . you know, it's YOUR email account. If you don't already know, we'd recommend finding out anyway, because knowing how your email account works can't help but be a good thing for you for a wide variety of reasons. Instructions are readily available for that for most email accounts directly from your provider.

AOL - The easiest way is to put: roommates@roommateroommateroommate.com into your "Address Book." Click the icon for the Address Book at the top of the toolbar, click "Add Contact," then add that email address. Another way, if you're using the "Custom Sender List," is to add our email address to that. Activate the dropdown "Mail" menu up at the top, select "Mail Controls" (or click "Spam Controls" if you're not using the full AOL software but just a web browser), click "Custom Sender List," then add our email address to the list of approved senders. This, of course, only if you're using that list to ALLOW senders. If you're using it to BLOCK senders, adding us to that list obviously wouldn't help. In that same area, you also must NOT have checked "Allow mail only from AOL members," or you will NOT get our email. We're not on AOL.

If you attempted to sign up using an AOL email address previously, did not follow the instructions above, and still don't see the validation email in your inbox after several minutes or more . . . If you had checked "Blocked mail should be: Delivered to the Spam Folder" within your "Mail Controls," you should go check your Spam Folder, perhaps the email is in there. If you had "Blocked email should be: Permanently Deleted" or don't see anything in your Spam Folder even if you hadn't . . . looks like you're outta luck, pardner. Should have read the instructions! If you still want to place an ad here, you'll probably have to use another email address. Lucky for you AOL members get several, perhaps you'd like to use another one of those but make sure to follow the above instructions with that new email address BEFORE trying to register again. Good luck!

Gmail (Google) - Add: roommates@roommateroommateroommate.com to your "Contacts" list (clickable text links on the left). And that's all there is to that. If you didn't do this in advance, tried to register, and don't see your validation email after several minutes or more, check your Spam folder and use the interface to reidentify a message from us as Not Spam. If you leave messages from us in the Spam folder Google will conclude you want them there and will start deleting them automatically, which would end your roommate search prematurely.

HOTMAIL - Add roommates@roommateroommateroommate.com to your Safe List. When signed into your Mail area, click "Contacts" on the left clickable toolbar. Under the next list of "Contacts Options," click "Safe List." Add our email address to that list. If you already attempted to register without following these instructions first and have not yet received your validation email after several minutes or more, check your "Junk E-Mail Folder." If it's in there, use the interface to reidentify that as not spam or Hotmail will continue to send our messages there.

YAHOO - Add roommates@roommateroommateroommate.com to your Contacts List. When signed into your mail area, click "Addresses" on the top toolbar. Then click the "Add Contact" button, then fill out that screen (only the email address is necessary). Don't forget to click the Save button at the bottom. If you've attempted to register and have not yet received your validation email after several minutes or more, check your "Bulk" mail folder. If it's in there, use the interface to reidentify that as Not Spam or Yahoo will continue to send our messages there. In addition, we'd recommend adding our email address to your Address Book. Finally, Yahoo can be flaky, so if you register and also ask for forum notifications and/or others to email you and don't seem to be getting much/anything at all, check your Bulk folder periodically. All kinds of legitimate stuff can end up there.

ROCKETMAIL - Same as Yahoo (directly above).

NETSCAPE - When signed into the Mail area, add roommates@roommateroommateroommate.com to your Address Book. Click the icon for the Address Book at the top on the toolbar, click "Add Contact," then add our email address.

JUNO - When signed into your account using a browser, click the options button. On the Mail Options screen, click the Safe Lists link. Put roommates@roommateroommateroommate.com into the "Add Address to Safe List" box and click the Add button.

NETZERO - Same as Juno, directly above

EXCITE - When signed into your Mail area using a web browser, add roommates@roommateroommateroommate.com to your Safe List. Click "Mail Preferences" on the top RIGHT of the tool bar. Under the header, "SPAM Prevention Tools, " click "Safe List." Add the email address above into the box under "Add the email address . . . " then click the "Add" button.

LYCOS - When signed into your email account using a web browser, add roommates@roommateroommateroommate.com to your Sender White List. Click "Options" in the Mail toolbar. Under Mail Preferences click "Spam Filters." Click Sender White List. Put our email address into the box under "Type a single email address . . . . " and click the "Add" button.

OPERAMAIL - When signed into your email account using a web browser, add roommates@roommateroommateroommate.com into your mail filtering options. Click Options on the top toolbar. Click Mail Filters. Under Filter Incoming Mail go to your first available filter (Filter 1 if you've not used this feature before). Click the box next to Enable. Select the menus such that If: From equals, then enter our email address into that box. You can then click Move Up or Move Down (it really doesn't matter) but what does is that you make sure "then deliver to: is INBOX." Then don't forget to click the Update button at the bottom.

3. Before you attempt to register, you should make sure the email address you're going to use has PLENTY OF SPACE AVAILABLE. It's doubtful you're really sure of this unless you've logged onto that account very recently, we're recommend checking now first if you haven't already today or yesterday.

How do I post my own ad? (back)

1. First, you click "pick your city" or "all cities" in the toolbar to select yours.

2. Register using a good email address. (Please read our tips on registering first.)

3. Check your email for the confirmation email, confirm your email address, then log in to the board.

4. Within each city area, there are 2 categories:

"I need to find a roommate to move in with me."

AND

"I need to find a roommate AND a new place to live."

Pick the one that applies to YOU. If you have a place AND are open to moving as well, you can go back and pick the other too, but you'll get started by picking one that does apply. Again, you pick the one that applies to YOUR situation, not who you are looking to meet. You'll get a screen with some instructions. You hit the "reply" button to place your ad. Again, you have to register then log in before you can do this.

5. Then, we recommend you go back to the category area for your city and read through the ads in the category for the folks that should interest you. Meaning, if you're looking FOR a place, look at the ads placed by those that have one, and vice versa if you have the place to share. You do this by either hitting the back button on your browser to return to your main city area, or you can click "all cities" again within the forum, select yours, then click on the other category. Contact anyone that interests you using whatever contact info the author of the ad provided. This means you don't hit reply again in the forum to contact them, you contact them privately. This can mean sending them a Private Message on the forum, it just means don't place another public post by hitting reply on the main board just to contact one individual. That would clutter up the board in a hurry . . . no one else wants to read your response to another person in the forum, they only want to read ads from folks they could contact themselves.

6. Finally, you can click the "Watch this topic for replies" link at the bottom of the category(s) of roommates that interest you most, so you can get notification via email when someone else posts an ad that might be of use to you in the future.

Then you should be well on your way to finding a new roommate!

I tried to register, but I never got my validation email? (back)

If you tried to register and still haven't received your validation email after several minutes, check your Bulk/Junk/Suspect/Spam folder. In addition to following the instructions within that email, use the interface to reidentify that email as Not Spam or you risk other emails from us being deleted or lost. If it's been awhile and you still don't have your validation email, refer to the whitelisting instructions in "How do I register?" They might help. However, if you already tried to register but didn't follow the instructions regarding whitelisting first, were never able to find your validation email anywhere (meaning, your email provider blocked/deleted it entirely without your permission) . . . you'll probably have to try registering again with another email address. Make sure to read the instructions before trying again!

Other than the validation email, what else will you send to my email address as a result of registering here?

OR

Can I get notified via email when new people that might interest me show up? (back)

roommateroommateroommate.com will NOT send you anything other than the validation email required for registration (if you register) except what YOU choose. The folks at roommateroommateroommate.com will never via our own initiative send you any email other than that required for registration ever.

OK, just to make sure that's crystal clear, let's review that just one more time.

WE (as individuals, here at this site) will not CHOOSE to send you any email whatsoever, nor will we contact you via any other mechanism you may provide in your ad. Never. Never ever ever. Not never.

Nor will we ever sell or share your email address or any other contact info with anyone else. No one. Else. Ever. We promise.

But YOU have options about how/how not to get email from our forum automatically and/or personally from anyone else browsing it. First, if you post an ad, folks that read it and are interested may email you personally about your availability as a roommate and/or your room available (but that would be the point, right??). In addition to that, you can elect to have the forum send you email when there's a new ad posted in a category that interests you, to tell you when to go look. (Or, you can just drop by and look on your own whenever it strikes your fancy, the notification option is just a convenience for those that would like that.) You'd do that by clicking on the category you want to hear about, scrolling to the bottom, then clicking, "Watch this topic for replies." (you must register first to do this) Whether or not you choose to get any automatic notifications is UP TO YOU, the form CAN do it automatically, but only if YOU specifically request it. If you don't specifically request that notifications from the forum on some topic be sent, they won't. In addition, each email notification will also include a link to "stop notification" in that category, so whenever you're done looking for a roommate and/or just don't want to get the emails anymore, you can choose to do so. Finally, you can also choose to get a notification if anyone sends you a Private Message via the forum (by clicking the profile button, then clicking yes to "Notify on New Private Message." It's all up to you, you do that right on the forum.

We'd also recommend editing or deleting your post after you're no longer looking for a roommate so others looking won't continue to contact you. YOU are responsible for doing this. It would also be the considerate thing to do for other readers. Conversely, if your roommate search goes on for a while, longer than you thought it would, or longer than whatever date you may have posted in the ad, it would be a good idea to go edit/update your post to reflect the fact that it's still valid and you're still looking so folks won't assume your ad is out of date if it's not.

Will spammers get my email address as a result of registering/posting here? (back)

Registering for this forum and placing your own ad in and of itself will NOT expose you to spam, as long as you follow these simple instructions. When you place a post in this forum, your validated email address will ALREADY be attached to that automatically. Anyone interested in emailing you can click on the cute little email button that will be located right below your post to send you email. Your email address via that mechanism is hidden from spiders ("spambots") that harvest email addresses for spam. So, while we DO recommend you register for the forum with a valid email address you check regularly so folks can click on your email link to contact you, we do NOT recommend that you also type your email address into the message body of the ad itself. When you make a post (meaning, hit "post reply" in a category, then whatever you type into the "Message Body,") if you insist on typing your entire email address into that as well, spambots may find that. Plus, again, it's redundant to put it into the Message Body, as per the above. You can post here in a way that does NOT expose your email address to spambots, or you can ignore our instructions and do as you like. We're not going to police the posts on this particular variable . . . if you insist on typing your whole email address into the "Message Body," . . . you're on your own with the spam! But don't say we didn't warn you!

Other than my email address, what other personal contact info should I include in my ad? (back)

We would heartily recommend that in addition to your email address that's already embedded within your profile (as per the above), you only additionally post more anonymous contact info like your instant message ID's (if you use those), if anything else at all. We'd recommend that you use a post here as a way to INITIATE contact with potential new roommates in INITIALLY a more anonymous way, to correspond at least briefly with any person of interest via those more anonymous mechanisms to ascertain what you think of them, if the person in question is someone you think you'd like, whether they might be appropriate for what you're looking for, etc., and then meet them in public first at least once BEFORE you provde them with more personal contact info like your work or home phone or how to get to your house. We're pretty much recommending what we think most of your mommies would say, because hey, most of them probably know best. BUT, if you insist on posting your home address and a map to your house within the Message Body of your public post to anyone that wants to read it . . . since we're actually not your mommy, we're not going to stop you. Up to you, but word to the wise: You're an adult, your adult choices prevail in your own life, and you and you alone are responsible for them. We're not responsible for any outcome as a result of posting an ad here, you are.

What are the absolute posting rules to avoid my ad being deleted? (back)

By "absolute" we mean, if you don't follow at least these guidelines, we'll just delete your post, and you'll have wasted your own time. Let's not, ok?

Posts in the forum need to be about you and what YOU are looking for/hoping to find. Only place posts in the forum about YOU. This means that unless you're looking in more than one city or are open to having someone move in with you in addition to moving yourself, that would mean ONE AND ONLY ONE post per person per roommate search. If you read an ad and want to contact that person, contact them and do so PRIVATELY via whatever contact info they provided. Contacting them can include Private Messaging them within this forum, emailing them, sending them an instant message, or using any other means the provided in their ad. What it dos NOT mean is replying to them with an additional post in the forum itself asking them to contact you. YOU initiate contact to any authors of any ads that interest you, using the contact info provided. This is a consideration for others browsing the forum, no one wants to slog through private responses mean for only one person, they want to read about folks that need roommates to whom they could potentially respond.

This should really go without saying, but sometimes it doesn't, so here it is.

Posts need to be about FINDING ROOMMATES.

AND ONLY ABOUT FINDING ROOMMATES.

You are more than welcome to post all manner of personal info (well, MOST, see below) about yourself that a potential roommate might want to know, rather, you're encouraged to post anything like that. Interesting personality info, details about yourself and/or your place to share, the more the better! The more you let potential roommates get to know you via your post, the better. The more you let potential roommates get to know you via your post, the more they might actually want to do so in person. Set yourself apart. But, this is a forum for folks looking for ROOMMATES. It's not a forum for anything else. We don't wish to "Big Brother" you, but we also don't wish to let this useful forum become a waste of time for folks that are using it as directed. If you place an ad that sounds like something else, ANYTHING AT ALL NOT ON TOPIC, it will be deleted.

In addition to any other ad that's not on topic, that includes ads that are primarily sexual or romantic in nature. We are NOT a dating service, please don't be a total dork and try to use this as one anyway. By our definition, "roommate" does not equal sexual/romantic partner, long or short-term or anything else. We don't mean "roommate" in a cheap or cheesy X-rated "adult" movie way, we mean it in the more business-oriented financial arrangement way. Despite whatever open-mindedness you may feel as to how your roommate relationship(s) may ultimately turn out, if you're primarily thinking of roommate as a euphemism for something you're hoping will be more than "just friends" at the outset, hoping for a live in/sexual/romantic/whatever-along-those-lines, that's going to be completely uncool. Please don't post some thinly disguised request for sexual contact as a "roommate" situation, that's going to be completely uncool too. There are a kawillion other sites out there that actually ARE specifically designed for sex/romance/hookups, please go patronize one of those instead. If we see an ad that isn't mostly about finding a roommate or is inappropriately sexual in nature in addition to that, we will delete it. We won't ask you about it, we won't request additional clarification, we won't give you notice, we will just delete it. If you persist in posting inappropriately, we will ban your IP and report you to your service provider. Please don't waste your time and ours with that tacky nonsense.

URLs - Along the lines of the above, only post links that are "personal" type pages about yourself and/or about the place you have to share with a roommate. Links providing maps to your location are allowed, but we'd recommend that if you use one of those, that you make the location NOT your actual home address but just your general area of town or neighborhood (see the section on personal contact info and privacy above). This is not a place to promote a business or any other URLs, it's only a place to promote yourself as a potential roommate. Any other URL will be deleted from your ad, except that posted links containing nudity (see guidelines above) will cause your whole ad to be deleted.

What are the ad posting recommendations? (back)

You don't have to be interesting or descriptive. You don't have to provide any cool details about yourself, what your interests are, what you like, what you don't like, the unique ways that you are actually an individual. You don't have to tell anyone about how you would be a great roommate . . . or at least, a non-offensive one. You don't have to tell anyone why it is they'd want to live with you or at least accept living with you rather than the hundreds of other folk they could potentially pick. You don't have to provide any encouraging or attractive details about the place you have to share, or why it is that anyone would want to live in your particular residence. You don't have to provide practical details about cost, location, how much you can afford, amenities. No, you don't HAVE to do any of that.

But no one else HAS to respond to you, either.

This is a freeform situation, folks. The upside to this service is that all options and all uses are entirely free. The downside is that no one is holding your hand or directing your experience in a very structured way, it can only be what you make it. But, to the extent you fail to actively explain why anyone in their right mind would want to choose you and/or your place for their lifestyle, they probably won't. If you don't take a few minutes of your time to tell someone why they might want to reply to you, you're not providing any readers any motivation to take a few minutes of theirs to do so.

Here are some suggested topics to get your mental ball rolling. But if you don't like these, feel free to make up some of your own, instead of/in addition to our suggestions. It's YOUR ad. Do as you like . . . as long as it's all about the roommates and not violating the guidelines above, you should be fine.

  • Where exactly in your city do you live/want to live?
  • Maximum rent you can pay/rent to be charged
  • Deposits required
  • Typical Utility Costs
  • Proximity to Public Transport (if available)
  • How many roommates will be in the household
  • Desired Duration of roommate experience
  • Handicapped Accessibility/Need
  • Is a credit report required/do you have good credit?
  • Your gender/preferred gender of roommates
  • Your sexual orientation/preferred sexual orientation of roommates
  • Your age/preferred age range of roommates
  • Parking needed/available
  • Number of bathrooms
  • Current furnishings/furnishings you want to bring
  • Thoughts on politics/party and/or cause affiliations
  • Household cleaning preferences
  • Noise-Music preferences
  • Smoking
  • Typical Sleep Schedule during the week and then on the weekend
  • Pets (do you have, do you tolerate, are they allowed?)
  • Alcohol/Drugs
  • Preferred Diet/Dietary Restrictions
  • Amenities available
  • Thoughts on household clutter
  • Your status re: significant others/girlfriend(s)/boyfriend(s)/will they be coming over
  • Children (do you have, do you tolerate well in household, how frequently?)
  • Attitude toward other guests, parties, etc.
  • Your important or defining personality characteristics
  • What you'd love in a roommate
  • What you'd hate in a roommate
  • Something that would make you FLEE a roommate situation
  • Why you're looking for a roommate right now
  • How would your last roommate describe you?
  • What happened the last time you had a roommate (if applicable)
  • Anything of importance to you here
  • Or here
  • Or here

What about profanity? (back)

We don't really recommend it. It makes a bad first impression on some people, and if you make a bad first impression with your ad, your response rate and ultimate ability to find roommates in a timely fashion will probably suffer accordingly. We do think profanity has its limited place in life, usually in expressing oneself in extreme situations or sexual situations. However, if you think your roommate ad should constitute one of those, you are probably not following our guidelines and your ad will almost certainly be deleted. We won't delete your ad for small amounts of profanity, but if your ad is just chock full of four letter words to the point of sounding so ridiculous we think it's a waste of time for other readers, we'll probably delete it.

Can I post photos of myself and/or the place I have to offer within my ad? (back)

Yes, you can! you have 3 options, or, if you like, you can even do more than one:

1. Upload a picture as an avatar. (An avatar is a picture that will appear next to your User ID next to your post in the forum, after you make one.) You can do that within your profile on the forum, click profile in the menu bar, go there and follow the instructions. You can upload an avatar directly to the site, it doesn't need to be already anyplace else on the web. However, there are size restrictions for avatar posting, the restrictions are below. If you attempt to upload a photo as an avatar that does not conform to these requirements, it just won't display. You might want to check and make sure yours did, by checking next to a post you made, looking to see if you see your picture there. If you don't see it, no one else will either, please try again.

1. a maximum of 160 pixels (px) width (can be less)

2. a maximum of 160 pixels (px) height (can be less)

3. maximum file size of the picture 10K or less

For a visual reference, the square below is the maximum size. Your photo can be smaller than that, but it cannot be larger. This means if the photo you want to use is bigger than that, it won't display as it, you'll need to resize it, either by hacking off part of it (cropping) and/or shrinking it (perhaps by saving a copy of the photo as a percentage of its original size). The image you select/create does not need to be a perfect square, but a square that's exactly 160px x 160px would maximize the use of the available space.

2. For those that have a picture already uploaded to the internet somewhere else on its own URL, you can place that URL within the image (img) tags available within the Message Body area when you're placing/editing a post. This will cause that image to be displayed within your actual post, without requiring the reader to click elsewhere. However, just like the avatar option above, we'd recommend going back and viewing your post to make sure it worked. If you don't see your intended image displayed, no one else will either, please try again.

3. You can also just place a URL within your post using those tags (url) to tell others to go there if they'd like to view those pictures.

Nude photos are not welcome and any posting or referencing of such will result in the deletion of your entire ad, not just the photo. By "nude" we mean anything that couldn't appear in a PG movie. We're not prudes, but we don't require consent to possibly view photos of an "adult nature" prior to entering this forum, so it would be extremely rude to surprise anyone who didn't consent with some of those sort of photos anyway. Please don't be extremely rude. Please see the "absolute posting guidelines" above for more clarification on the differences between a dating service and this forum.

I requested notification via email when someone posted a new ad in my area by clicking on, "Watch this topic for replies." However, I'm noticing that new posts have since been placed but I didn't get notified. What happened? (back)

There are a few different ways that can get messed up. First, make sure you have our email address whitelisted. See the question, "How do I register?" in this same FAQ for complete instructions on whitelisting. Second, the forum will send one notification per topic that you've asked to watch. It has a link to click to go right to the area. However, if you don't get the email (either due to a lack of whitelisting or inadequate space in your email account), and thus don't click on the link, the forum will assume you're no longer interested and stop sending them. In other words, you have to continuously be able to receive email in general (space wise), email from us (via whitelisting), and keep clicking on the link, or the notifications stop coming. If that's the case for you but you're still interested, make sure you have everything under control on your end with regard to whitelisting and space available in your email account. Then go back and click the Watch link in your area to re-request notification.

I requested notification via email when someone posted a new ad in my area. I received notification, clicked on the link, but either am seeing nothing new posted or got an, "This topic does not exist" error. What's up with that? (back)

Probably some complete and total wanker posted something inappropriate to your area, then we saw it, and deleted the off topic babble. We apologize for the inconvenience. Really, the wanker is the one that should be apologizing, but complete and total wankers hardly ever do, so we'll apologize for them.

Why can't I log in? (back)

Have you registered? First you have to register. Second, have you been banned? If you didn't follow the rest of the instructions on this page, you might have been, but a message will be displayed on attempted log in if you have. If not, then doublecheck your user name and password. If the problem is that you forgot your password, follow the instructions in the log in area to reset it. Again, you have to have space available in your email account to do this.

Why do I get logged off automatically? (back)

If you do not check the Log me in automatically box when you log in, the board will only keep you logged in for a preset time. This prevents misuse of your account by anyone else. To stay logged in, check the box during login. This is not recommended if you access the board from a shared computer, e.g., library, internet cafe, university cluster, etc.

I've lost my password! (back)

Don't panic! While your password cannot be retrieved, it can be reset. To do this go to the login page and click "I've forgotten my password." Follow those instructions.

I registered but cannot log in. (back)

Make sure you are entering the correct username and password. If they are correct, does your account need activating? Accounts aren't activated until you click a link in the email sent to you right after registering. You need to find that email and follow the instructions within it before you will be allowed to log in.

How do I change my settings? (back)

Click the profile link in the toolbar. Follow the instructions.

Can I use HTML formatting in my post? (back)

Some formatting of your post is possible via the tags provided in the message body area. However, additional HTML above and beyond the tags provided is not allowed, because it could mess with the structure of the board. If you attempt to insert some anyway, it will just be displayed as gibberish.

I'm trying to send Private Messages and it's not working. (back)

You have to register first, then you have to be logged in. If you've successfully done both those things you should be able to message.

I received a spamming or abusive email from someone on this board. (back)

We are sorry to hear that. The email form feature of this board includes safeguards to try to track users who send such posts. You should message the board administrator with a full copy of the email you received and it is very important this include the headers (these list details of the user that sent the email). If you're aware the sender also has an ad active here, let administration know that as well. They can then take action.

Legal Stuff (back)

In using this site you agree not to hold its authors responsible for anything at all. We hope this forum will be a useful tool for you, but as an adult, it's up to you to make your own adult decisions about what to do with any information within, and you accept your very own adult consequences for those decisions. We do not recommend or endorse any user of this board as necessarily a fine roommate (although we certainly hope they shall be).