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FAQ home page
This section is the FAQ for questions about the doghouse operation - not SM dog training which is covered in another section. Click here to be taken to that section.

The typical user of this sub site is thedoghouse itself when it calls pages in response to situations. This allows a consistent error reporting & explanation pattern as well as putting all members communications in one place.
The links to the left will take you further in to the FAQ site - the links below are an overview.
 FAQ
What is a Doghouse Registration?
What are the benefits of having a TheDoghouse login?
What is authentication? Why has my logon disappeared?
What are the rules for specifying an Doghouse ID?
Why can't I edit my Doghouse ID?
What if I can't sign in with my current Doghouse ID?
What are the rules for specifying an Doghouse ID for those prompted to register again?
What is email authentication? Why has my logon disappeared?
What are the rules for specifying a password?
What is the difference between Personals and Profiles?
Why all the need for specifying a state/timezone/country code?
Can I use my new Doghouse UserID immediately after I register?
What is the language preference option used for?
How can I report a problem encountered while using the TheDoghouse Registration functions?
What should I do if I forget my Doghouse ID or password?
How will TheDoghouse use my personal information?
How will TheDoghouse assure privacy and security of my information?
Why can I not access WOOF!
Why use icons versa text?
How do I submit, view and manage profile information about myself? Using the profile summary?
WHAT THE FUCK IS TAKING SO LONG TO APPROVE ME?
What if I have More Questions or Suggestions?
I'm Lost!  Is there a tour guide or a User Guide for this site?
Will I get Spam if I give you my real email address and real name?
What is TheDoghouse Registration?
A central location for user information used throughout The Doghouse web sites - ie your logon information is stored in a database, it allows you to interact with the doghouse applications and be a participant. When thedoghouse moves over to using MS Passport you can use your MSN logon to connect to the site transparently.
Without it you are a visitor and just an observer.
More...

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What are the benefits of having an Doghouse Login ID?
Your Doghouse Registration ID is your single point of access to the many web applications that use a logon process for user authentication.  You need just one Userid and one Password to access any Doghouse Registration based application. Furthermore, your information is centralized so you can update it in a convenient and secure location. The benefits of having an Doghouse Registration ID will increase over time as more and more Doghouse applications and websites migrate to single point authentication. Which means enter it in one place and it is applicable everywhere - nothing to get out of sync.
More...

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What is email authentication? Why has my logon disappeared?
  • A email address with be authenticated. That means software will keep testing your email account, if it comes back as 'bad' you will be sent an email to get it re-authenticated. 
     
  • Anti Spam
    Equally from time to time on this site tests will happen to see if a human is accessing the site or a spam engine - steps are therefore taken to save needless proliferation of information.
     
  • It can be possible that you consider mail from the doghouse spam and have blocked it. One of those blocked email was the one telling your account was to be deleted if you did not respond.
     
  • You might not have responded because your yahoo/hotmail account is over quota. A Google Email account (gmail) has all the usual web mail features but with so much space it would be hard to be over 'quota'.
     
  • If your account is deemed as 'abandoned' then your account will be destroyed. If you are a subscriber and have paid, then it will be destroyed after your expiry date.
     
  • If you logon and have a flagged bad email you will get nagging messages requesting you to verify your email.

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What does  Doghouse UserID look like?
You can logon to your site using either your username or your email address.
A userid cannot contain "@" and an email must contain "@" .
  • An email must contain an '@' character that separates the user and domain values (example: lorem@ipsum.com) and must be composed of at least two sub-domains separated by a '.' (example: thedoghouse.org)
  • A Userid must not contain an '@' character.
  • Must be no longer than 50 characters.
  • Should not contain spaces as that may have unpredictable results when you use the doghouse.

Composition:

  • it may contain numbers (0-9), upper and lower case letters (A-Z, a-z), hyphens (-), underscore (_) and periods (.), !, #, $, %, &, ', +, /, =, ?, [, ], ^, `, {, |, }, ~
  • they cannot contain any spaces, backslash (\), colon (:), double-quote ("), semicolon (;), comma (,), less than (<) and the greater than (>) characters, parentheses("(", ")"), asterisks("*")  or "@" as that will be understood to be you using your email address to log in with.

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Can I  edit my Doghouse ID?
Your Doghouse ID is the unique identifier for your Doghouse profile, so as you update your password-protected information, it always remains constant. Even if you edit your email address, it won't affect the Doghouse ID you assigned to your profile. The benefit of this is that emails addresses come and go but but your nickname, your userid is constant. The snag comes when your nickname is "pup" and you have to choose "pup00001" or something less memorable. This is where choosing to login using your email address would suit.
There are no plans to reuse Profile names as this would affect historical messages, You would not want the messages in your inbox suddenly disappearing.

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What if I can't sign in with my current Doghouse ID?
  • If there is a problem in the construction of your userid or password - then it might not be acceptable to logon. You might then need to change your password or contact support.
     
  • It could be because your account have been deleted because your account was deemed abandoned.
     
  • A mouse over tool tip will tell you if you can use your email address instead of your userid.

     
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What are the rules for specifying an UserID?
 
  • must be only single-byte characters, eg English text..
  • should be at least 3 characters long.
  • must not be longer than 50 characters
  • cannot contain any spaces
  • the cannot be previously used - that is in use by someone else already, as you will get an error message to that effect.
  • can contain only numbers (0-9), upper and lower case letters (A-Z, a-z), hyphens (-), underscore (_), and periods (.)
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What are the rules for specifying a password?
  • must be only single-byte characters
  • Your password is case-sensitive. When you log on you will have to enter your password exactly as you enter it here
  • must be at least 8 characters long
  • must not be longer than 50 characters
  • cannot contain any spaces, and can contain only numbers (0-9), upper and lower case letters (A-Z, a-z), hyphens (-), underscore (_), periods (.), and the @ character
  • cannot contain the your UserID
  • cannot contain the existing password, when changing password
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What is the difference between Personals and Profiles?
  • Personal Ads - are the result of submitting a JOINING form. This process has changed little since the site opened in 1995 and resulted in your advert being placed in many listing. This is designed highly searchable via Google so the chances of being found by someone looking for that special Master is very easy. The down side is that this is a list of the full advert, not a pointer to it so some pages can take a long time to load .
     
  • Profiles - are automatically generated when you fill out a joining form. Profiles are the contents of database queries and this is common an all dynamic contacts websites such as the gaydar/recon versions. In this instance they are not to be consumed by search engines but by logged in members and the results of a search just produces a list of pointers to profiles. This means that they can be much quicker to load as you are getting small amounts of date each time.
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Why all the need for specifying a state/timezone/country code/Phone codes?
  • Simply put this helps in locating your tiny advert and profile in the haystack of the web.
    With the advent of GIGO the more inaccuracies there are in your profile or advert.
     
  • Wherever possible a pull down list will be used.
    Where possible the lists would be restricted to relevant areas - For example there is not state of "New York" in the UK and the UK does not have time zones commonly associated with the United States.
  • Likewise some counties don't have states but regions. Please avoid 'Unknown' as there are regions such as:
    EMEA - Europe, Middle East and Africa.
    FE/Pacific  - The far East + Pacific  as well as territories such as:
    NSW - New South Wales
    EC - The  EU Community.

     
  • Free form text where you describe your district  your are relating this to someone who knows your city. So post codes or metro lines are of use.
     
  • The telephone area code is used to group adverts and find people in that same area.
    It is a safe bet that someone in New York City (Queens), NY with an area dial code of 718 would recognise the area dial code  of 212 for New York City(Manhattan), NY.
    Likewise if you are just outside a major area like '718' you might want to group yourself in with all the others there rather than be all on your own with a code no one has heard of.
     
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Can I use my new Doghouse UserID immediately after I register?
For most case the account creation is immediate.
If there is a problem with your email or other details you may be asked to re-enter the data.
There may be a delay of up to fifteen minutes before you will be able to use your Doghouse ID.
 
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What is the language preference option used for?
The primary language of the Doghouse is English.
However, certain TheDoghouse applications will ask for a language preference. If an application requests a language preference during registration, the application will attempt to use the language you specify in future communications (mailings, e-mail etc.).
It also allows other members who do not speak English so good to search out adverts in their native language - one you might speak.
 
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How can I report a problem encountered while using the TheDoghouse
Registration functions?

You can report a problem by mailing the support help desk.
 
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What should I do if I forget my Doghouse ID or Password?
You may reset your password by using the "Forgot Password" option on the TheDoghouse Registration web site.
Wherever possible, each logon situation will offer you a choice/advice if you had a problem logging on.
If you need assistance regarding a forgotten Doghouse ID, please contact the TheDoghouse Registration help desk.
 
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How will TheDoghouse use my personal information?
How will TheDoghouse assure privacy and security of my information?

We know that you are concerned about your privacy; so is the doghouse.
If you provide TheDoghouse with information about yourself, such as name, postal address, e-mail address, or other personal data, we may add it to our records. From time to time you may receive information about our products, services, activities, newsletters, your customised alerts or contacts for other members purposes, unless you specify that you do not wish to be contacted by selecting such options in your account settings. 

However if you were to opt-out of an alert telling you your account was to be destroyed unless you take some action, or that you have advert replies waiting that is your choice.

privacy and security
We have a fully developed privacy policy - which is both browser readable (
Your Data in the browsers privacy report for that URL) and has a standard web page.

To learn more, you can read about the doghouse's general Internet privacy practices.
Our privacy practices are designed to provide a high level of protection for your personal data, all over the world.

More...

Why profile without registering?
Set up and manage preferences and interests to tailor thedoghouse.org content to suit your specific members needs without registering. If you choose to register later, the preferences and interests that you've already set will be automatically associated with your new registration settings and saved behind this user id and password. When you register, you can also choose not to associate your preferences and interests with your id and password.
Much of this takes the form of cookies and session inspection which is aimed at enhancing the user experience.

More...

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Why can I not access WOOF!
The woof chatrooms require that your email be authenticated. This can result in a time delay. However once you have created you account and changed your password via email you would have authenticated you email and your WOOF account is synchronized.
 
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Why use icons versa text?
Well the idea is that a picture can tell a 1000 words - as long as they are the right words then that is cool.
Love them or loath them over 98% of the people that access this site use MSIE and a few more use a computer at work or at home running Microsoft products. So where possible we use icons that they use for the same thing they use. So if the site has a 'Nasty Microsoft' feel to it then it because even if you dislike it you know what that button does.  Otherwise I could have done something arty in FlashMX and only clicking it would you know what happens -  like do you want to discover that the air bag in your car does something arty in a crash rather than saving your life :) Equally I am a ludite and having been programming since 1977 I am used to only using a keyboard :)  So as a techy I like the load time of 5 bytes of text "^ top" to maybe  15kb extra for a small icon.

More...System Icons
More...Chat Smile's
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How do I submit, view and manage profile information about myself?
Using the profile summary

When you answer questions about yourself, your preferences and interests around thedoghouse.org, we'll collect this information implicitly and store it in a profile if cookies are enabled on your browser. Alternatively, you can submit information directly to the profile through the profile summary. In either case, you can return to your profile to view, manage and add to your stored profile information.

Update my personal info
View, update or add to any personal contact details or registration settings information, once you've registered and signed in.
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"WHAT THE FUCK IS TAKING SO LONG TO APPROVE ME?
AND DO YOU EVER ANSWER YOURE E-MAILS?"

Though not a frequently asked question it did surprise me as email I get from you guys are very positive. However,  emails hit my inbox at a few hundred a day so it might take more than a day or two to respond.
There are progressive plans to automate as much as possible on the doghouse.

Who to reply to first?
Subscribers get a higher priority service than guest visitors. Also if you use one email address for a correspondence and switch to another I have no way of knowing you are actually the same person even if it is perfectly clear to you.
What sort of email?
Please put something in the subject line that is related to your question.
Please do not include any unexpected attachments that are not "JPG or GIF" anything else would have to be filtered and that affords a spam/virus scan delay.
No good with Computers?
There are some expectations about users in the internet. One of them is that they know how to use a computer so a trip down PC World or Best Buy would not hurt in getting free advice or a starter book.
 
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What if I have More Questions or Suggestions?
These are most frequent questions as well as ones that you might ask.
There are other pages here, these are just some of the questions.

You can email for other comments or suggestions

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Im Lost! Is there a tour guide or a User Guide for this site?
There are not that many sites that have a user guide for it as that is part of the joy of explorations!
There is a newsletter that tells you about new features and other content.
  • There is The Doghouse Insider which has hints and tips of the day that are there to advise you.
  • There are site maps such as the one for the adverts.
  • There is further development planned in this area.

 

Will I get Spam if I give you my real email address and real name?
Before you enter data into a website you might want to do a Google search on your name "john doe" and on your email address just to see how far it has reached on the net.

It is unadvisable you use your mothers email or works email as you might find it uncomfortable if coming out to these people. Further most employers spy on employees email anyway - they are paying you to work not to surf the web.

However we need an email address that you respond to and a name you preferred to be called by, even if its "Master joe".

We operate spam interception which requires human authentication. This means that if you send us an email you will get one back that you have to follow the instructions to allow your mails to get through. These are things that Viruses and spammers tend not to bother with.

We will not spam you and we are would make the communication system consensual as we dont like spam either. 


I know this is not everything, its a start and you can tell me what is missing.

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Version 1.2 2006-06-30 22:11 +0100