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 Penpals for friendship or romance! |
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When did CliquePals become CliqueFriends? During August, 2003, we began using our company name to better identify our service. During the transition, you may see references to both names. How current are the CliqueFriends Listings? We pride ourselves in having the most current list of members in the business. We 'clean' our membership lists daily and remove Listings of people that have not sent a new note to another member during the prior 30 days. This leaves only the truly interested CliqueFriends in our Listings. Do I have to reveal my E-mail address or set up another E-mail address? No, because CliqueFriends uses CliqueMail to deliver its messages. CliqueMail allows you to create a note on our web site and then have it sent to a CliqueFriends participant. Neither you nor the recipient sees any E-mail addresses except your own (unless of course you put it in the body of the note or if we determine that you are using CliqueMail to 'spam' our members). How do I know I have CliqueMail from another CliqueFriends participant? CliqueMail is delivered directly to the E-mail account you registered with. Presumably, this is your regular, personal E-mail account. To reply to a note, you simply click on or copy and paste the link provided in that note to reach the CliqueMail send screen. Are there other benefits to becoming a CliqueFriends participant? Yes! We also operate an active chat room for serious-minded adults that like to meet new friends and have pleasant, fun conversations. Our innovative photo chat room makes it seem like you're really spending a night out with others. Give it a try by selecting the "Chat" option. (Our regular crowd attends the chat room between 9 pm and midnight Eastern time.) |
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| Joining | |
Is there a charge to use CliqueFriends? No, CliqueFriends is FREE. Our only requirements are that (i) you are at least 18 years of age, (ii) the notes you send through the CliqueMail system be personal, non-commercial in nature and meet CliqueFriends' "family-friendly" guidelines, and (iii) that you send a CliqueMail note to another CliqueFriends participant at least once every 30 days. As a FREE member, you may:
Premium CliqueFriends have access to additional features. Follow this link to learn more about being a Premium member. Do I need to be a member to use CliqueFriends? You may search our listings without joining, but you must join (as a FREE or Premium member) to send an E-mail to a CliqueFriends participant and to use the CliqueFriends chat room. How do I join? It is a simple two step process. Click on the Join button and you will be taken to a page where you will enter some basic profile information (first name, age, gender, E-mail address, and a Member ID that you create. Within a few moments, you will receive a confirmation note sent to the E-mail address you submitted. Once you receive your confirmation note, return to our web site, click on "My Account" and enter your new Member ID and password. You can enter the criteria to be used to filter Pals (gender, age range, country, and membership level), and you may indicate the things that you like, up to 10 items in each of three interest categories (attend, hobbies, and participate in). Click on the "Save" button at the bottom of the page and your Listing will now be immediately available on the "Search" page. Why should I upload a picture of myself? Pictures are not required and may only be posted by FREE members seeking "Friendship and Romance" or by Premium member members. However, we have found that in general, people with pictures receive considerably more responses than people without. I signed up but I never got a password. What can I do? There may be a delay in the Internet mail system, you may have typed in your E-mail address incorrectly, or your mail system may not be compatible with our CliqueMail. Try going to the "My Account" page and click on the words "Lost Password? Click here" that appear to the right of the password login box. If you Member ID is not found, you will need to sign up again. If your E-mail address is found, your password will be sent to you at that E-mail address. If you do not receive this E-mail within a few minutes, then there may be problems with your E-mail system or your E-mail system does not accept system generated mail. If you are unable to receive the password note, then you will (unfortunately!) be unable to use CliqueFriends. Why does 'New Name' appear in my listing instead of my name? Our program automatically filters all first names. If your name is unusual and does not appear on our list of 7000+ names, we will substitute 'New Name' until we have had a chance to review and approve it, at which time we will update your Listing. Or, you may submit a different name by going to 'Your Listing.' Once you have an accepted name, it cannot be changed. What format should the picture be in? Pictures must in JPEG (*.jpg) format. All others will be rejected. Why doesn't my picture appear with my listing? There is usually a delay of 24 to 72 hours while we process your picture. In the meantime, you will see the "no pic" symbol in place of your picture. |
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| Using CliqueFriends | |
How do I find someone to be my pen pal? You can locate pen pals (we call them "CliqueFriends") by clicking on the SEARCH button on the home page. You will see a list of members that have joined within the last 24 hours and a list of featured members. You may click on the country link of any of these or you may enter at the top of the screen the country, gender, and whether a photo is required and press QUERY. Either way, you will be taken to a list showing the profile information for people in that country. How do I E-mail a member I have found? To send the note, first verify that you meet their Pal criteria, which appears beside their picture. "M" stands for male and "F" stands for female; numbers indicate the age range. For example, "M 30-99" means that the person will only accept mail from a Male who is between the ages of 30 and 99 (the system will reject all other notes unless you are replying to a note that they sent you). To write a note, click on the words "Click to E-mail...." How can I restrict who can send me mail? You may establish your Pal criteria by going to "My Account." There you will find the ability to indicate the gender, age range, country ('All countries', 'US & Canada,' 'Far East,' or 'US, Canada, & Far East'), and membership level of people that you would like to be your CliqueFriends (beside the selection box is a link to take you to a list of countries included in 'Far East.'). A member who wishes to contact you must meet these criteria to send you mail; however, these criteria do not apply to someone who is replying to a note that you sent to them. How do I receive mail? When someone sends a note to you, our server will automatically forward the note to the E-mail address you registered with. You will also find a copy in your Diary. To access your Diary, sign in to the "My Account" page and then click on the "Diary" tab. What happens if my E-mail mail box is full? This is a bad thing! If your mailbox is full, notes sent to you will be lost. Furthermore, we will, in most cases, suspend or cancel your participation in CliqueFriends out of fairness to other members who notes to you would otherwise be left undelivered. How do I respond to a note? Why is my mail being rejected? To reply to a note, you must click on the link that appears at the bottom of the note that you receive. If the link does not work for you, you should copy it and paste it into a new browser window. Either way, it will take you to a web page where you can send your reply. If you try to "REPLY" using your regular E-mail program, you are sending the notes to our mail server, which has not a clue as to who it should deliver it to and thus rejects the note. By using the link, our web site can properly send the note. Why am I getting no response from my mail? There are a number of reasons: - If you are responding to a note, make sure that you use the "Reply" link at the bottom of the note that you received. Otherwise, we cannot deliver your answer. - Make sure you use- Sometimes, people let their mailbox fill up and so they can no longer receive mail. In that case, your message will be lost. - The other person may not check his mail every day. - Or, some people get a lot of mail and they may not be persuaded to respond to yours. Here are some suggestions: 1. Add a picture to your Listing because people prefer to have an image of who they are writing to. Make it a clean-cut happy looking picture. To add a picture, sign in to "My Account" and click on the "Photo" tab. 2. What message are you sending when you write people? Try something this is short, cheery, and non-personal. For example: Hi xxxx my name is Jacob and I saw your Listing. I've never been to yyyyy. What's it like living there? ...That might sound like a dumb note to write, but give it a try. Its always best if you leave them with a simple question that they can respond to. 3. It's all about numbers. Send a lot of notes (you can send up to 5 new notes a day and an unlimited number of replies). Think about how many people you pass on the street without making a connection with them...this is no different. Keep an eye on the first Search screen and E-mail the new people...it changes constantly so keep a close watch on it. 4. Finally, do not get discouraged. We add about 20-30 new people a day. When do you erase Diary entries? The system automatically erases inactive conversations from your Diary any time there are no new notes posted to a diary during a 15 day period (60 days if one of the parties is a Premium member). Can you find me some CliqueFriends? CliqueFriends is "self service," which means that you have to find your own CliqueFriends. We do not arrange introductions. Try going to the Search page and looking for perspective CliqueFriends there, and then send a few notes. Or, try stopping by our chat room web site. I lost contact with my friend...please help! Sorry, but we do not keep track of your correspondence, so we do not know who wrote you. Our best suggestion is to try to find them in the Search pages. My friend disappeared. Why? Some people voluntarily leave the program. Others are removed by us because their mail box is consistently full or their E-mail address has become invalid. Still others are not active. We purge the data base every day and remove about 10-15 people each day in order to make sure that our Listings are current. |
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| Premium Members | |
You may upgrade from your Free membership to Premium membership for $6.95 (USD) for 30 days, $11.95 for 60 days, or $15.95 for 90 days. Premium memberships do not automatically renew, but instead revert to regular FREE memberships at their expiration. Premium CliqueFriends get these extra benefits:
You may pay by credit card, Paypal, or US money order. Money collected through Premium memberships is used to support and promote CliqueFriends. |
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| Changing, Suspending, or Deleting your Listing | |
My gender is wrong; how do I change it? Go to "My Account" and select the "Listing" tab. How can I change my password? Go to "My Account" and enter your new password. Passwords must be 8 characters or less. I have a new E-mail address. How do I update it? Go to "My Account" and enter your new E-mail address under the "Mail" tab. Once you save the page, the change is immediate and a note will be sent to the new address you provide. If you do not receive this note within 30 minutes, please try a different address since not all mail systems accept mail from our server. If your address is wrong or your mail system cannot receive our mail, you will never receive any replies to your notes to other members and your account will be cancelled, so it is very important that you enter the correct address and make sure you receive a confirmation note from us. Please note: addresses cannot exceed 40 characters in length and we keep a record of all address changes. Help! I'm getting too many letters! If you find that you cannot keep up with the number of letters you are receiving, you have two choices. First, you can use the Pal criteria on the "Mail" tab of the "My Account" page to limit new notes to people of a certain gender, age range, country, and/or membership level. Secondly, you can suspend your Listing by going to the "Mail" tab of the "My Account" page, clicking 'Suspend' option of 'Status,' and then saving the change. Once you are ready to find new CliqueFriends, simply change your status back to 'Accept Mail,' and then CliqueFriends will be able to send you CliqueMail by clicking on your Listing. Please note that you cannot use the Search screen to send CliqueMail while your Listing is suspended; you may, however, continue to use CliqueMail to reply to notes from other CliqueFriends. I'm a very active person and engage in more than 10 sports. Why can't a list them all? In order to make sure people don't simply check all the boxes, we have limited each category (attend, hobbies, and participate in) to 10 items. If you have more than 10 items for any one category, please pick the 10 most important to you. Can I add or change my picture? If you are a Premium member, you may. To change your picture, signin on to the "My Account" page and select the "Photo" tab. There you will find directions. There may be a fee for changing pictures -- see that page for more information. Okay, I guess I made a mistake and penpaling isn't for me. What do I do? First of all, we're sorry to hear it didn't work out, but we understand that sending notes back and forth isn't for everyone. To remove yourself, sign in to the "My Account" page, and at the bottom of the "Account" page check the 'Remove me permanently...' box and click "Save.". Your Listing will be removed immediately and you will be removed from our mailing list. If you signed up for the CliqueFriends newsletter, you will need to remove yourself from the newsletter by following the procedure found at the bottom of each newsletter. |
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| Use the Notify Feature to Meet Our Newest Members | |
You can have our system notify you automatically anytime a new member joins that meets your notification criteria. Simply sign in to the "My Account" page, click on the "Mail" tab, and complete the 'Notify' section at the bottom. The information you enter is activated as soon as you click on the "save" button. The next time someone joins who meets your criteria, a note will be sent to your E-mail. Because there is a delay between initial registeration and posting of pictures, a photo of the new member may appear in the Listing at our web site but not in the notification note you receive. If a new member has specified Pal criteria that you do not meet, no e-mail will be sent to you. Also, the notification only applies to the initial criteria entered by a new member. As that information may change, you may receive notifications for members to whom you later cannot initiate a note. |
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| Privacy, Appropriate Use, and Limitations | |
What else will you use my E-mail address for besides CliqueMail? Periodically, we may send you notices about new features and functions of CliqueFriends or about new offerings from the CliqueFriends family of web sites (e.g., the CliqueBar or CliqueMates). We will not sell your address or give it to a third party unless required by law. Is CliqueMail private? A copy of all CliqueMail correspondence may be logged for a limited time in order to resolve questions of inappropriate use or for other uses pertaining to the operation of the CliqueFriends family of web site. What are the CliqueFriends' "family-friendly" guidelines? Basically, notes must not be rude, lewd or offensive in nature or promote illegal activities. Can I use CliqueMail to make business solicitations? No. Our members may only use CliqueMail for the personal, non-business use. We treat all other uses as 'spam' and reserve the right to disclose publicly the registered E-mail address of anyone sending 'spam' as well as take all appropriate steps to remove such individuals or organizations from the Internet. What do I do if I receive a CliqueMail note that I feel is inappropriate? Please forward the note to us (by copying it and pasting) at click here and include a description of your complaint. We will investigate all such complaints. Our newsletter We periodically sent a newsletter with information about CliqueFriends and making friends in general. You may enroll for this FREE newsletter on our home page. This newsletter is published through CafePress.com, who controls access to the E-mail address you provide. This address does not have to be the same as the address you use for CliqueFriends. Why am I limited in the number of people that I can E-mail from the "Search" page per day? We want to make sure that you are being selective in who you choose to contact so that CliqueFriends participants are not inundated with random notes. Once you make contact with another member, you may use the "Reply" option on their response to send additional notes. These notes are not subject to the per day limitation. You may also want to exchange other means of contact, such as a regular E-mail address. Finally, while FREE members are restricted to sending just one new note per 24 hours, Premium CliqueFriends members may send up to five per 24 hours. |
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| contact us Copyright 2003-2005, CliqueFriends, LLC. |
to signify that you are serious about meeting
others