faq
Frequently Asked Questions
1.
Overview
1.1 Who can use OpenMinders.com?
1.2 How to become a member of OpenMinders.com?
1.3 Who will have access to my personal
details?
2.
Signing on and Registration
2.1 Can I change my Login Name?
2.2 Can I change my Nickname?
2.3 Can I change my Email Address?
2.4 Can I change my password?
2.5 How can I unsubscribe/ remove all my
details?
2.6 Can I terminate my membership?
2.7 What are the costs when registering
with OpenMinders.com?
2.8 I don't receive any mails from OpenMinders.com?
3.
Profile and Membership
3.1 How can I change/update my profile?
3.2 Why becoming a "Plus Member" or "Full
Member" with OpenMinders.com?
3.3 What are the costs and payment methods?
3.4 How can I extend my membership?
3.5 Will my membership automatically be
extended?
3.6 Will all my settings be lost after my
membership expires?
3.7 How can I check my membership status?
4.
Personal Adverts, Photo's and Videos
4.1 What do we mean with Personal Adverts?
4.2 How can I change my Personal Adverts?
4.3 Are erotic and/or sexual requests
allowed?
4.4 What kind of Photos can I upload?
4.5 Do I have to upload a photo?
4.6 How can I change/add a photo?
4.7 Will everybody be able to see my photo?
4.8 What kind of video can I upload?
4.9 How can I upload a Video?
4.10 Will everyone be able to see my video
message?
5.
My Messages
5.1 How do I know that I have new messages?
5.2 Will I be able to tell if a message has
been read?
5.3 Why is it not possible to send free
form messages as a Registered member?
5.4 How can I prevent other members to send
me messages?
5.5 I have blocked another member but want
to unblock this person, how can I do this?
5.6 Will I receive messages even though I
don?t have a full membership?
6.
Blacklist and other Security Issues
6.1 What is the DNS blacklist?
6.2 Access is denied, what can I do?6.3 I am a member and get the DNS blacklist message
6.4 What are Open Proxies?6.5 I'm on holidays and my membership has been
suspended?6.6 Why is connecting via an Open Proxy not allowed?6.7 Get verified
7.
Do you have a question that is not listed in this FAQ?
1.
Overview
1.1
Who can use OpenMinders.com?
OpenMinders.com is an online dating service for adults who are looking for a
Date,
Blind date, Dinner date, Email contact, Marriage, Just for fun date,
Friend, a Companion, short/long term Relationship, Romantic date and
Mate. By joining OpenMinders.com and becoming a member you can easily
search and match with other members who share the same interest,
preferences and visions.
1.2
How to become a member of OpenMinders.com?
Visit
the home page of OpenMinders.com (www.OpenMinders.com) and click on
"Join Now For Free" at the top in the Menu Bar. A registration wizard
will appear which will guide you through the registration process in 4
easy steps.
- Step 1: Provide Login details such as Login Name, Nickname,
Password and a valid email address.
- Step 2: Fill out a short Profile.
- Step 3: Upload up to 3 photos; (as a registered member you
can upload 5 photos).
- Step 4: Fill out the free form entry field with a short
description of yourself and what you are looking for.
At
the end of the registration process an email will be sent to the
supplied email address. Before you are able to logon and use the site
you will have to verify your email address. This can be done by
clicking on the link with activation code in the email. This only has
to be done once. Once you have activated your account you will be able
to Search and Match. A Plus Membership or Full Membership is required
if you want to send personalized messages.
1.3
Who will have access to my personal details?
No
one. First of all we don’t require and store any personal
information.
Only your Nickname and your profile will be visible to other members.
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2.
Signing on and Registration
2.1
Can I change my Login Name?
No. After
you have chosen a Login Name in the registration process you will not
be able to change it. The system will verify your login name to make
sure it is unique to the site. This Login Name is strictly
personal and should not be shared with others.
2.2
Can I change my Nickname?
No,
in principle you can not change your Nickname. You must choose your
Nickname during the signup process. Please note that you Login name and
your Nickname have to be different. Your
Nickname will be visible to other members and is used to identify you
on
the site. Your chosen Nickname can be anything as long as it
is not offensive, sexually orientated and/or contains other
identifiable information like surnames, phone numbers, addresses etc.
Prior to your profile
becoming visible on the site your Nickname must be approved. Only if
your
nickname has been disapproved you will be able to change
your Nickname. In this situation logon to the site
and goto
"My Settings –
Home" from where you can change your Nickname. Please note: your
profile will remain invisible to other members as long as your Nickname
has been disapproved.
2.3
Can I change my Email Address?
Yes. You
can change your email address via "My Settings" - "Home". Click on the
button "change email address" to do so. Important: After you have
changed your email address another email will be sent with an
activation code. Your account/membership with OpenMinders.com will be
suspended until you have re-activated your account regardless of your
membership status.
2.4
Can I change my password?
Yes. You
can change your password via "My Settings" – "Home". Click on
the "change
password" button to change your password. Your chosen password must be
at least 6 characters long and may not contain any spaces or quote
marks. For safety reasons please do not use a password that you are
using somewhere else.
2.5
How can I unsubscribe/ remove all my details?
At
any time you can unsubscribe from OpenMinders.com. Via "My Settings" -
"Home" click on the "Unsubscribe" button to unsubscribe from the site.
Please note that no refund will be given for early terminations.
Unsubscribing will remove all your details, i.e. photos, messages,
videos, login details from the system.
2.6
Can I terminate my membership?
Yes at any time you can terminate your account with OpenMinders.com,
see 2.5
2.7
What are the costs when registering with OpenMinders.com?
None. Registration
is Free. You can search, match and receive messages for free for an
unlimited time. Only when you want to send personalized
messages
you
will have to upgrade to either a Plus Membership or Full
Membership. By
default you will become a Registered Member. After your Plus
or
Full Membership expires, you will be automatically downgraded to
a Registered Member but all your messages and history will remain
accessible..
2.8
I don't receive any mails from OpenMinders.com?
With
some Internet Service Providers, i.e. Hotmail, you will have to add
OpenMinders.com to your white list. The white list tells your mail
program what to do when an email from OpenMinders.com is received.
Without this setting emails from OpenMinders.com might end up in your
Junk or Spam mailbox or might not be delivered at all. Please
consult the manual and guidelines of your mail client (webmail) how to
setup a domain white list or how to allow mail from certain domains to
be delivered to your mailbox.
Here ase some tips what to look for:
- White Lists
- Trusted domains/senders
- Junk or Spam settings
Example
for Hotmail users: Logon to Hotmail and select My Options. On this page
select the "block or trust senders" option. Now add OpenMinders.com to
the list of trusted senders.
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3.
Profile and Membership
3.1
Can I change/update my profile?
Yes, you can update your profile via "My Settings" - "My Profile" at
any time. Do not forget to save your changes.
3.2
Why becoming a "Plus Member" or "Full Member" with OpenMinders.com?
Some
functionality is not available for Registered Members. A "Plus
Membership" or "Full Membership" is required to send personalized
messages. With a Full Membership you can also view and upload
personalized video messages.
3.3
What are the costs and payment methods?
At the moment we support 2 payment methods:
- through Paypal using a creditcard or a Paypal account.
- direct deposit into the OpenMinders.com bank account
Using Paypal:
PayPal
is a secure and trusted internet payment service
provider which is also the preferred payment service provider
for
eBay. Because we are using Paypal we do not have to ask and store your
personal details. PayPal
uses several methods to verify the validity and integrity of online
transactions. You can either setup a Paypal account and transfer money
into your Paypal account using different methods or pay directly using
your creditcard. Please visit the Paypal site to get information on how
to setup and use Paypal. All major creditcards are accepted. Your
membership will be updated within a couple of minutes as soon as we
receive notification that the money is in our account, which normally
happens within a couple of minutes, if you decide to purchase an OpenMinders.com membership using Paypal.
Direct deposit:
The
other method of purchasing an OpenMinders.com membership is to deposit
the membership fee directly into the OpenMinders.com bank account
providing the following information, please check the "My Settings" -
"My Membership" page after logging for all numbers:
- IBAN number; this is a number which identifies the account
internationally
- BIC code; this code is used to identify the bank branch
- Country; The country where the account is administrated
- Your
loginname or Nickname: this is required to identify who purchased a
membership so we can upgrade your membership as soon as we have
received the membership fee.
All printed membership fees are
exclusive of any conversion and/or transaction costs. Please make sure
that the deposited amount matches the printed euro amount exactly.
If
you decide to purchase an OpenMinders.com membership using this payment
method then please be aware that it could take a couple of days before
the money has been transferred into our account and we can upgrade your
membership.
Tip:
Purchase a Plus Membership I or Plus Membership II first to get
familiar with the payment procedure.
Please note:
After the expiration of the Plus or
Full Membership period, your status will be
downgraded
automatically to a
Registered Member but all your messages and the message history will
remain available. No refund will be given for early terminations.
3.4
How can I extend my membership?
An
email will be sent to you one week before your membership
expires. At this time you can decide whether or not you want
to
extend the membership. If you do not respond to the email you will
automatically be downgraded to a Registered member.
Please Note:
Your Membership will not be extended automatically.
3.5
Will my membership automatically be extended?
No, your membership will not be automatically extended.
3.6
Will all my settings be lost after my membership expires?
No, your settings, messages and message history will be
maintained even if you choose not to extend your membership.
3.7
How can I check my membership status?
You can check your membership status via the "My Settings" - "My
Membership" page.
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4.
Personal Adverts, Photo's and Videos
4.1
What do we mean with Personal Adverts?
Besides
your
profile you can enter the so called Personal Adverts. The Personal
Adverts consists of 2 free form entry fields where you can describe
yourself and what you are looking for. The content of these fields is
screened before being published on the site. It is forbidden to enter
explicit requests for sex or desires of a sexual nature.
Please
Note: OpenMinders.com is entitled to change or disapprove
the text
without further explanation and/or notice if we deem the text
inappropriate to be published on the site. Please check the Rules
&
Regulations page for a more detailed description of what is not allowed
in the Personal Adverts.
4.2
How can I change my Personal Adverts?
You
can change your Personal Adverts via "My Settings" - "My Profile
II". Do not forget to save your changes by clicking on the
little
disk icon
at the top left of the page. After submitting a change, the text will
be
screened. The status of the change is indicated on the right.
- Green - text has been approved and is visible for other
members
- Orange - text has been submitted for approval
- Red - text has been disapproved, please change and
re-submit (save).
4.3
Are erotic and/or sexual requests allowed?
No. OpenMinders.com has been created to provide a clean and
neat environment where people can look for a new life partner or new
friends. Any sexual related messages, photos and video
messages will
be disapproved and never published on the site.
4.4
What kind of Photos can I upload?
Every
photo will first be screened and has to be approved before they will
become visible on the site. Please check the Rules &
Regulations
page for a more detailed description of what is not allowed to upload.
To maintain a high quality of the site photos of poor resolution and
hence poor quality will also be disapproved.
4.5
Do I have to upload a photo?
No, you do not have to
upload any photos. Please keep in mind though that members with a photo
receive approximately 7 times more responses on average than those
members without a photo.
4.6
How can I change/add a photo?
You
can change your photo via the "My Settings" - "My Photos" page. Select
a picture frame (1 to 5) first before uploading a photo. The selected
picture frame is where the photo will appear and will be highlighted
with a green border.
Portrait Photo:
A
portrait photo will be created from any of the uploaded photos.
OpenMinders.com will choose a photo that we deem most suitable and
appropiate to create of portrait of, which can be any of the uploaded
photos. The
portrait photo is the photo that will be displayed in your
Matches and to the left and right side of the screen.
Please
note: OpenMinders.com is entitled to disapprove any photo
without
explanation and further notice if we deem the photo inappropriate to be
published on the site. Furthermore OpenMinders.com is entitled to cut
and
resize each photo if necessary to maintain a consistent user
experience.
4.7
Will everybody be able to see my photo?
Only
the photo in picture frame no. 1 and the portrait photo will be visible
for
non-members. Any other photos on picture frame 2 till 5 will be
visible for all registered members.
4.8
What kind of video can I upload?
Every
video message will first be screened before being published on the
site. Only
video messages in English will be accepted. Please check the Rules
& Regulations page for a more detailed list of what is not
allowed
in video messages.
Please Note:
only members with a Full Membership are
able to view and upload video messages. OpenMinders.com is entitled to
disapprove any video message without
explanation and further notice if we deem the video message
inappropriate to be published on the site.
4.9
How can I upload a Video?
You
can change/upload a video message only if you have a "Full
Membership". To change your video message goto the "My Settings" - "My
Video Message" page to upload another video.
4.10
Will everyone be able to see my video message?
No. Only members with a Full Membership will be able to upload and view
video messages.
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5.
My Messages
5.1
How do I know that I have new messages?
Whenever you have new messages the "My Messages" tab in the menu will
be highlighted.
5.2
Will I be able to tell if a message has been read?
Yes.
In the "My Messages" page the left top area contains a table with all
messages received (Inbox) and sent (Outbox). One column of this table
contains the "Read on" field which indicates when the message was read?
5.3
Why is it not possible to send free form messages as a Registered
member?
Only members with a "Full Membership" will be able to create and send
personalized messages.
5.4
How can I prevent other members to send me messages?
If
you are receiving messages from a member you do not wish to receive
messages from, you can block this user. You can only block a
member via the "My Messages" page. Select a message from the
member
you want to block. Then on the profile view page of this member click
on the right most button to block this member.
5.5
I have blocked another member but want to unblock this person, how can
I do this?
The
only way to unblock a member is via the "My Matches" - "Blocked" page.
Click on the member you want to unblock and click on the Unblock icon
in the profile view.
5.6
Will I receive messages even though I don't have a full membership?
Yes. You will always be able to receive messages from other members.
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6.
Blacklist and other Security Issues
6.1 What is the DNS blacklist?
The
DNS blacklist was introduced in the fight against SPAM. SPAM are all
those emails you receive and find probably very annoying.
Examples are: email in which they try
to sell you university diplomas, dietary pills or other pills etc.
The
DNS blacklist is basically a long list of IP addresses of computers
from which SPAM and/or other unwanted internet activities, like hackers
and scammers, have been detected.
To
increase safety for our members and to make OpenMinders.com a safe and
fun enviroment for only serious candidates, OpenMinders.com
has decided to check every incoming connection to our servers against
several
DNS blacklists. Currently we are using the blacklists from
Spamhaus.org and
Sorbs.net but this
might be extended in the near future.
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6.2
Access is denied, what can I do?
If
you get the message that access to OpenMinders.com has been denied then
it is most likely that you are trying to connect to OpenMinders.com
from a machine that uses an IP that has been blacklisted.
This
might be the first time that you have learned that your machine has
been blacklisted and it is very likely that your computer has been
infected with a virus or other malware. Your computer might
be sending emails
without you knowing.
It is therefore very important that
before following the steps below you have to make sure that
your computer
is virus and malware free. Please make sure and ensure that the
anti-virus program you use is always up-to-date.
Please note:
you have little chance of being removed from the
blacklists as long as you have malware or a virus on your computer.
Access to the OpenMinders.com service will only be denied if you try to
sign up with OpenMinders.com.
If access has been denied please try the following steps:
- Check your machine for virusses and other spy and
malware; run
a current anti-virus program and make sure you receive regular updates.
- Visit either Spamhaus.org or Sorbs.net and follow the
instructions how to get your IP address removed from their blacklist.
- You may need to contact your Internet Service Provider if
you have a dynamically assigned IP address.
- You will not be able to register with OpenMinders.com as
long as your IP address is on one of the blacklists.
Please note: OpenMinders.com is unable to help and/or assist to get your IP removed
from the DNS blacklist.
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6.3 I am a member and get
the DNS blacklist message.
Upon
each logon the system checks if you are trying to logon from a computer
that has been listed on a DNS blacklist. If your computer (IP) is
listed then you will
receive an message in your internal OpenMinders.com mailbox.
Important:
If you have a Plus or Full Membership then your membership will be
suspended immediately. You will no longer be able to send messages
until you have resolved the issue. After you notify OpenMinders.com via
an email to the helpdesk that the issue has been resolved, we will
investigate the matter and if everything checks out okay we will
compensate you for the time your account has been suspended. Please
specify your login name or nickname in the email message.
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6.4
What are Open Proxies?
Some
people use so called proxy servers to surf the internet anonymously.
But these so called Open Proxies are often being used for unwanted
behaviour on the internet such as hacking, scamming and fraud.
Obviously OpenMinders.com does not condole such behaviour and therefore
OpenMinders.com has decided to deny access to anyone who
tries to
connect to our servers via Open Proxies. If you are connecting to the
internet from your computer at home it is very unlikely that you are
connecting to the internet via an proxy server. We use various
methods to check if open proxies are being used to connect to the
OpenMinders.com servers.
top6.5 I'm on holidays and my membership has been suspended?
If
you are travelling or if you are on holidays overseas then our system
will detect this upon logon and will suspended your account
immediately.
If this happens then please send an email to the
helpdesk with your nick name and your travel details i.e. how long you
are away for and what countries you expect to be visiting and when.
Alternatively you may want to become a verified member, see
6.7top
6.6
Why is connecting via an Open Proxy not allowed?
OpenMinders.com has decided to deny access to all
connections that originate from an Web Proxy or Open Proxy.
OpenMinders.com is anonymous enough so that there is no need to connect
to OpenMinders.com via an Open Proxy.
Only if you become a verified member you will be allowed to connect via a web proxies or Open Proxies, see
6.7
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6.7 Get verified
As an extra layer of security to prevent fakers and scammers using the site, OpenMinders.com has introduced person verification.
Important:
You can only apply for verification if you have at least 1 approved
uploaded photo in your profile at the time that you request
verification.
The verification process works as follows:
1) Logon to OpenMinders.com.
2) Goto My Settings > Home.
3) Click on the Get Verified button.
4)
On the Verification page request for your unique verification code.
This code will be then be sent to you via email. Please make sure you
are able to receive emails from OpenMinders.com.
5) Upload a copy of one of your identify cards, i.e. passport, driver license etc. A picture of you has to be clearly visible.
6) Upload a digital image of the verification code.
7) Only if both images are uploaded the verification process will commence.
After
receiving your ID OpenMinders.com will check your ID against your
profile and the other photo's you have uploaded. Members that are
verified will be indicated on the site with the following icoon.
IMPORTANT:
Although it is less likely that fakers and scammers will apply for
verification, OpenMinders.com does NOT accept any responsibility if any
damage occurs from contacting a verified member.Contacting
other members is your own responsibility and it is your responsibility
how much information you want to share with this other person.
OpenMinders.com has put a lot of effort in trying and keeping the site
as safe as possible but can not guarantee that verified and non
verified
members might have improper intensions.
Please report any issues to
abuse@OpenMinders.com if you suspect that someone is abusing the service.
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7.
Do you have a question that is not listed in this FAQ?
Please send an email to
helpdesk@OpenMinders.com
if you have a question or remark about the site that is not listed in
this FAQ.
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