A: Each group you belong to has a set of notification preferences. To set the notification preferences for a group you belong to, view the group on line while you are logged in and select the button labeled "prefs/leave." This will lead you to your notification settings.

A: To post on the main bulletin board of the site, make sure you are logged in, then look for the text area just below the postings for the bulletin board. That's where to enter your text. Once you've proofread and are confident of the text you've entered, just select "post notice" and your notice will be posted immediately.

To post on the bulletin board for a group, you must be logged in and also must be a member of that group, but the procedure is the same.

A: View the event on line while you're logged in, and select the button labeled "other functions." The first option on the next page will be for canceling the event. Just fill in an explanation of why the event must be canceled and push the button labeled "cancel event."

A: Due to the need for increased security, all usernames and passwords must now be 6 or more characters. This means that even if you originally created your profile with a username or password that is shorter than 6 characters, you now have to change your username and password so that they are 6 characters or more. There is nothing mysterious about this. All you have to do is make sure that the username and password you enter when you save your profile are 6 or more characters.

A: Sometimes moderators bug out, and if we can't find a new moderator, we have to disband the group. We also automatically delete any group that has not held an event in six months or more. After all, if a group hasn't held an event in more than six months, it's really not an active group.

A: We deliberately do not include a field for age in the profiles, because we think it's a bad idea to automatically provide a way for people to apply unquestioned prejudice based on age, and unconsciously deprive themselves of some of the most interesting, surprising possibilities in life.

There are groups within San Diego Linkup that cite an age range, and events that cite an age range, but we will never include a field for age in the profiles. If you want to know how old someone is, you'll just have to meet them and ask, if you dare. ;-)

A: No, you can't. Linkup is a social group, not a way to get people to attend a fundraiser. In fact, Linkup is specifically intended as a refuge from promotional pitches of any kind. We don't care how supposedly worthy any particular cause is. Linkup has always been and always will be a place for people to come together as people, completey shielded from promotional intrusions. That includes fundraisers.

A: We believe that the only good reason to host an event is because you want to. We also believe that any kind of incentive system for hosts is bound to introduce factors which distort the social environment. For instance, some people have suggested that hosts be given preferential treatment regarding flake factors. We think that's a terrible idea, because it selectively falsifies member ratings:

- Would you want someone who is a flake to have a false positive rating as your guest just because they host an event once in a while? What if they flake out on you on an important event, and then carry their phony positive rating over to another event of yours?
- Would you want to attend an event where you knew the host's only motivation was to get some kind of credit, or to have flake factors erased so that other people wouldn't know about them?

We think not. However, every time you host an event it is counted as an RSVP in your history, so the more events you host, the faster you can work off any flake factors or cancellations you've accumulated.

A: No. Cancelling from a wait list has absolutely no effect at all on your rating.

A: Contact the host, clear up the misunderstanding and, if necessary, ask the host to contact us.

A: No, you can't. We understand that occasionally an emergency will arise, which is exactly why we designed the Linkup system to respond to patterns, not individual instances. One flake factor due to an emergency will have a minimal effect or no effect at all on your ability to RSVP for events. However, someone with a pattern of "emergencies" will quickly find their ability to RSVP restricted.

We think it is fair to acknowledge the occasional emergency, while preventing those with a pattern of such emergencies from disrupting plans for events.

A: Your RSVP rating is based in part on the proportion of cancellations, no matter when they occur, to the number of times you RSVP.

If you RSVP for ten events, but then cancel for 5 of those events, your RSVP rating is only 50%.

If you're using RSVPs just as bookmarks, you're making a big mistake; an RSVP is a social commitment to others, not just a personal bookmark for you.

A: Your RSVP rating is based on a moving window of your 10 most recent events. In order for your rating to go up again, any cancellations or flake factors have to move out of the 10-event window.

A: Let's say you're a host, with an event with ten spots. Ten people send in an RSVP, so you make a big effort toward your event. Then nine people cancel on you. Now as a host, your event is completely ruined, and your time has been wasted. Feel like hosting another event? Probably not, because you just got burned so badly.

That kind of thing used to happen all the time, before we included cancellations in the ratings. It was awful--for both hosts and the remaining guests who were counting on the other people. Now that we include cancellations in the ratings, that problem has gone away.