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What is FukuokaLive.com?
FukuokaLive.com is a chat service set up specifically for residents of Fukuoka, Japan.
After registering with your mobile phone email address, you can anonymously chat to other online users. You can even invite the people you like to join, then chat to them without giving away your identity!
The service is currently completely free to use.

How much does FukuokaLive.com cost?
FukuokaLive.com is currently completely free.
All costs are met by sponsors or the administrators.
Depending on the success of the service, we may introduce a tiny charge / voluntary donations to cover running costs. Any such charges will be publicised well in advance.

Who is FukuokaLive.com for?
FukuokaLive.com exists "specifically for residents of Fukuoka, Japan."
The service is designed to help Fukuoka's residents to meet. FukuokaLive.com's greatest strength is that people can actually meet each other in person (although be sure to read our security advice first).

Signing up.
Signing up is easy! Click on join, and follow the instructions. You *must* use your Japanese mobile phone email address (for security reasons). We will then email you your password.

Site security
We have taken action as a result to give the best possibly protection of members' anonymity and privacy (see the disclaimer for the "small print"). Ensure you read the following advice:

• Picking a nickname - be careful about the nickname you choose. Please do not choose a sexually provocative nickname.

• Play it safe - be careful about the kind of information you give out and *never* give away any personal details such as your email or full name to anyone!

• Don't believe everything you read. We expect all members to use the service sensibly and those who do not will have their accounts deleted. If you receive an abuse message, please inform us.

• Be careful when arranging meetings - be sure you feel comfortable meeting the type of person you are chatting to. Always choose a public place with which you are familiar, or invite a friend to join you!

Message security
NEVER give out your telephone number, address, FukuokaLive.com password or any other personal details to strangers.
No administrator will EVER contact you asking for your e-mail address, password or ANY other personal details.

What should I write in my advert?
For hints on writing your advert, see Hitomi's excellent guide here!

The most important thing is that you do actually write a description - if you don't, you are far less likely to be messaged by other members.
You can choose not to display your advert. Here are a few of our tips:

• The more you write, the better, in most cases. A paragraph or two is about right. This is your chance to "sell" yourself, so don't be too modest! People usually want more details: saying "contact me and I'll tell you more" is not usually the most successful approach.
• If you have a sense of humour :), demonstrate it! The best approach is to make people laugh. Also, use Smileys if you like to convey expression e.g.   :-)    ;-)    :-D    :-P   d8=
• Say what type of relationship you are looking for!
• It is unwise to include a phone number/email address/MSN/Yahoo!/ICQ number. Messages through the site are far more secure.
• You may use html in your description. Also, if you include a photograph, you'll get far more responses. (See the Edit your ad page for details).
• You can change your description at any time, don't forget to click the "OK" button!

Is there a policy on content?
We do ask people to try to avoid writing anything in their descriptions that may cause offence. Please be aware that some members are more easily offended than others. If you feel something is offensive, please point it out to us, and we'll ask the author to modify it. The contents of messages is totally up to the discretion of the correspondents. Please do note that we *will not tolerate* hate mail of any kind, and if requested, will act against the sender wherever possible.

HTML
There is a short guide to HTML here.
Some HTML formatting tags can be used, to add variety to descriptions and messages, but others are not permitted. For instance, you can use <b>, <i>, <strong>, <em>, <h1> - <h6>, <blink>, <font color="RRGGBB"> tags, but not tags such us mailto, image, or links. Images have to be uploaded and stored on OUR database - we will then give you the option of whether to include them in your ad.

Etiquette
The "Netiquette" of FukuokaLive.com is based on "Do as you would be done by."
As long as a message is courteous, one ought to answer it! (It is far better to send a reply on the lines "Sorry, I'm not interested", than to simply ignore an invitation to correspond.) Also, text messages cannot convey the tone in which they were written (smileys sometimes help here), so both the author and recipient should be aware that some statements are ambiguous.

How do we deal with obnoxious behaviour
Please tell us if you receive any obnoxious messages - we will act as soon as we can.
Fortunately, such instances are rare, and FukuokaLive.com should usually be highly enjoyable for everyone.
What to do if you receive an offensive message:

• Please tell adminfukuokalive.com. This is important! Then we can act on it. We will act, but you have to tell us first!

• Don't delete the message - we want evidence.

We will then (as quickly as we can):

1. Ask the sender for an explanation.
2. Depending on the response, we will consider what action to take.
3. If appropriate, we will delete the offender's account, and ban them for life.

Also, if you see anything offensive in a person's advert, please tell us - we'll review it, and request that they modify it.
We really despise *hate mail*, and will (if asked) by the recipient, trace the sender: there are appropriate legal channels for doing so.

How does the email notification system work?
On the options page, there are 3 choices for email notification of new messages when you are offline.
You MUST login to reply to messages.

• "Never e-mail me" - You will NEVER be emailed if you have a new message. This means that you have to log in to FukuokaLive.com regularly to check whether you have received a message.

• "Notify me by e-mail if I receive a new message (first message ONLY)" - We will notify you when you your FIRST new message when you are not online.
  Note that if you receive subsequent messages, you will NOT be notified again - this is to prevent you from receiving too many emails. If you receive a message while you are logged in, you will also not be emailed (although you will see a message in the top right hand corner of the page). Therefore, it is important that you click 'logout' when you are finished.

• "Forward ALL messages to my e-mail" - All messages you receive while not online will be forwarded to your email address (if they include html formatting, this will not appear correctly).

NB: You will not be notified by email if you receive a system message from FukuokaLive.com.

Advanced tips for using FukuokaLive.com
Here are a few tips that may make FukuokaLive.com easier for you to use:

• When viewing the ads, if you click list of all members, you will see a list of ALL our current active members, not just those who have placed an ad.

• If you choose, Females, then the ads are listed in the order of most recently logged in. However, you can change this to order by nickname, or last created.

• When you are logged in, you can see if you have new messages by looking in the top right of the screen. This status is updated automatically every few seconds.

Deleting your account and Nicknames
It is possible to delete your account, removing your advert, and all your messages pernamently.
There are alternatives, such as hiding your advert. It is good netiquette to inform those you have corresponded with that you are leaving!
Everything about your account can be changed, except your Nickname and registered email address.

How can I help you?
Contact marketingfukuokalive.com for information on how to become an official FukuokaLive.com helper!
Also, let us know how you get on. Fill in the survey, and tell us your stories and give us more good ideas about what we can do better...

How do I get more help?
If you need more help, please contact us.