PhxStorks

Yes there are ways of keeping google from indexing your images or removing them if they are already indexed. Here's a link to read the details: https://support.google.com/websearch/troubleshooter/3111061?rd=1 However, I think what the article was saying is that the people are suing google because google is indexing THEIR COPYRIGHTED images that other people have stolen and have placed on their sites. Instead of contacting the (apparently hundreds) of websites that ARE PROVIDING this copyrighted content for FREE via google's image search feature, (because they HAVE NOT blocked google from indexing these copyrighted images) they have TRIED to get google to remove their COPYRIGHTED images from the index, that are located on sites other than their own. Their only other option is to sue the hundreds of websites that have apparently STOLEN their copyrighted images and have them remove the images. Which would be easier: To sue 1 large company or hundreds of small ones? It also seems to me that they have repeatedly tried to get google to remove these images & it hasn't done so. Standing behind their "oh we're just a little search engine" routine. Not taking responsibility for the images that it's searches produce, EVEN IF they have been notified the images are copyrighted and need to be removed. Remember when Copyshops were sued for MAKING COPIES of pages of books to give out to teachers classes. The Authors/book sellers were loosing money because the students were given the information by KINKOS instead of having to purchase the books. And the copyshops were sued for allowing/helping the teachers to make the copies. SAME THING in my opinion. Google is PROFITING from allowing these images to be searched by web-users. --Jane

It's kindof like a paypal account... but you don't use "buy it now" buttons to sell your items online and your customer DOES NOT need a propay account for this to work. To the customer ordering online, it doesn't look any different than ordering from a company that uses it's OWN merchant account. They still have to input all their credit card info online, and billing & shipping. The only difference is that when YOU get the CC info, you have to manually run it through the Propay website. Kindof like a "virtual" terminal.You have to have a seperate shopping cart online that will get peoples credit card info (securely) and then you GO TO the propay website, login securely & then input the persons credit card info manually to "process" it. Or as I mentioned in the first post, if you get most of your orders over the PHONE, you just go straight into the propay site & process the card, no need to email an INVOICE to your customer (like with PAYPAL) This was a big selling feature for me, since most of my orders come in over the phone.Hope this helps explain it a little better. --Jane

See you are not allowed to leave ANYMORE. Like I said, I understand that problems happen (of course when you go out of town - Murphy's law) I am now able to post again (obviously) and am working on building up my credits. I spent most of the weekend trying to upload my site using frontpage. And then installing Zencart to play around with that some. That cpanel thing & file manager are hard to get used to. And yes opaque, I really DO appreciate the free hosting & the upgrade you helped me with. Hope you had a nice vacation! --jane

Actually I'm not sure if it technically qualifies as a merchant account, but it is used to transfer money from other peoples credit cards to your "Propay" account. In essence working as a "merchant account". NOTE: You must be a U.S. resident, 18 or older, with a valid Social Security number to apply for a Propay account. The first time you sign up with them, you need to MAIL them a check for the annual fee, after that you can pay it though your propay account. Oh and on the customers credit card statement it will have YOUR email address. So it's best to use a "Professional" sounding email address when signing up with PROPAY like "order@XYZcomputers.com" instead of "XYZcomputers@yahoo.com" Once you have run the card, it will take a few days for the money to become available in your Propay account, THEN you can transfer it to your checking account. The Annual fee breakdowns and benefits are as follows: -----------------Annual fee------Processing-----Transfer--Processing limits ----------------------------------------Fee-------------FEE-----(per transaction/monthly) *Basic------------$34.95-----3.50% + $0.35---$0.35-----$250/$1,000 Premium---------$59.95-----3.25% + $0.35---$0.30-----$500/$3,000 Premium Plus--$119.95-----2.99% + $0.30---$0.25-----$1,000/$5,000 Platinum--------$299.95-----2.69% + $0.25---$0.10-----$3,000/$15,000 *Accept VISA/MasterCard *Process via internet *Checking account transfers Accept Discover Accept American Express Process via telephone Linked debit MasterCard (this is a debit card for your PROPAY account) Annual statement (*Basic Program offers these 3 items ONLY) All others are included in the larger packages. All the Credit Card information has to be manually entered into your secure Propay Account BUT there are NO monthly, gateway, or equipment fees of traditional merchant accounts. If you offer products/services online or take phone orders (not needing a "terminal") Propay is a great way to get you started accepting Credit Cards. Once you are doing a LARGE volume of orders, you will probably want to upgrade to a true merchant account in which orders can be processed automatically via your website/shopping cart/merchant account. I prefer to use Propay over "Paypal" because if I only offered Paypal I would have to EMAIL a customer (who calls me to place an order) an INVOICE before they could pay me. I CANNOT charge their card without that step using PAYPAL. And I find that inconvenient for me and the customer. I hope this has helped someone who was looking for an inexpensive merchant account option. They have great customer service, I contacted them via their "online chat" before I had even signed up with a question and they were quick to help me out. I have never had a problem with "double-billing" or any other problems while running customers cards through them. --Jane

Well thats all good & dandy but I had JUST activated my account before the forum went down (dropping me down to 2 credits) and then I couldn't get online until today to post (because I couldn't access the forum AT ALL) and now my account is suspended with "HOSTING CREDITS : (-)4.09 (Negative)" How I went from 2 credits to -4 (in TWO days) is beyond me. I guess you get penalized when you hit zero huh? Anyway I had been trying all weekend to post to get me out of the danger zone & nothing! I understand that there were issues with the upgrade, but I would have thought that they would have STOPPED counting down credits while we had NO WAY of posting. Or at least credited them back once the upgrade was complete. But I came here & found no message of the problems that had happened over the weekend by either moderator or administrator, just people in the shoutbox and this thread. I would have expected there to be a notice in Alerts and Notices but didn't see anything. Anyway, I'm off to try to post more to pull me out of this quagmire. (I don't think I've ever typed that word before) --Jane

well, I've heard people say that 2 MONTHS salary is the price you should pay for an engagement ring. Whoever thought that up was just a greedy *****. Personally, I believe my husband spent under $1000 on my ring, and I bought the "wedding bands" that we actually exchanged at the ceremony. We each bought them for valentines day, NOT KNOWING that both of us had bought rings. It was really sweet, he put mine on the stem of one of the roses he bought for me too. I would suggest unless you REALLY know your girlfriend that you spend the $900 you planned on, maybe a "little" less. Some girls will say "oh honey, that's too much money to spend on a silly little ring..." And what they really mean is "You better not pay less than what we discussed, because I'm WORTH it." I'm not saying your girlfriend is one of these women, but if she is and you spend less, IT WILL come up later. I know many women like this.By the way, I think what you did in regards to your grandfather was really sweet & I'm sure your girlfriend does too. That is the sort of thing that girls like to see in their future husbands, caring & compassion. Good luck to you both & CONGRATULATIONS!--Jane

BuffaloHELP: No, I didn't think it was to stiff or anything. I thought it was thorough & professional. Good job! *Patting you on the back* Oh and I PM'd OpaQue to see if he could help me out on this. Acidify: If I wanted a site about me I would just BLOG, this is for my home-business. I just need time to learn how to do it, but my reasoning for choosing the smaller package was flawed. Thanks for taking the time to add your insight though, I thought I couldn't be the only person to not understand.

holy cow! everyone here is so young! Teeny-boppers! That's what my grandma used to call us. I have officially moved into the 25-30 year old catagory. Um, I believe I'm 28 now. Pretty sure I am. Quit counting after 21, why the heck does it matter after 21? Oh yeah, at 25 your car insurance rates go down! Yippee!And I remember being "17 and a quarter". OK, I actually don't, my mind cannot even fathom reffering to my age in fractions of a year. This has been quite enlightening. --Jane

Thank you for answering all my questions fully. It's not that posting to the forums is difficult, it's just that I have never tried to do this stuff all myself before (cpanel, php, etc...) and I wanted to be able to concentrate on learning it. I thought that choosing the "smaller" package would require less "activity" on my part in the forums, though I have no Idea where I got that impression. I do plan on upgrading to a "paid" account IF/WHEN I can get this stuff figured out. I just wanted to try it out for "free" before purchasing to see if I can even do this on my own. (Building my website and shopping cart)Again thank you for taking the time to help me out. I will PM OpaQue and Johnny to discuss the current situation I am in.Have a GREAT DAY! --Jane

I have already applied for and been accepted for the Free hosting account HOWEVER I have not activated it yet. I have been reading over the forums & have run into another question. I was under the impression that if I got the #1 package (10 credits) I would have to post LESS per month than if I had the #2 package (30 credits). Since I wanted to lessen my need for posting in the forums, so that I could learn/understand this C-panel thing, I requested the smaller starter package (for only 10 credits) Now after reading This thread I think I was all mixed up. It says that NO MATTER which plan I chose, my current credits will be reduced to 2 CREDITS when I activate, whether I choose to use 10 credits or 30. Is this correct? I know the moderator said that EVERYONE understood this, BUT I didn't. I have no idea WHERE it says this (except in this post) Did I miss an important "guide" or something that explains this? I've read these threads: Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Hosting Introduction and Rules, Posting & Activity Rules, & Instructions for Titles and Descriptions and would have expected the notice about credits dropping down to 2 to be in one of these, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. So my questions are: 1: Does the size of the "Package" you choose, affect HOW MUCH you need to post in the forums to keep your hosting active, or is it the same for either plan? 2: Now that I've been accepted for the 10 point plan, but haven't activated, can I request an UPGRADE to use up the points I have, so as not to lose them when I do activate. (I have 30+ points, thought I was "saving them") 3: Is there a manual or introduction that I missed that explained this stuff? I'm sorry if this stuff has been explained fully somewhere else & I missed it. I did try to read the pinned messages in all the forums, but perhaps i missed this one. Thank you for any help you can provide, Jane

Nothing outrageous here... my name's Jane (thanks mom) so I got called "Jane the Pain" as a kid. However my boss likes to add "ey" to any name he encounters, so he calls me Janey, which I don't mind, but he talks about me that way to customers too. So they all thought my name was Janey, that's OK, cuz I thought one lady was named "Jean-ey" turns out her name is Jean. :-) My husband also swears that I introduced myself to him as Janey, I must have been on drugs because I have NEVER said that! He called me that for a while before noticing no-one else did. :-)Now my sister, her name is Kelley, she was called "Kelley with a belly full of Jelly" how clever was that? :-) Kids are such dorks. She was also called Wambat. Why, I have NO IDEA.

Yes it's a combination of those techniques, it just works in 1 click of a button. For those of us who need a better looking photo, without all the hassle.I can never seem to get the photo to look right, when I do it manually. I am attaching a picture that was too-dark (taken inside) that I ran through two options. First pic is the original, second is the levels-auto, and third is the new "Shadow/Highlight" feature.Now a professional may not use the "levels - auto" feature, but a novice who has no clue what they are doing probably would.Please note that the setting was left on the "default" I did not tweak it at all. It is probably too-light now, but you can see how much detail was draw out of the dark background. You can actually see the faded knees on the jeans of the person in the background!This is my son by the way, isn't he cute in his little outfit!

OK Cool! I already own my domain, it's just hosted somewhere else right now. I've been reading some more & I think I will start with the 10 point package afterall, because if I start with the 30 point package, that's what I'll have to keep "paying" each month incredits/posts, right? I'd rather be able to spend my time trying to figure this c-panel thingy out! And upgrade later if I need too!Thanks again for all your help, I will quit bothering you now! --Jane

Yeah I know, i tend to babble on... I found alot of threads in here very interesting & felt I had something to contribute to them. Not sure if anyone would agree though I actually wanted to get to the 30 points so I don't have to bother with upgrading. But I do have one question, I wanted to get this free account to "Try out" the hosting & see if I can create the site myself. I was hoping to start out with a sub-domain here at Xisto (because my site is currently live & working & I don't want to mess that up.) And then when the new site is ready, I wanted to switch the sub-domain over to the "normal" domain, replacing my existing site. Is that going to be possible? Or do I need to start out with the EXACT name I want to site to be?Sorry if that's a dumb question...Thanks for all the help, Jane

Hello! I found out about this site from another forum I am with and after reading all the features that come with the hosting, I am going to TRY to create my own site with shopping cart here on Trap 17. My current site is Phoenix Storks I currently use a WYSIWYG online website editor/host called Citymax. It has small shopping cart, but I need something more Robust & I'm hoping Zencart will work for me. I have been over at zencart's forums & it seems like it is very customizable. I requested a quote to see how much it would cost for someone else to build it, but I think I'm gonna try to do it myself before resorting to that. I have no PHP knowledge and very BASIC html knowledge, so I signed up for Trap 17's "free hosting" to see: 1. if this is something that I can accomplish on my own, and 2. If I want to do this to myself (hassle-factor) If anyone has any reccomendations or suggestions for a newbie like me (especially regarding the zencart) I would love to hear them. I tend to post REALLY long posts but I try to be helpful & stay on topic. I have a background in graphic design (but don't do that professionally anymore) am married with one son (3) and a daughter on the way, Due November 20. Thanks for reading --Jane

um ok that makes alot of sense... let's LIMIT the number of people who can post... so we can get more traffic in there? I will wait until I'm hosted to post them, I have already mentioned one item in another post in passing (unrelated). Thanks for the info. --Jane

I wanted to mention the forum that DMOZ set up to help deal with issues like, "when will my site be listed?" But I just went there & the "Site Submission Status" forums have been closed & discontinued due to the MAJOR amount of time it took just to keep up with the site submission posts. Well here is a link to the forum anyway: DMOZ forum just in case anyone wants to read it over to see how much work actually does happen at dmoz. Also, I found this link to the FAQ for the "shoping" catagory, perhaps your answer is in here. I also wanted to mention (something I found out) that Regional listing are generally based on where a company is located, not where it markets. For example, they would not put my site in the "Phoenix" Regional catagory, because my website shows that I am BASED out of MESA (a smaller city near Phoenix), even though my competiors are listed in the Phoenix area, neither of which are BASED in Phoenix either, but neither also has an address listed on their websites. Consequently, I am listed in DMOZ, but no-one is gonna find me there, cuz who's gonna look in the "Mesa" catagory? I know I wouldn't & I LIVE in mesa, I would look in the MAJOR metro area, ie. Phoenix. I was also denied a listing in the "shopping" catagory because I deliver my products LOCALLY. Here is a quote from their "FAQ - DMOZ/Shopping" I also want to mention that I was listed in Yahoo first, google second and DMOZ MONTHS later. I didn't pay to be listed in yahoo either, they just "picked me up" one day. --Jane

I wanted to post a couple of reviews (both good) in the Your Voice! Your Review! section but I keep getting an error. Do I not have the right to post in that one because I am new (no hosting yet)? If not, is there another area where a review of a couple of online services could fit? It is not my site I want to review, I saw the area for that.Thank you for any help you can provide.--Jane

I use Propay for my business website, so as not to have to deal with a merchant account and all the associated fees. I have been told that Propay is for US businesses only, that is one drawback to it. I can accept credit cards from my customers, EVEN WHEN they call me to place an order. I can't use Paypal to charge a customer without first having to "create" an invoice for them. Pain in the butt. I hope that googles system would be a combiniation of the "wallet/paypal" system (allowing people to store credit card info online - securely) and the "small business merchant account" usefulness of Propay. I'm excited to see what Google comes up with.

It is jewel that is created from the ashes of a deceased person, to help remember them. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I just read about it today & thought I'd share it. Here is a link to the website: http://lifegem.com/

I am always supplied photos that are either too-light or Too-dark & having to correct them manually in photoshop using all the different techniques.I was having a particularly hard time with one photo & went online to see if I could find something to help me with it. And I found out about a new feature added to Photoshop CS that helps with correcting photos.Go to: Image, Adjust, Shadow/Highlight and a dialog box will open. Many times you can use the default settings but if that is "too much" correction you can open the "Show more options" box to tweak it until you get it just right. It also has a preview option so you can see what effect your having on the photo before accepting the changes. For me this has worked great for color photos as well as black and white.Hope this can help someone out there.

Personally I use google 90% of the time. I however do like yahoo & msn very much because they list my site as #1 for my keywords (so does google). Gotta love that! I must say that 90% of my traffic also comes from google, then yahoo, then msn and an occasional aol, teoma or alta vista.But unfortunately it looks like yahoo & google have deteriorated into a "my index is bigger than YOUR index" battle & we are losing the most important thing - relevance. I don't care how many stupid sites you have indexed if half of them are just the same old stuff repeated again and again. Even the descriptions that google spits out for preview are the same thing over & over. I will go 5+ pages into a "search" just trying to find something RELEVANT to what I am looking for. Many times in searching I use the "quotes" to limit the number of sites it brings up.And I almost never click on any ads from the "sponsored links" section, even though I myself use adwords for my own site. Since they are very targeted & localized keywords, it doesn't cost me much, about $10 per month.I love googles "image" search option, I scan the web for ideas of products I can add to my business.