Help is divided into several clearly marked sections. Each section contains responses to common questions about the new site. The sections include
1. Membership Questions
2. Transition Questions (transitioning from the old site to the new site)
3. Basic Overview of the new website functionality (by major page)
4. Basic Q & A about the funcationality of the site
Membership Questions
Do I need to join?
Yes, but a standard membership is free.
What is the Gold Membership?
The Gold Membership is a premium membership that provides participants with added functionality and community status. It is generally highly beneficial for folks that are serious about using the matching functionality in the site, although it is not required for this purpose. Gold members are provided with a special golden paddle badge the distinquishes them from others and those that sign up for a year are granted 5000 points (it is enough to promote a person from Citizen to Fidalgo). They also have access to exclusive functionality and are often the first to have access to new functionality.
Why do you now require a membership? I prefer to be anonymous.
We do not expose your real information to members. They only see your nickname, preferences, and characteristics so you can remain anonymous (or in character) while using the site. You also have the ability to control the level of privacy you require. You can determine if your information will be available to members, friends, or no one.
We require you to sign up for several reasons. The website has several policies which must be agreed to before using the site. Only real people can enter into agreements, so we have to collect the information. This is also an adult oriented site so we need to have some means of determining that you are at least 18 years of age.
What are my options for joining?
You can join directly by clicking the join button on the homepage. This is will set up a Spanking Community Standard Account providing you with a username (nickname) and password.
If you have trouble remembering names and passwords, you can use the Live Join feature that allows you to join our site using the login credentials from other websites. The list of compatible sites include Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Google, Yahoo, OpenID, flickr, AOL, VeriSing, WordPress, Blogger, and WindowsLive ID. You may still need to fill in some information about using this option.
Can I join more than once?
Absolutely. You can have as many accounts as you wish. Please keep in mind that each account will be treated as a separate and distinct account with respect to site functionality, points, and upgrades. The system requires that you use a unique email account for each account (If you use a gmail account, you can use the "+" functionality to use the same email address - see Google gmail for more information).
Transition Questions
What happened to the Spanking Community Chat?
We still offer Spanking Community Chat, but we have upgraded it and changed servers. You can still access it via irc at irc.spankingcommunity.com. Java chat is available by typing http://70.39.85.156:8000/ into your browser address bar. If you do not want to remember this address, it is also available through the SC Chat link on the left side of the main menu bar, but is only accessible for members (membership is free).
Is this the same Spanking Community site I have been visting since 1999?
Yes. It is the same site with most of the same features you have grown to love, plus a whole lot more. We have updated for the times providing you with a true community site where you indulge in everything spanking related and share your experiences with fellow spankos.
Why did you make such a big change?
The whole premise behind Spanking Community was to help spankos come together as a community. The previous websites could only do this in a limited fashion requiring chat to be the principle means of interaction. Chat is still a very important part of the process, but we wanted to offer more. The current trend in the market is social communities and we felt that this fit perfectly with what we were trying to accomplish. The new site delivers multiple methods in which spankos can interact and provide a truly specialized matching system to help you find partners.
What happened to your Spanking Community video membership?
Times have changed. We found that we could deliver better value through a combination of full-length PPV movies that you could download, rent, or buy and free videos through the videozone functionality on our site. The volume of videos available through these channels far outstrips anything we could deliver on our own.
I really liked the Spanking Community exclusive videos and picture sets. Now that they are not available, what are you planning to do with them?
We are not sure yet. We are looking at different options because we know our customer really appreciated the pureness of those videos.
What happened to all the forum posts from the previous website?
In short, they are gone. The forum technology from the former site was old - really old and it did not lend itself well to transfering the data to the new forum. We had posted a set of questions asking on the old forum about two months priror to the transition asking forum members for their opinions about the then current forum and if there was anything they really wanted us to move. The only feedback we got was about the amount of junk in the current forum that people did not want to see and some suggestions for better functionality. From these responses, it looked like people were more interested in starting with a clean slate than preserving the past.
We may consider moving some of the posts over in the future. It would be a tedious task because it can only be done one at a time and there is no good way to add the post to the member's account who originally posted it. If there was a particular post that you treasured, write us using the contact us link at the bottom of the page and we will add it to our list of things to look into (we cannot promise that we will be able to do anything, but if we get a lot of requests from different people, it will elevate the priority).
Site Pages
Account/Dashboard
Most people we use it most often to work with the site email system or as a convienient place to lauch to other areas of the site. Its primary purpose is to help you manage how you will use the site. Here, you can set you Avatar, your privacy settings, see a record of any payments you made, and see a status report about any referrals you may be involved with.
Profile
The profile page is all about you. This is where you can go to see all of your activities in one spot and post things to your personal wall.
SC Chat
This is the irc/java chat that has been part of Spanking Community for nearly a decade. The links here provide access to the java chat which can be run both in the site and as a separate window. Please note that chat will actually log you out if you navigate to a different page while using it in site (you are generally better off to use the link to open to a new window).
People
The people page is where you go to interact with other people. Here you will find the means to look up the statuses of all members and see who is participating the most. You will also find the matching functionality for personnels (click Match on the secondary bar).
Match allows you to locate and search for compatible partners. If any clear matches are available based on your entered profile data, you will see them in the Match block.
Blog
The Blog page allows your to create your own blog and look at other's blogs. This is excellent way to share your experiences with spanking with others. The blog engine is actually quite good and enables you to do a lot with your posts. You can even make a video commentary from the site using your webcam.
Forum
Forums are where members can post stories, experiences and activities. It is a great place to discussion spanking related topics and interact with those interested in the same things as you.
Points
Points are an indicator of status on the site. They are awarded principally through your participation on the site. The more points you earn, the higher the level you achieve. All members start with 100 points and begin at the level of Citizen. As you earn points, your status level will change. At certain levels, the number of points you can earn increases. For example, a Knight earns at a rate twice that of a Citizen and a Fidalgo earns at a rate 5 times that of a Citizen. You see how many points you can earn through the various activities by cliking on the Points Activities link.
Please note how points are rewarded and for which modules. Some site functions do not interact with the points module and some only take into consideration the number of events (if you add 5 pictures at once, you get credit for one picture because the points engine is unaware of the quantity added).
Points can be acquired through the purchase of an annual Gold Membership and they can be purchased directly, but it is important to note that points do not have a cash value and cannot be exchanged for cash (we are not a bank). However, you can use points to "purchase" gifts for others. We may even sometime in the future provide the ability to use points to claim rewards.
When you use points to make a purchase, your points balance will be reduced by the amount of the purchase. The deduction will not effect your experience level points. This means that purchases with points do not act as a penalty towards your advancement of levels .
Please note that points and their associated values are subject to change without notification.
Gifts
Gifts are basically graphic representations of items that you can send to another member. There are two classes of gifts; standard and premium. The primary difference between them is that you can add gift wrapping to premium gifts. Premium gifts tend to me more elaborate and as such carry a higher price.
Gifts are classified using categories to make it easier to locate the type of gift you are looking for. There is also a search feature in the Select Gift block.
Gifts are acquired using points. You can send gifts to multiple friends at once, but each gift to each friend requires a separate point deduction for the cost of the gift (basically if you buy 3 gifts, you are charged the point equivilent for 3 gifts).
Some gifts have very limited amounts available. Most are unlimited (or technically, they have 100,000 units available).
Please note that gift availability and amount of points required to acquire a gift is subject to change without notification.
Invite Friends
This page enables you to send invitations to join the community to your friends. It will send an email to the real email address of one or many friends (click the + after the email field to add more names to the invite).
Referrals are one of the fastest ways to earn points.
Photos
This page allows you to add photos to the site using albums you create. It also enables you to see any albums created by other members who set their privacy features to allow you to see their albums. You can vote on which pictures you like the most and select favorites. Each Album allows you to scroll through its pictures in the View Photo block.
You will find all the pictures from the previous spanking community site posted here available for your viewing pleasure.
Please note that part of the terms and agreements of using this site requires that you only post items you have a right to post.
Sounds
This page allows you to add sounds to the site using albums you create. It also enables you to see any albums created by other members who set their privacy features to allow you to see their albums. You can vote on which sounds you like the most and select favorites..
Please note that part of the terms and agreements of using this site requires that you only post items you have a right to post.
Search
This allows you to search the site for keywords. The results show up within their related blocks so you can see where they are in the site and how they are interrelated.
Videozone
Videozone is a collection of videos taken from Youtube that are related to spanking. It is really a convenience tool that makes it easier for you to watch videos posted by others. If you have posted a video on youtube that you would like to see here, contact us and we may post it.
Polls
Polls enable you to ask the community for their opinion. Any member can post a poll about anything, although we do ask you to refrain from doing anything that would be considered out of place and require that you follow the terms and conditions for the site before posting a poll.
FaceBook and Twitter Integration
The Facebook and/or Twitter accounts directly within the Spanking Community site. This enables you to exchange and share between the sites. You will need to have an existing Facebook or Twitter account for this to work.
These functions are completely independent of Live Join (Live Join simply allows you to use existing credentials from other websites as your credentials for Spanking Community).
Groups
Groups is a special section that only people with a special Groups Membership can modify. The purpose is the allow groups such as spanking clubs and spanking event organizers a place on our community to help promote and run their organizations.
Articles
Articles are content posted by the administrative staff of Spanking Community.
Ads
Ads are essentially classified advertising. Only Gold Members can post ads.
Chat
This is a completely different Chat application than SC Chat. This application is only accessible to Gold Members. It provides a more private setting for Gold Members to interact. It only functions through the website, but provides chatters with the ability to chat both through text and video.
Categories
Categories is a kind of refernce section that can help you locate items in the site that have a common categories. The categories are selected by members for various items that they enter into the site (such as blog posts, photos and polls). You can select which area you want to search by category in by selecting the appropriate link on the right hand side of the Common Categories bar.
Videos
This page allows you to add videos to the site using albums you create. It also enables you to see any albums created by other members who set their privacy features to allow you to see their albums. You can vote on which videos you like the most and select favorites..
Please note that part of the terms and agreements of using this site requires that you only post items you have a right to post.
Files
This page allows you to add files to the site using albums you create. It also enables you to see any albums created by other members who set their privacy features to allow you to see their albums. You can vote on which files you like the most and select favorites. Please note that files are limited by file type, so not all file types can be added.
Please note that part of the terms and agreements of using this site requires that you only post items you have a right to post.
Magnifying Glass
This the iconic representation of the search feature. This allows you to search the site for keywords. The results show up within their related blocks so you can see where they are in the site and how they are interrelated.
Palette
This enables you to change the template from its red color to a very basic shell. It does not change the functionality of the site.
Gray Bar at Bottom of Page
This bar provides easy access to a number of common places on the website. You can hover over the various icons to see what functionality is available with this bar. The right most icon will log you out of the site.
Site Functionality
How do I change my profile settings?
There are several launch points from within the site that provide access to this material. Any of the blocks within the Profile Page related to your profile will have a link called "Edit" in the upper right hand corner of the title bar. Clicking this link will open your profile for changes. You can also access your profile for editing from the Profile section in the Account Control block within the Account page (left side).
How do I send an email to a regular email address?
The email applicaiton within the site is not intended to replace your regular email. It is possible to send emails to regular email accounts, but the accounts have to held by members from the site. When you compose an email, you have the option to send it a regular account by checking a box at the bottom of the message. What you will not be able to do is send an email to any emaild address or recieve emails from anyone who is not a member of this site.
What is the silver bar at the bottom of the page for?
It is a convenient tool bar that allows you to easily navigate about the site. You can also log off using this bar.
Why does the main menu bar change when I log in and can I still access all the features?
The main menu bar changes because most of the features of the site are only available to members. We put the features that you are most likely to use in the left most portion of the bar.
The bar is limited in length, so additional features that do not fit on the main bar are located in a submenu near the right of the bar that looks like a white rectangle with a line under it and green plus symbol on its upper left corner. Pressing this icon will reveal a list of additional features.
How do I get friends?
Friends are "acquired" by your efforts to associate with other people through activities within the site. One of the most common methods is to invite friends (link on top of main bar).
Anyone that joins as a result of a referral by you will automatically become your friend.
How come I cannot add a group?
Groups are meant for organizations such as spanking clubs or spanking events. There is a special type of membership that is sold to these organizations which enables them to create and manage the groups.
How come I cannot create a ad?
Ad creation is one of the functions that is reserved for Gold Members.