Categories:

1. How often is the site updated?
The site is updated every evening Monday through Friday unless something comes up which prevents me from posting the updates. I'll post a message on the main board if the site will not be updated on time. Since the members site is only updated Monday through Friday you might see a time when the first postings on the non-members pages are over 5 days old. For example within June 2005, the 13th was a Monday and the 17th a Friday. This means that the site was not updated on the Saturday (6/11) and Sunday (6/12) before this week. So on Thursday June 16th and Friday June 17th the non-members won't see any new ads since 5 days before the 16th was the 11th and no new ads were posted then. The same goes for the 17th because no new ads were posted 5 days before on the 12th. Since I won't be updating any of the site pages on the weekend, the non-member pages will be updated on Monday (6/20) along with the member pages. If you count 5 days before the 20th you get the 15th. This means that the 13th and 14th days ads will also be published on the non-members pages that Monday. This might sound a little confusing but trust me, it does make sense.

2. Why don't you automate the site by using CGI, ASP or PHP?
I could but that takes the effort away. I find it fun to read the ads as I updated the site and see what's going on in St. Louis. I have even made some friends. By reading the ads I can delete ads that are from people far away, have bad language (kids do look at this site), or have nothing to do with music. You never have to see any of this trash. I guess my point is I like to keep the site personal.

3. I am having problems accessing the site. What could be wrong?
First question. Are you using AOL? AOL from time to time blocks my IP address. When my IP address is used as the spoof IP address in a spam message, AOL ads my IP address to their email spam filter even though the email did not come through my system. It stays in place for a few days until the spam stops. Now AOL has a problem. Even though the filter is only suppose to block email from reaching AOL users, the filter also blocks AOL user from viewing my site. When I spoke with AOL support they said this shouldn't happen but they had heard of other sites being blocked by the filter. There are two ways around this. The best is to use an external browser. Just connect through AOL and then minimize the program. Startup either IE or Netscape browser (which will use AOL's connection automatically) and you should have no problem accessing the site. The other way is to add stlmusic.com to your trusted sites list inside AOL. Search AOL help for information on adding sites to your trusted list.

Not using AOL and still having problems? Make sure your cookie settings (security setting) are not set too high. The default settings within IE and Netscape will work fine with the site. If you are blocking cookies then you might have problems with some features, especially on the members site. Cookies have been getting an unfair rap. To read the real story on cookies, the website "How Stuff Works" has a good explanation. If you have any concerns about cookies please read the pages located here (This will open a new window to the cookie information page)

Still having problems. Contact me by means of the technical support page.

4. Why are the email addresses in the ads not links?
If you used the site a while back you would have seen the email addresses uses to be hyperlinks. This was created with the "mailto:" HTML tag. Some email harvesters search webpages for this tag and then collect the email address associated with the tag. In order to stop some of the harvesters from collecting your email address I removed this tag. It's not too hard to copy and paste the email address so I made the change. Some harvesters just look for the "@" symbol but the symbol is used in other text besides email addresses so these harvesters are not as common. Just remember, any time you post any email address to any site it will be harvested eventually. The more popular the site, the faster it will be picked up by the harvesters. Using a free email account is the best way to keep unwanted mail out of your paid main account (charter, AOL, earthlink, etc.)

5. Why don't you allow only members to post and open up the viewing of new ads to everyone? Isn't this how all the other site work?
For a long time I had planned on setting up the membership service so only members could post. There would not be any member pages and everyone would see the ads. That sounds great until the service is put into place. Here is what my experience tells me. Imagine you are a guitar player and you are looking for a group to join. I could post a message to stlmusic.com but it would cost me to do so. Or, I could just wait to see what groups are looking for a guitar player. This person takes the easiest route and just sits back and waits for someone else to signup and post a message. Now let's say a band wants to hire a guitar player but they don't want to get a membership to post because they will just go through the musicians available page and find someone. So they don't get a membership and post. Now I understand that some people would go ahead and take the extra steps to pay but there will be a high percentage that don't because it's just easier. If this starts to happen then there will not be as many ads posted to the site. In turn, fewer people visit because there is nothing new to see. The site dies off.

The current system does have the drawback that not everyone can see the ads right away. It will take 5 days before they will see the information that has been posted to the members page. Now for the positives of operating this way. First, everyone will be able to post an ad. The submission of ads will not die off and has not since the switch from the site being completely free (for the last 8 years) to the membership service. Second, there are over 600 active members (visit the member site every day as of February 2006). Now if one of the 600 plus members (and growing) does not bite at your ad, it will be open to everyone within 5 days. Third point. A lot of people use the site to buy items. Those people that want to get at the best deals will buy a membership in order to get first crack at the item. The membership then grows and more people see your ad from the first posting date. If you item is not purchased with 5 days, it will be available for everyone to see in a short time. Fourth point. No one is excluded from seeing an ad. It just might take a little longer for others. That is the only difference a non-member would notice since the switch over to this system. The members of course get benefits that have been added since the start of memberships. Members get their own stlmusic.com address to use within ads so they don't have to give out their primary account. This is usefully so email harvesters don't get you main address. Members get online support (and phone support if I'm home). Members also get their own webpage (without advertisements or pop-ups) to help sell items or promote their band. Other features are being updated in order to keep and attract members and non-members alike. The new calendar is one example. Those new scripts do cost money but it is being made available to all.

Ask yourself, is $1 a month really too much to spend on this service when seeing all that you get?

6. What's with the gold stars on some ads?
The gold star is to note those individuals that support the site by becoming members.

7. I have signed up for a membership but never received an email confirmation.
Please check your spam or bulk mail folder. Yahoo, Charter Security Suite, Hotmail and AOL have all been known to redirect or delete mail from my system.

8. What's with the questions on the For Sale page?
The idea behind this page is to discourage Nigerian scammers, hoping they won't bother with this simple process. Sure, they could look up the answers on the Internet and get in with a little smarts but most will probably just go to the next target in their search results for items being sold over the Internet. Once you enter the correct answers, you can usually just click your mouse within the question fields and your previous response will be available. It should take about 2 seconds to see the page when you visit. (or become a member to avoid the questions all together)