You can block a user from sending you private messages by using message rules within your User Control Panel. If you are receiving abusive private messages from a particular user, inform a board administrator; they have the power to prevent a user from sending private messages.

This is another one of those questions that continually pops up. PM's work this way....
once a PM is sent by a user, an email is then automatically sent to the receivers email address. Between the time the email is sent and the receiver goes to view the PM, the actual PM sits inside the senders 'Outbox' where it can be deleted if wanted. If the sender decides to delete the PM for whatever reason, the intended receiver will not have a PM awaiting them. This does occur fairly frequently and DollFan does encourage that senders edit their PM's instead of deleting them. We do have the ability to turn off the the senders power of deletion but want to stay away from that unless we feel it is necessary.

Once a registered user at DollFan, you have the ability to send private messages(PM's) to another user on DollFan. Such messages are not readable by others and are a good way to communicate on the board where it is more appropriate or needed to talk 'one on one'. Private messages on DollFan are indeed private and the administrators and moderators do not have the ability nor interest in reading others PM's. If there is a dispute which warrants the reading of private messages, a 'script' can be installed which allows such reading. Efforts are made to inform the community when this occurs and only the parties of interest PM's are under any scrutiny of the administrators. The issues of privacy are legally and morally adhered to at DollFan.

This is a frequently asked question on PMs. When you send a PM, the PM stays inside your outbox until the other side reads it at which point it goes to your 'Sentbox'.

No. It is not possible to post HTML on this board and have it rendered as HTML. Most formatting which can be carried out using HTML can be applied using BBCode instead.

Announcements often contain important information for the forum you are currently reading and you should read them whenever possible. Announcements appear at the top of every page in the forum to which they are posted. As with global announcements, announcement permissions are granted by the board administrator.

Global announcements contain important information and you should read them whenever possible. They will appear at the top of every forum and within your User Control Panel. Global announcement permissions are granted by the board administrator.

Locked topics are topics where users can no longer reply and any poll it contained was automatically ended. Topics may be locked for many reasons and were set this way by either the forum moderator or board administrator.

Smilies, or Emoticons, are small images which can be used to express a feeling using a short code, e.g. denotes happy, while denotes sad. The full list of emoticons can be seen in the posting form. Try not to overuse smilies, however, as they can quickly render a post unreadable and a moderator may edit them out or remove the post altogether. The board administrator may also have set a limit to the number of smilies you may use within a post.

Sticky topics within the forum appear below announcements and only on the first page. They are often quite important so you should read them whenever possible. As with announcements and global announcements, sticky topic permissions are granted by the board administrator.

BBCode is a special implementation of HTML, offering great formatting control on particular objects in a post. The use of BBCode is granted by the administrator, but it can also be disabled on a per post basis from the posting form. BBCode itself is similar in style to HTML, but tags are enclosed in square brackets [ and ] rather than < and >. For more information on BBCode see the guide which can be accessed from the posting page or click here.

This is probably one of the most common questions asked on the forums...and does take some active knowlege on the users part.

Firstly, images that show up inside of posts are actually links to images that already exist somewhere else on the net. What this means is that the picture(s) you would like to display need to already be uploaded onto the internet somewhere. There are several ways of getting your pictures up on the net from ones own website to photo hosting services....a list of services may be developed in the future but for now, if you are unsure of what service to use, just ask in the Questions, Tests and Comments section and you will more than likely receive responses from users who have already done the research into what works and what doesn't.

Once you have a picture uploaded onto the net, you do need to find the address of the picture. Every picture on the internet has a unique address which can be used to link to. The easiest way to discover the address is to view the picture you want to link to, right click on it(this is assuming you are using a Windows OS) and a menu will drop down with some options. Left click on properties and you should see an Address(URL) with something that normally begins with with http://. This is the address that is used to link to. Sometimes the address is very long so you may want to make sure you are seeing the whole thing by holding down your left mouse button and dragging your cursor across the address and down....this should not only highlight the address but show all of it as well.

To display an image in your post simply at any point in your post you want the image to display put [img]tags around the address you highlighted and put within your post at DollFan.
[img]http://wherever.com/image.jpg[/img]

For each picture you want to display within your post you can repeat the above.

We do ask to not have too large of images with your posts....most of the world is on dial-up internet connections and though many broadband users(i.e. DSL, Cable, etc) normally don't notice a big difference between small and large pictures, it can mean a great difference to dial-up users in how long it takes for a post to load when the pictures get overdone. Alls we ask is a bit of consideration for all of the users of DollFan :)

You should see a red exclamation button for reporting posts next to the post you wish to report. Clicking this will walk you through the steps necessary to report the post. Please feel free to utilize this function if you feel it is warranted but as well please think before doing so and do not report posts frivolously. As well, please bear in mind that not all reported posts are acted upon for a variety of reasons....moderators may even agree with you but not take action because the post in question is "buried" already, for example. There may be different interpretations of the post as well.

To add a signature to a post you must first create one via your User Control Panel(UCP).  Please read the post concerning signature sizes before doing so. Once created, you can check the Attach a signature box on the posting form to add your signature to your posts. If you'd like to by default have your signature added to all your posts you can check the appropriate radio button in your profile...i.e., select "yes" for Attach my signature by default:. If you do so, you can still prevent a signature being added to individual posts by un-checking the add signature box within the posting form.

Unless you are a board administrator or moderator, you can only edit or delete your own posts....please note that the delete option may at times be disabled to regular users. You can edit a post by clicking the edit button for the relevant post, sometimes for only a limited time after the post was made. If someone has already replied to the post, you will find a small piece of text output below the post when you return to the topic which lists the number of times you edited it along with the date and time. This will only appear if someone has made a reply; it will not appear if a moderator or administrator edited the post, though they may leave a note as to why they’ve edited the post at their own digression. Please note that normal users cannot delete a post once someone has replied.

Easy -- click the relevant button on either the forum or topic screens. You do need to be registered before you can post a message. The facilities available to you are listed at the bottom of the forum and topic screens (the You can post new topics, You can vote in polls, etc. list).

•  To create a new topic, simply enter into the forum that you wish to make a new topic in, (General Dolly Discussions, for example), and then click on the new topic button which can be found on the top left or bottom left of each list of posts. Once clicked on, a new page will open which will allow you to enter the mandatory subject of your topic and also display a box in which you can enter the text you wish to enter. After entering your post, you can preview it by clicking on the preview button and edit if necessary or simply submit the post which will create the new topic.
  
  You may notice above the posting screen where you enter your text several buttons which allow you to format(change color, size, type, etc.) the text of your post. The use of these buttons is explained in the BBCode link which you will see under 'Options' on the left hand side of the posting screen. As well, you may notice that below the box where you enter your text are some options which you can turn off or on on a per post basis...for instance, if you have your signature in your profile set to display in every post, you can uncheck the 'Attach signature' box before you post which will not display your signature in this particular post.

• To reply to a post, simply enter into the forum and then the 'thread' which contains all the posts within a topic. You can then click on the 'Post Reply' button which you will see next to the 'New Topic' button on the top left and bottom left of the posts. You do not need to enter in a subject for the subject was already determined by the topic/thread starter but the act of posting in reply is similar to posting a new topic described above.

Alternately, you will notice a plain text box at the bottom of the row of posts with a "submit" and "preview" button underneath. This is a "Quick Reply" option where while the above allows for more formatting of your posts such as font color, size, insertion of images, etc. the Quick Reply method offers the user the ability to post without all of the options. As a lightweight option to how posts are normally made it benefits those who simply need to make a post and also those with slower internet connection speeds where all the normal options can increase wait times.

The image below your username is known as an avatar and is typically an image 90px X 90px or smaller which you can upload from your computer to your UCP area. This does require you to be familiar with basic image manipulation for you will need to create the avatar/image to be used with whatever image program available to you....please refer to the "help" section of the program being used and/or feel free to ask questions in the Questions, Tests and Comments forum. Sometimes you can find other users willing to make avatars for you if asked.

DollFan does include the ability of users to interact with each other in sales or trades related to the doll hobby. The section of DollFan where these transactions takes place is within the Classified forums and/or the Advert section. Many users do have concerns with dealing with others in this fashion and DollFan does give it's users the ability to comment on transactions they have been a part of for others to view.


In order to leave feedback simply click on the feedback link(may not be viewable if you are not logged in)found on the top right of most pages or view the individuals feedback rating within their profile which is also a clickable link. When presented with the option of leaving feedback make sure the one you are leaving feedback for is listed after Username. The next option is Role which denotes the one leaving feedbacks role in the transaction....you will either be the buyer, seller, or if a trade was involved instead select "trade". Feedback is then the notation of whether you perceived the transaction to be postive, neutral, or negative on the part of the one you are leaving feedback for.....the Comments text box lets you elaborate on why you had selected the feedback option you chose. Comments do not have unlimited space and are currently maximized at 255 characters...if you see an error stating the feedback cannot be posted please make sure your comments are precise and under the 255 character limitation.

This allows you to save passages to be completed and submitted at a later date. To reload a saved passage, visit the User Control Panel.

If you have broken a rule, you may be issued a warning. Please note that this is the board administrator’s and/or moderators decision and if you wish to contest it contacting who had given the warning is encouraged.....attempting to take it to the forums as a means of resolution is heavily frowned upon and will more than likely result in another warning or removal from the board. We attempt to make DollFan a fun experience for everyone and we do run into individuals who unfortunately attempt to dictate what is fun and not fun to others including the admin/moderators. The admin/moderators have busy lives outside of DollFan and in short do not feel the need to "babysit" the rare individual who attempts to resolve an issue by seeking public support. Please contact the board administrator or a moderator if you are unsure about why you were issued a warning.

If you are a registered user, all your settings are stored in the board database. To alter them, visit your User Control Panel(UCP); a link can usually be found at the top of board pages. This system will allow you to change all your settings and preferences. Most options within the UCP are fairly staightforward though please feel free to ask in the Questions, Tests and Comments forum for further assistance if you are unable to find what is needed.

It is possible the time displayed is from a timezone different from the one you are in. If this is the case, visit your User Control Panel and change your timezone to match your particular area, e.g. London, Paris, New York, Sydney, etc. Please note that changing the timezone, like most settings, can only be done by registered users. If you are not registered, this is a good time to do so.

Your own posts can be retrieved either by clicking the “Search user’s posts” within the User Control Panel or via your own profile page. To search for your topics, use the Advanced search page and fill in the various options appropriately.

Enter a search term in the search box located on the index, forum or topic pages. Advanced search can be accessed by clicking the “Advance Search” link which is available on all pages on the forum. How to access the search may depend on the style used.

Visit to the “Members” page and click the “Find a member” link. Please note that only registered users have access to this feature.

Your search returned too many results for the webserver to handle. Use “Advanced search” and be more specific in the terms used and forums that are to be searched.

Your search was probably too vague and included many common terms which are not indexed by DollFan. Be more specific and use the options available within Advanced search.

There are many, many reasons that a user cannot log in but from experience, 99+% of the cause is normally a forgetten username or password..please verify that you are using your correct username and password....and then verify again, please :)

That said, there can arise certain issues which can and do effect your computers ability to allow a successful login. Please read the following in an attempt to resolve your issue.

• cookies and cache:  DollFan uses cookies as a way to 'remember' who you are. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer and when you visit DollFan, this site requests that cookie as one way in verifying who you are. If for whatever reason the cookie becomes corrupted, you may need to remove it. Your browser also more than likely uses a system known as caching which is designed to make pages load quicker by keeping saved copies of pages on a site from previous visits....this typically works fine except in the cases where users do not clear their cache on a regular basis or the site changes dramatically enough that previously saved/cached pages interfere with the actual pages. Different browsers(i.e. Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, etc.) have different ways of cleaning up your cookies and cache and below is a short list of how to do so.
  • Internet Explorer(ver. 7+) and AOL users: click on tools->and within "browsing history" click on delete->delete all is fine.
  • Firefox: click on tools->clear private data->make sure "cookies" and "cache" are checked(others are fine, too)->click on clear private data now.
  • Opera: click on tools->delete private data->click on "details" to make sure "delete all cookies" and "delete entire cache" are checked->click on delete.
  • WebTV: WebTV does not operate like a pc does and does not use a disk cache system.

Note: These instructions are based on the latest versions of each browser which all should be using. Outdated browsers are outdated for a reason..normally for feature improvements and security issues :)

• Do you have a Firewall/Proxy setting issue? Something else that is fairly common which keeps users from logging in is the use of software designed to act as a firewall. A firewall can be thought of as something which keeps away outside influences on your pc but if firewall settings are incorrect or too high, it can keep necessary information from working correctly. For example, the DollFan forums use cookies which are kept on your pc to be able to determine you are actually you. If your firewall is set too high, it will block cookies from DollFan and can have the effect of not letting you log in..normally, this has the effect of letting a user log in but constantly asking for re-login but can result in a complete login failure. Common firewalls to look for on your PC are ZoneAlarm, Norton Firewall, and Black Ice Defender, among others....each with their own user settings. To determine if a firewall is an issue with your login capabilities, shut the firewall down while attempting to log in to DollFan.
• Is your account active? Again, make sure your username and password are correct. As well, DollFan is a subscription based site which requires an active subscription to remain registered. If a subscription is cancelled, we do make every effort to contact the registered user before the account is deleted but due to inactivity of a user or incorrect or outdated email contacts in profiles, it is possible that you have been removed from DollFan without receiving any notice. As well, if you recently registered but chose a payment method such an echeck via PayPal it does take 3-5 business days for those to clear...once cleared you will have access to DollFan.
• Did you forget your username and or password? Please read the FAQ for lost passwords. You can enter your username or your email address that you have in your profile and an email will be sent to the email address you have in your profile which will allow you to set a new password.

If all else fails you may contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the username and password used but it is expected that you take responsibility for attempting the above checks and procedures first and include that the above has been tried. It is a waste of DollFans and your time to simply send emails stating you cannot log in without any clarifying information....any such emails will result in the sender being referred to this FAQ.

Don't panic! While your password cannot be retrieved it can be reset. The direct method of resetting your password is by going to http://www.doll-fan.com/amember/member.php where you will be presented with a "Lost Password?" option where you can either enter your email address or username in the text box which will send you an email address with instuctions on how to change your password. Basically, just enter the new password in twice and click on the [b]"change"[/b] button which will alter your password to the new one desired. As well, if you have forgotten your username you can just enter in your email address and the email sent from DollFan will also include your username.

Please note that it will send the email to the email address you have on file in your DollFan profile.....if you no longer have access to the email address in your profile you will need to contact DF support at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and be forwarned that you will normally have to provide the PayPal subscription or transaction id# associated with your payment to DF for secruity reasons. We want to try and make sure you are you :) As well, please make sure all emails from doll-fan.com are whitelisted for your email accounts to ensure they are not blocked as spam..this is a very common cause of miscommunication where users state that nothing was sent where the email was but blocked by the users email program.