Frequently Asked Questions

You can either click on the "sign up" link near the top of the page or click here to go to the sign up page.

Once you've filled out and submitted the registration form, our system will send a confirmation e-mail to the address you've provided. It might take a few minutes before you receive the E-Mail, but please be sure to check both your inbox and spam or bulk folders. The confirmation e-mail contains a link that you will need to click on in order to activate your buddystumbler account. Without activating your account, you will not be able to make your profile public and thus cannot send any buddy requests and meet people.

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After you have created a buddystumbler account, you can sign in and start filling out your profile. There are a few sections in the profile that you should complete:

• Profile picture
  Upload a picture that is no larger than 240 pixels (width) and 300 pixels (height). If you need help sizing down a photo, you may want to try mypictr.

• Description
  Write a few brief sentences to describe who you are.

• Interests
  Type in some keywords (NOT sentences) to describe what your interests are. For example, if you love cats, rather than typing "I love cats", type "cat" or "cats" only.

• IM addresses
  Enter at least one IM address that you are willing to exchange when you become buddies with other users.

• Blog (Optional)
  If you have a blog, you can advertise it on buddystumbler too! Simply provide the specified information, and other users can view your latest blog updates right on your profile!

Besides filling out your profile, you will also need to activate your account in order to become a visible user. Your account activation status is displayed on your profile page as well. If your account hasn't been activated, please follow instructions on the profile page to activate it.

Your profile should become visible to other users once it is complete. In case it isn't, you can click on the "Make me visible" button at the top of your profile page. (If your profile is already visible, the button will say "Make me invisible".)

Now you are ready to meet new online!

To learn more about finding buddies and sending buddy requests, please visit our tour page.

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Different members have different smiley's next to their usernames. Each smiley represents a buddy score. You improve your buddy score by receiving high fives from other members (whom you've matched) and individuals you've successfully convinced to join the site. The buddy score is computed using the following formula: 2 * high five count + number of invitations accepted. The buddy levels you may obtain are:

Beginner Buddy

0 to 10

Cool Buddy

11 to 20

Graduate Buddy

21 to 40

Champion Buddy

41 to 60

Wizard Buddy

61 to 80

Super Buddy

81 to 120

Red Hot Buddy

121 to 200

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A buddystumbler badge provides a way for you to link back to your buddystumbler profile. For instance, if you have a home on the web (e.g. MySpace, Xanga, LiveJournal), you can copy and paste the code we provide to put your buddystumbler badge on your site so that others can check out your buddystumbler profile to help you meet people.

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No. Your IM address is only displayed to users you have accepted as your buddies. We recommend you do not volunteer your contact information through shout outs or high fives.

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No. On occasion, the buddystumbler team reserves the right to contact those members that are particularly active (read high buddy scores) in order to solicit their opinions on how the team can make buddystumbler an even cooler place that helps people make friends. Users who have activated their account but have otherwise not made their profile visible may receive up two email messages prompting them to do so.

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If you would like to learn more about buddystumbler or need help getting started on the site, please visit our tour page.

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In order to exchange IM addresses with another buddystumbler user, the two of you must express mutual interest in meeting each other. You can click the "be my buddy" button on the person's profile to send your buddy request. When the other person requests you back, the two of you become buddies and then your IM addresses will become visible to one another on their profile.

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If you are interested in meeting people, you can click the "be my buddy" button on the person's profile to send your buddy request.

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There are a few reasons why you may not be visible:

1. Your profile is not complete because you have not provide all the required information.
2. Your account hasn't been activated.
3. You choose to be invisible.

For items 1 and 2 above, please click here to learn how you can complete and activate your profile. To see how you can make yourself visible, please click here.

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The "You buddied me" starburst means that you have requested someone to be your buddy but the person hasn't requested you back. You can try saying something clever to them with a public shout out and maybe they will want to make friends with you for free online chat.

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Congratulations! Seeing the "We're buddies" starburst means that you and the other person have become buddies. Now both of you should be able to see each other's IM addresses on the profile page under the "IM addresses" section, which is located on the left-side of the page, right below the profile picture.

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Your buddy's IM addresses are listed inside individual text boxes under the "IM addresses" section. You can simply copy and paste those addresses into your favorite IM client (AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk!, or MSN Messenger).

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A shout out is an area on each person's profile that any member can use to post a message. You can use the shout outs section to hold ad-hoc conversations. Or, if you don't want to leave the matching completely up to fate, you can use a shout out to let someone know you're interested in meeting them.

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A high five is a compliment another member pays you. In order to receive high fives, you must actively match up with other members and be on your best behavior. Complimenting people is a great way to make friends.

To give someone a high five, you must be his or her buddy. You can give someone a high five in two ways:

1. By going to your high fives page.
2. By going to the person's public profile page and scroll down to the "high fives" section.

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You will need to sign in and then go to the registration page under the "my account" area. Enter your new E-Mail address and click save. Our system will send out a confirmation E-Mail to your new address and you will need to click on a link in that E-Mail to re-activate your account.

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To permanently remove your buddystumbler account, you will need to go to the registration page under the "my account" area and click the delete button. You will then be redirected to a confirmation screen. If you click yes on this screen, your buddystumbler account will be removed forever. Remember, there's no undo!

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When you go to the profile page under the "my account" area, you will see that near the top of the page there is either a "make me visible" or a "make me invisible" button. If your profile page has the "make me visible" button, it means that you are currently not visible or searchable by other buddystumbler users. Clicking "make me visible" will make your profile become visible to other users. On the other hand, if your profile page has the "make me invisible" button, it means that your profile is currently searchable and viewable by other users.

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To complete your buddystumbler profile, you need to do the following:

• Provide a description
  You must enter a brief description of yourself in the "description" box. At the minimum, your description needs to be at least 20 characters long (about 5 words).

• Enter three interests
  You need to enter at least three keywords (not sentences) to describe your interests. For example, if you are a cat-lover, like to play basketball, and love to travel, you can enter words like "cat", "basketball", and "travel" in the "interests" box.

• Provide one IM address
  You should provide at least one IM address that you are willing to exchange in case you become buddies with other users.

• Your E-Mail must be verified
  When you sign up for a buddystumbler account, our system sends a confirmation E-Mail to the address you provide. In the E-Mail, there is a link that you need to click in order to activate your account, so please be sure to check both your inbox and SPAM folder for the E-Mail. If you haven't received such E-Mail, you can simply update your address on the registration page and our system will resend the E-Mail.

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buddystumbler allows you to make friends with similar interests. If you find someone you'd like to be friends with, and they in turn want to be friends with you, you exchange IM sign-on names for free online chat. The rest is up to you! Cool way to meet people eh?

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Even though millions of people on the Internet use IM, there wasn't an easy way to get to meet people through IM before buddystumbler.

The buddystumbler team believes that a simple site that allows you to make friends is a good thing. We believe short profiles and keywords are good things too. We want to help you find people you want to meet, help people find you, and provide enough context so the both of you can IM without giving away your life story before you even chat.

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The buddystumbler team is comprised of:

• Yim aka yim82
• Han aka viper
• Rajesh aka drizzle

Feel free to buddy us, we love meeting people! You can also find out more about us, the site, and how it all started by reading our blog.

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