3:00PM PST

We are working on an issue in the email forwarding I will update this when it is back online. It should not be too long.

Mark

3:26PM PST

Mail is back up - issues resolved.

The email links on each ad are encoded so that they cannot be harvested by spammers.

To respond to an ad using an email client (outlook, outlook express, thunderbird, etc.) on your PC or Mac just click on the link.

To respond to an ad using a web based email client (Yahoo!, Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) copy the link and ad the site name at the end of the email. For instance if the Reply To link says pers-#### for an ad on TheDateList you would add @thedatelist.com to the end making pers-####@thedatelist.com. The #s being the ads post number. For the CollegeDateList you would add @collegedatelist.com and for the GayDateList you add @gaydatelist.com.

If you need further assistance feel free to contact us.

It appears there are 1 or 2 spammers harvesting the anonymous email links on our sites and then sending spam to them. From what we can see most of this is ending up in spam/junk email boxes and not reaching your inbox but to be proactive we will be encoding these email links (I will post when this has been completed). What does this mean? Well, for one the link will more than likely say “click here to respond to this ad” rather than pers-####@thedatelist.com as it does now.

Now comes the question of using web based email clients like Yahoo as there is no longer an email address to copy and paste into your Yahoo email. Until a feasible solution is found you will need to click the link which will open the email client on your PC and then copy the email address from there. While that is not an ideal solution it will keep the spammers at bay for now. We will continue to work to make a better solution to this. It may also be in your benefit to use Gmail and have that email read by your email client on your PC and also allowing you to respond to ads using your Gmail email address without having to copy an paste.

To get a Gmail account click on this link - www.gmail.com. For explanation of how to get your mail on your PC using Gmail do the following - create the email account > login to the email account > click on settings > click on the Forwarding and POP tab > select Enable POP only for mail that arrives from now on > click save changes. Also, on the Forwarding and POP page you will see a link for configuration instructions - click on it and then select the email client you have on your PC to configure it to get the mail from Gmail.

The testing is finished. The updates are being added to the site. College Date List and Gay Date List updates are complete. The Date List will be next to be updated. If you experience any site issues this is why. The update includes:

Switching the email system for responses to an anonymous pass thru system. We will no longer be keeping responses on the site they will be forwarded to your email acct. Responses to ads in place on the site before this change will be kept on the site for 90 days so you may view them. After that they will be deleted and all new replies are being forwarded to you as of today.

Ads must be confirmed before going live on the site. Once you place an ad on TDL, GDL or CDL you are sent an email with a confirmation link. For you ad to show on the site you need to click on the link or copy the confirmation code and paste it into the box on the site that shows once you have posted your ad.

We have enabled a flagging system. If you find an ad that is not compliant with the site, see someone posting ad after ad, find a spam ad or find an ad that is not within the guidelines you can now flag it for removal. The amount of people flagging it takes for an ad to be removed varies and you can only flag an ad once so there is no need to sit there and flag the same ad over and over as it does nothing after the 1st flag from you.

Personal ads on the site can now be edited. Made a mistake? Want to change something? The body of the ad can now be edited. All you have to do is go to your ad, click the edit link below the ad, enter the password emailed to you when you posted the ad then change what you need to.

The logo is now clickable and takes you back to the home page.

Ads can be auto-reposted every 7 days, 30 days or if you choose not at all. When posting an ad you now have this choice on the post an ad page.

THANK YOU to everyone that helped with this update. THANK YOU to all the users of our sites. It is our goal to make this site what you want while at the same time making it as easy to use as possible.

We are in the works of adding a few features and modifications to all the sites. These should make the site easier for everyone to use.

First, a lot of people seem to lose their password for the ad and are unable to view replies to their ad. Next, they email us and we have the password resent. This has become quite a task of late and as such we will be modifying the sites so that replies are forwarded to you directly from the sender via a pass through email system on the site. The person replying to your ad will click on a link which sends an email to an anonymous-email-addy@thedatelist.com which triggers the site to forward the reply to the email address you used to post the ad. People replying to your ad will not have access to your email address. Your email address will be unknown to them until you reply to their email.

Surfer reads ad > clicks on reply link > writes an email reply > reply is sent to an anonymous email addy on the site > the site forwards this email to the ad’s poster > you choose to reply to the email or not.

Second, ads will be editable. Right now you can post and delete your ad. Soon, you will be able to edit the ad as well.

Third, a flagging system will be established so that if you find a post on the site you find unworthy you may flag it. This will be helpful on cutting down on double and triple posts as well as spam. This is your online dating community so make it what you want it to be. How many times must an ad be flagged to be removed? That will depend on the volume of ads or if someone is abusing the system. It may take one person flagging an ad or it may take a lot more.

Fourth, we will institute an automatic reposting system right on the page where you write your ad. You will be able to choose to have your ad automatically reposted every 7 days, 30 days or not to have it automatically reposted. When your ad is reposted the old ad will be deleted from the system and a new email will be sent to you letting you know your ad has been posted.

There will also be a few other small changes that are mostly cosmetic but should also make the site even easier for you to use. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions please feel free to contact us.

After several attempts we have finally come up with a design we like for the Gay Date List. Big props to Fused for putting up with us through this process. There are a few minor tweaks needed for some of the older browsers - IE6 especially (and I am sure a few of you still use IE6). If you do have Internet Explorer 6 and want to upgrade you can for free from Microsoft. Just click here and you will be taken to the Microsoft IE7 download page.

Again, thanks Fused for the awesome work!

We have been quite busy:

1. The Date List has a new design in place.
2. College Date List is live but we will probably not promote it too much until fall approaches and school is back in session.
3. Gay Date List will have it’s new design up in a week or two.
4. I am writing a sort of - How To - page for those that do not quite understand how the site works.
5. We will be instituting a flagging system for you to flag posts that are spam/inappropriate and want this to be a self governing community.
6. We will also be setting up a pass through email service that will be a separate site and allow you to create a totally anonymous email. This service will be free as well.

If you know of anything else that you think needs fixing or have a suggestion please contact us. Also, please post your ads as the more ads the more traffic we get and the bigger your community grows. The site is free please make use of it!

Ads posted on The Date List in the M4M and W4W categories will also appear on the Gay Date List. All ads posted on the Gay Date List will also appear on The Date List. This should gain more views for your ads and in turn reflect in better responses to your ads.

We will also be updating the TOS and Privacy Statement to reflect this once we implement it.

You may have noticed that in Safari the Gay Date List did not follow the form in it’s CSS (cascading style sheet). I was unaware of this issue until last week when I bought an Apple MacBook. This issue has now been resolved and the site works fine in Safari once again.

If you ever see an issue on the site, see something you feel should not be on the site or just want to drop us a note please feel free to contact us.

Thank you for supporting us. We appreciate each and everyone of you!

The college date list should be live the second week in May. Layout will be the same as the new layouts that are coming soon for The Date List and Gay Date List so that ease of use carries over. The major difference will be that the site is geared to colleges and universities and as such instead of listing ads by city they will be listed by school. Keep tuned in. We are very excited about this project.