More Frequently Asked Questions (Regarding the New Guestbook World)

Why do I see this message, "This GuestBook no longer resides here on Guestbook World!" when I go to my guestbook?
Guestbook World was sold and Leslie Wright (www.lesliewright.com) now owns this website. One of the reasons this business sold was that the community was growing too large and it was too hard to maintain. Under the new management, we have decided that the easiest way to fix this problem was to remove all banner ads from the pages. This relieved many many hours of work need to sell ads, maintain ads, and remember who had and had not paid to have the ads removed. We did some extensive research on other guestbooks on the web, and found that most guestbook services charge anywhere from $9.95 to $49.95 for a guestbook...and only found two that we felt were as professional as ours (one charges $12.95 per year and the other charges $49.95 per year). We decided to bridge the gab between cluttered ad guestbooks that were free and expensive ad free guestbooks....so we decided to charge a one time $20 fee for UNLIMITED use of your guestbook! This takes care of the cost to run such a large server needed to handle our vast community. Emails regarding this change were sent out to all members in our database on July 1, 2004, and a total of 5 emails were sent out before July 31, 2004. If you decided not to continue your guestbook use by July 31, 2004, it was moved to a disabled folder on our servers. YOUR GUESTBOOKS WERE NOT DELETED! We spent about 35 hours creating ways to make sure that your guestbooks would be able to be recovered for those of you who couldn't be reached or changed your mind and wanted to restore your guestbook. If you would like to restore your guestbook just the way it was before July 31, 2004 simply go to our subscription page, make your payment, and send us an email with your guestbook URL or your username/password.

Why was I never notified of this change?
Using a program within our server, we sent out 5 emails between July 1 and July 31, 2004 to all members in our database. This means that the email was sent to the address that you signed up with. If your email address has changed since you signed up, we had no way to contact you. This is why we only DISABLED the unpaid guestbooks rather than delete them. (And believe us, it would've been MUCH easier to just delete them!). It is also possible that your email program or webhost uses "junk mail filters" and our messages were sent to junk mail folders or deleted completely. Even if you are not using a junk mail filter in your email program, such as Microsoft Outlook, you may be unknowingly using a filter through your antivirus program or through your web host. (Usually you can change this, or request to have it changed for you.) We also recreated the whole Guestbook World website and posted a message on our home page as well as in our Support Forums and at the bottom of all the Guestbook Control Panels regarding this change of service. We had no intentions of wiping out your guestbooks. In fact, if you did not get any of our messages and do not wish to subscribe to our service, but would like to retrieve your old guestbook entries, simply send us an email and include your Guestbook URL (found by clicking your "View Guestbook" link). We will restore your guestbook for 48 hours, allowing you to see and copy your guestbook entries. We apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused you. Please know that we spent a lot of time and did the best that we could do to notify all members of this change. NO GUESTBOOKS WERE DELETED! THEY ARE ALL STILL HERE...JUST IN DISABLED FOLDERS! Here is a message from one of our Support Forum Administrators regarding junk mail: "Not everyone's e-mail provider will recognize an e-mail from Guestbook World as being non-spam. I learned about this when I tried to sign up at another message board and the owner there had to personally okay my request, because my e-mail provider (not Guestbook World e-mail) wouldn't let the verification e-mail through. It believed that e-mail was spam and refused to deliver it, even though my junk mail settings weren't on!"

My email is the same as when I registered, and I still don't believe that you sent me any warning. I can't be constantly checking Guestbook World's homepage/forum!
Well, this puts us in a bit of a bind...here's where it's just our word and proof against your email provider. No, we don't expect you to be checking Guestbook World's homepage every day. Once in a while would be nice though, if only to log into your Guestbook. However, our best chance of getting in contact with our members is by email. If that doesn't work, then we have to rely on you logging into your guestbook, which requires you to access Guestbook World's homepage. And if that doesn't work, there's the forum, but that requires you to check that out once in a while as well. We can only do our best with the resources we have! Just as information, we have started a manual database of all our paid customers that includes the PayPal email address you signed up with, your subscription date, and your Guestbook URL. This will help us keep in contact with you (and allow us to send HTML email rathar than those aweful Rich Text messages that we had to send out!) Please help us out by keeping your email address current, or informing us if you would like to have a different email address on file for your guestbook!

So you've deleted my guestbook? 
NO! Your guestbook and its entries are still with Guestbook World; it's simply in a disabled folder. A one time $20 payment along with your guestbook's URL will restore your guestbook. Click here to go to the sign-up page. We know there are other guestbooks out there that are free to use...and we urge you to go ahead and check them out! If they suit your needs, then that is definitely your best option. We are very confident in our service and feel that $20 is a great price for our program!

I don't want to pay $20, but I want my to be able to get my old guestbook entries. Is there any way I can do that?
Yes! Iif you did not get any of our messages and do not wish to subscribe to our service, but would like to retrieve your old guestbook entries, simply send us an email and include your Guestbook URL (found by clicking your "View Guestbook" link). We will restore your guestbook for 48 hours, allowing you to see and copy your guestbook entries. We apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused you. Please know that we spent a lot of time and did the best that we could do to notify all members of this change.

What's wrong with using ads to pay for this service? Everyone else uses them!
With so many joining our community, it was easier to take these ads off rather than keep up with all of them. We believe it is better to concentrate on new upgrades and make Guestbook World better then spend our resources keeping track of ads. Besides, ads clutter and take away from your guestbook. Plus, it is very hard to regulate them. Imagine if you were a church or a children's website and had Viagra ads on your guestbook! You can see how this would be frustrating!

Can't I just go ahead and keep MY guestbook with the ads, though?
No. We are sorry for any inconvenience, and we understand that some of you were happy with ads at the bottom of your guestbooks. However, this was an "ad program." This means that it was a script placed at the bottom of all guestbooks. In order to delete the ads, we had to delete the script.

I have paid for my guestbook, but I still can't access it. What is the deal?
First, make sure you have cleared your Internet cache and refreshed your browser. If this still doesn't help, please send us an email! It's possible that you had more than one guestbook with us and we restored the wrong one. Don't worry! We still have your guestbook! We'll be more than happy to assist you!

I sent you an email, but never heard back from you...why won't you reply?
We reply to your emails within 24 hours 99% of the time. There may be some occasions where we can't get to you within that time frame, but usually 24 hours is adequate to assume that we have received your email and have had time to reply. If you haven't received an email from us, please make sure that your email was sent to support@guestbookworld.com. Also be sure if you use junk mail filters that you have given our email address "permission." Please check your junk mail folders to be sure that our messages didn't get filtered. And don't hesitate to send us another email if you haven't heard from us in 24 hours!

I've changed my e-mail address, but I've forgotten my username and/or password for my guestbook. Can you send that information to my new e-mail address?
No. Due to privacy reasons, we can only send your username and/or password to the e-mail that was given when you registered for our services. This is to ensure that we don't mistakenly give out your information to someone who isn't you. If you have many entries in your guestbook and it is vital that you retrieve it, please send us an email and we'll do our best to try and assist you.

 

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