Problems with Registration? Please Read..

The most common problem reported to us is in regards to Registration, either being unable to register through e-mail or having to continually register, over and over again. We recognize this frustration and have put together this FAQ on the subject to help educate and assist you.

 

Why must I register with Bowsite.com?

If you do not wish to interact with us and our visitors, registration is not necessary. There is no private or subscription sections of Bowsite.com. However, to maintain accountability with thousands of visitors per day, we do require registration to use our interactive features. Another benefit is that registering will also customize our site to your preferences. For example, after registration you will no longer see our splash page which forces you to choose a location. The homepage will automatically default to your preferred location automatically.

Why do you now require authentication via email?

Due to the large number of people that visit on a daily basis, it became necessary to provide a level of accountability. While the internet is a fantastic place and the overwhelming majority of our visitors contributed positive, honest content. Some people, be it due to an anti-hunting (or some other) agenda would attempt to disrupt our freely provided services. Before we required email authentication, they could simply delete their cookies and re-register under a false identity. We put a stop to that in 2006 by authenticating via email. Since then, the demeanor of the public contributions has greatly improved.

I do not give out my email to any website. How can I still participate?

While we understand the concern around providing your email address to Bowsite.com (or any other website), there is no other way to register with us. We suggest you look into a free email service or create a public email account for registration. This is the only cost-effective and rapid tool available to us for authenticating individuals and maintaining accountability.

I have registered, and your site tells me it has sent me an email - but nothing ever shows up in my In-Box. What could be wrong?

Assuming you have entered your email address correctly, the culprit is very likely your Service Provider has incorrectly identified the Bowsite.com Registration as SPAM. This has been a known issue for our AOL visitors since we have created the program. Bowsite.com has never, and will never generate SPAM mail. However, some Anti-Spam programs are very suspicious of server-generated messages and some higher than usual anti-spam settings have been known to block these messages. Here is what you can do:

• If you have a SPAM bucket, check their first for the Bowsite.com Registration Message. It will be addressed from "Bowsite.com Registration "
• If you find the message in your SPAM bucket, and you have the ability to "Whitelist" addresses and domains as SAFE, then please do so. This will prevent any future problems.
• If you do not have the ability to see your SPAM, then contact your ISP and ask tell them they are blocking LEGITIMATE EMAIL which is important to you. Some ISPs will then Whitelist the address and domain for you after you bring it to their attention.
• If your ISP is unresponsive or too large to contact (ie. AOL) then consider purchasing a public email provider. We suggest Webmail.US which is extremely cheap and they do not block Bowsite.com Messages.

I've successfully registered "several times" and it keeps telling me I'm not registered. What's wrong with your system?

Nothing. The problem is almost always on your end and it is because your individual PC is having a difficult time retaining cookies - or they are being blocked. Another reason could be that you are using legacy addressing of bowsite.org. Since cookies are domain specific, you will need to upgrade your registration. Click this link to fix this problem . If you are still having problems, then it is certainly a problem with cookies on your PC.

Cookies are small, harmless text files which are installed to your browser by our servers. There are many reasons why you can not retain your cookie files which are explained below:

Reasons for not retaining cookies/registration

1. You have cookies disabled or turned off
2. You are manually deleting your cookie files
3. You are running a program which automatically deletes cookie files (guarddog, anti-virus, privacy programs, etc.)
4. You are visiting from a different machine than the one you registered on
5. You are visiting from work, and your systems administrator has disabled cookie transmission through your firewall or through a proxy server
6. You are cleaning out your "temporary Internet files" which is deleting your cookies

I found out that my security/antivirus program is deleting my cookies. But isn't it dangerous to turn off my anti-virus program?

Yes, and we don't recommend it. However there should be a configuration setting which allows you to continue safeguarding your PC from virus' without wiping out your Bowsite.com cookies. The big security software packages like Norton/Symantec, McAffee, etc. all let you specify friendly sites to accept cookies. By putting Bowsite.com in that list you will still maintain your privacy and maintain your registration. Check the manual or call technical support for your program.

Isn't there another way to personalize without using cookies?

Not without intervention, but we now have a PIN code feature which can be used on our conferences to easily get your registration back. You will need to enter your Bowsite Supplied Pin number at the beginning of each session and it should be retained for the duration of that session. If you forget your pin it can be e-mail'd back to you by filling out a simple form located here.

Do you provide support for registration issues?

Unfortunately no, we would have no way of knowing the endless configurations available for the thousands of users that visit us each day. We suggest that you contact a technical support person or a local service technician for assistance on your PC.

I like Bowsite.com, but my privacy is more important than your website - why should I turn on cookies just to visit here?

Good question, and it's obviously your personal choice. However Bowsite.com is not the only site which relies on cookies. The simple truth is that most websites use cookies and your experience at those sites will be diminished and frustrating as well. Yahoo.com, Amazon.com, Disney.com, MSNBC.com, CNN.com, all use cookies. In fact, these sites use cookies much more extensively than we do.

I've heard that cookies can introduce a virus, they can also exploit your privacy - is this true?

Since cookies are simple, tiny text files, they can not introduce a virus (virus' are spread by executable programs and scripts). As for exploiting privacy, the only thing a website can do is to track your movements through their own website. This is to enable the website operators to deliver the content that you are interested in and hopefully enrich your experience on their site. Cookies can not be read by sites other than the one which placed the cookie on your machine. Bowsite.com has no way of reading a Yahoo.com cookie - or even knowing if it exists. The most common usage of cookies are in advertising where the site delivers a new, and different, ad to you. We do not use cookies for advertise. The only use of cookies on Bowsite.com is for registration purposes so you can customize your choices and not have to remember an ID and Password with each visit.

What Browsers are Compatible with Bowsite.com

At present, IE up to version 6.X is compatible. We are testing version 7. Firefox is also compatible however we have done very limited testing with Firefox. Netscape browsers are compatible for 90% of the site but some of our more advanced sections have been problematic under Netscape. Since 95% of our visitors use Microsoft Windows and IE, it is always a safe bet that we will maintain compatibility on those systems.

I Use a MAC and your site is not MAC-Friendly, why is that?

We do use technologies that are incompatible with the older MAC operating system. However 90% of the site should be quite useable with a MAC. Since MACs make up less than 3% of our total visitor platforms, we have made a business decision not to include MACs in consideration when deploying new features. We apologize to all of you MAC lovers out there, we realize how devoted you are to that excellent platform. It is just a business reality that we must face when making decisions on content and features.