To access the site and view the pages as intended, you need a recent generation web browser: Internet Explorer v6, Netscape v6, Firefox v1, Safari v2, Opera v6, or better.

Your web browser MUST have cookies enabled. Cookies are required to use this site and be able to sign on with your username and password. Some firewalls or internet security programs may also block cookies from your browser and prevent you from using this site. Please see how to enable cookies.

Certain features of the site like the chat room or the online photo editor may require the latest version of the Java software to be installed on your system.

City Messenger, and other features like the surveys, require the latest version of the Adobe Flash Player software to be installed on your system. Flash is already pre-loaded on over 90% of computers.

City Messenger, the chat room, and other features of the site may require popup windows. If you have one or more popup blockers enabled on your web browser that are preventing these features from working properly, please refer to the answer below on how to disable or configure your browser's popup blockers.

Please note that we do not support old web browsers, old platforms, or mobile browsers. While some of those may work well, we can't guarantee you will be able to access everything on the site. If you have an incompatible browser or platform, you'll have to upgrade or seek an alternate way to access the site.

If you are using Internet Explorer or Firefox, from the menu select "View -> Text Size" and then choose a larger size.

If you are on a Macintosh computer, usually pressing "Command +" on the keyboard increases the font size in your browser. Use "Command -" to decrease it. If you are using System 9 and your browser does not support font-sizing, then consider switching to the Opera browser which has an awesome zoom function.

If you have IE 7+ or Opera, use the zoom function of your browser to enlarge the page.

Most, if not all, of today's web browsers come with a built-in popup window blocker to combat in-your-face advertisement and other annoying online marketing tactics. These blockers usually do a great job in cutting down on these problems, but sometimes they also block legitimate browser popup windows that are required for the proper functioning of a site. At BiggerCity we use a select number of popup windows for specific features. For example, the chat room loads in a popup window as well as City Messenger (our instant messenger application). Both of these applications could fail to load properly if your popup blocker is enabled and not configured to allow BiggerCity popups.

Instructions for disabling popup blockers vary significantly based on the web browser you use and the type of plug-ins, software, or toolbars you have installed on your computer. While most browsers have a built-in popup blocker, additional software such as toolbars or internet security programs may also add more blockers on top of the browser's built-in one. If you are experiencing problems, all of these blockers must be configured to allow BiggerCity popups or disabled altogether. For more information refer to: http://de.usa.edu/HowTo/How2PopupBlockers.html which contains instructions for configuring several of the popular softwares that include popup blockers.

Please note that if given the choice, it is best to leave your popup blockers enabled but add our domain "BiggerCity.com" to the blockers' "safe" list for sites on which popup windows are permitted. This will allow your browser to block popups from other sites you visit while permitting BiggerCity popups (chat or City Messenger) to load properly.

Go to the  My Settings page and enable the "Ask search engines to exclude my profiles" option. This will direct search engine spiders to exclude your profiles from their index.

If your profiles are already indexed, it may take some time for the search engine to re-visit the site, see the exclusion flag, and remove them from their index. Some search engines (e.g., Google) offer a special removal request form that can speed up the removal process.

Please note that BiggerCity has no control over search engines and their indexing policies or practices. While you can set the flag to ask your profiles be excluded from indexing, it is up to the search engines to respect this directive and comply. They may choose obey the directive or completely ignore it. Either way, we have no control over what they index or not.

Just go to the join section and select your choice from the available options.

Yes! Its called a Basic account and you can register it for free. All you need is a valid email address and answer a few basic questions.  Basic accounts have limited access to some features offered on this site.

It is possible the activation email is getting blocked by a spam filter on your end. If you have a spam blocker, make sure to add our domain (biggercity.com) to the safe/allow/white list of your spam blocker or your email program's address book.  Once you do that, sign-on to the site and follow the instructions to re-send the activation email.

Paid Premium subscription are available to unlock all the services and features of the site. With a Premium subscription you will be able to access everything on the site. You can join the site with a new Premium subscription, or if you already have a Basic account, you can upgrade to Premium status. For more information check out our a feature comparison between Basic and Premium.

We accept all major credit cards (online and by fax) as well as personal checks or money orders in US dollars (by postal mail). For more information please go to the join section. Sorry, we do not accept wire transfers or bank deposits.

Credit or debit card charges will appear discreetly under "BCPCHARGE.COM" (a software company) in your statement. There will be no references to this site or its content.

Sure! You can subscribe by fax or postal mail. Just fill out, print, and send us this  subscription form.

Please note that we use a secure server with a Thawte digital certificate (SSL). With our secure server, all transactions are encrypted for your protection.

We try to process subscriptions as soon as possible. Normally, during working hours it may take from a few minutes to a few hours. But during non-working hours or weekends it may take up to eight hours. If you sent your registration by fax or postal mail, it will be processed the same day we receive it. This could be just a few hours for fax registrations, and a few days for mail-in registrations. Once your subscription is processed, you will be notified via enote and email (at the email address on record for the account).

Your personal information is kept confidential and only used to process your subscription purchases and to verify your identity and age.  The security and safeguard of any personal information you provide is very important to us. For more information, please take a look at our Privacy Policy.

To delete your account (not just cancel your paid Premium subscription) click here.

To cancel your Premium subscription, just go to the "My Home" page and click on "View My Subscriptions". Look for the automatic renewal option and disable it.  This option will only be visible if you currently have an active Premium subscription and have no pending subscription orders. If the option is not available and you need to cancel a pending auto-renewal please contact us. Once disabled, your subscription will expire on the set date and your account will revert back to a Basic account afterwards.

As part of the registration process, you can opt to sign up for our bi-monthly email newsletter "BiggerNews". The newsletter's purpose is to keep our users informed with site news and promotions and will only be sent to the email address on record with the account. If at any time you do not wish to receive the newsletter, you can unsubscribe from it. We do not send unsolicited postal mail.

From time to time we will offer promotions for discounted Premium subscriptions and store discounts. These promotions are typically sent via our BiggerNews newsletter to all subscribers and it's a good reason to keep your BiggerNews subscription active. The promotions come in the form of an alphanumeric code which can be redeemed for discounts or free products and services.

When you submit a subscription order, we send the billing information (name, address, and card info) to your credit/debit card issuer exactly as you provided it to us. It is up to the credit/debit card issuer to take the information, process it, and provide us with an "approve" or "decline" result message for the transaction.

If your order was declined, it is usually because the billing address or card security code you provided us was incorrect and did not match what the credit/debit card issuer has on record. When this happens, your credit/debit card issuer may also keep the transaction in an "authorized but not charged" status for one to five days while the transaction is "settled" and declined on their system. This results on a hold being placed on the total amount of the transaction that often appears incorrectly as a charge or a "pending" charge on your statement. This hold is not an actual charge and no money was paid to us by your card issuer. You will simply have to wait until your card issuer settles the transactions on their end and the hold/pending charge will disappear. Typically, the declined transactions are settled by them within 24 hours. However, some of these institutions may take up to five days to settle the declined transaction and the hold/pending charge will show for the duration of that period on your statement, then it is removed once the settlement is completed.

If your subscription order was declined and it is showing on your card's statement, please allow up to seven days for your bank or credit card issuer to settle the transaction and remove it from your statement. This process is something that is out of our control, and it occurs as a result of an incorrect billing address or security code number being entered with the order. It is up to your credit/debit card issuer to manage the transaction, as well as to settle it in a timely manner. Rest assured that if you got a "declined" message from our site, no money was paid to us and any un-settled pending transaction showing on your statement will be removed by your credit/debit card issuer within a short period of time (usually within 24 hrs, but could be up to five days at their own discretion).

Use the automated username and password recovery tool to retrieve your account information. To use this tool you must know your the email address on record for the account. The account information will only be sent to the email address on record with the account. If you no longer have access to the email address on record, please follow the instructions on that page.

You can change your account information from the My Settings page. We recommend you change your password periodically to protect your account. Also note that you can only change your username once every 30 days and if you change your email address, you will have to go through the email verification process.

Your browser is probably not accepting cookies. This can be due to changed settings on the browser's preferences or because you have a firewall-like program that prevents your browser from accepting cookies. Cookies are required to maintain a logged-in session. Read more about how to enable cookies on your browser.

Your index photo is the photo that identifies you to other citizens on the site. It will be the primary photo shown on all your profiles and profile links. You can change your index photo from the My Settings page.

The rules below apply ONLY to your index photo.

INDEX PHOTO RULES:

• Only post a photo of yourself.
• No nudes (censored or otherwise), no sex, no exposed genitals nor buttocks.
• No photos of objects, scenery, other people, or drawings.
• No doctored photos, Photoshop filters, collages, watermarks, or added text.
• No zoomed-in close-ups of body parts (e.g., nipples, eyes, lips, tattoos, etc.)
• If you do not wish to show your face, a face-less body shot is acceptable (e.g., a shot of your chest, or belly).
• Shirt-less or underwear shots are acceptable as long as no genitals, buttocks, or overly suggestive close-ups are shown (e.g., sex toys, hard-ons, etc.)

In summary, only post a photo of your face or non-naked face-less body. If you do not have any photos that meet the criteria set by the rules above, then do not post an index photo and just use the default "no photo" placeholder provided by the site.

Naked and sexually explicit photos ARE PERMITTED in your profile's gallery photos. Just not as your index photo.

For best results, crop and save your photo on your computer before you upload it. Be sure to crop in the shape of a square (e.g., 200 x 200 pixels), and select only the area of the photo you wish to highlight (e.g., your face).

In order to maintain aspects related to the image of the site, we have a set of specific rules that apply only to the index photo (the photo which is displayed with every profile, citizen search listing, and citizen posting). These rules are described on the previous question above.

Your index photo can be locked by the site administrators if you do not follow the rules regarding what is appropriate to post as your index photo. If you post a non-compliant photo, the site administrators may remove the index photo or change it for another photo in your collection that complies with the rules. Every time the administrators have to manually reset your index photo, a violation of rules is recorded, and once that count exceeds a preset limit your index photo is locked and you will no longer have access to change your index photo.

If your index photo has been locked, you will get a notification message every time you try to change it. To regain access to change your index photo, please make sure you read and understand the rules posted on the previous question (above). Then contact the webmaster, state that you will abide by the rules and ask for the lock to be removed. Removal of the lock will be solely at the discretion of the site administrators and will be based on the number of violations recorded to date.

The community identifier is a quick and simple way to describe yourself (and what you seek) to others. Its terminology is based on traditional terms used for many years in the Chub and Chaser community. For example, if you are a chubby man looking for smaller men, then you can be referred to as a "Chub". On the other hand, a "Chaser" is someone who seeks chubby men.

There are many terms and variations, but we have simplified the list to a just a handful that cover all the basics. Defining a community identifier in the My Settings page is optional (we know not everyone likes the "labeling" thing), but doing so will greatly improve the chances of your profiles being found by other citizens, as this is a heavily used field for searches throughout the site.

Yes. Go to My Settings, disable the "[ ] Everyone can see my online status." checkbox and click Save.

When this option is disabled, you will always appear offline even if you are logged on to the site. Also, the "Last On" date on all your profiles will always be blank.

Please note there is one exception as well; Signing on to City Messenger can override your hidden online status. If you have the option disabled, but logon to City Messenger, then you will show up as being "online" on both the City Messenger list and the site's Who's Online? list. It works this way by design, as one cannot be logged on to City Messenger and remain hidden from others on the site.

A thumbnail is created for the index photo (as well as other photos) after the upload. If the photo you uploaded is rectangular, the site tries to create the best matching square thumbnail from the original photo by cropping some excess. Sometimes this process may yield un-expected results, like a head-less body shot. If you wish to control how your index thumbnail looks, you must edit the original photo on your computer before you upload it to the site. All you need to do is crop the original photo to a square shape using a photo editor program. Then upload the photo again.

To cancel your Premium subscription but keep your account active, click here.

To delete your account, you must sign-on and go to the Cancel Account page.

NOTE 1: THERE IS NO WAY TO RESTORE YOUR ACCOUNT BACK TO ITS ORIGINAL STATE. So, please think carefully about your decision to cancel before you proceed. Once deleted, you will no longer be able to use the account and will be required to create a new account if you wish use the site in the future. No credits nor refunds will be provided for any unused Premium subscription time left in the account.

NOTE 2: ACCOUNT DELETIONS MUST BE DONE BY YOU THROUGH THE LINK PROVIDED ABOVE. DO NOT CONTACT US TO REQUEST YOUR ACCOUNT BE DELETED. We will simply send you back to the link above. This policy is a security measure to ensure the cancellation comes from the rightful owner of the account. Always safeguard your password to prevent tampering with your account or an unwanted account removal from the site.

City Messenger is a web-based instant messenger application similar to other popular messengers like MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, or AOL's AIM.  You can use City Messenger to chat real-time with other citizens on the site.  City Messenger also supports video and audio conferencing with a webcam or microphone (Premium only).

To load City Messenger you need the free Adobe Flash player (already pre-installed on over 90% of computers.)  To video conference you'll need a compatible webcam. To send audio you'll need a microphone on your computer.

Just type your buddy's username in the New Buddy text box and then click the add button.

The buddy list is split into two sections: "Online" and "Offline". If your buddy is in the Online section, you can double-click his listing and the instant message window will open. Then simply type your message and click send.  If your buddy is in the Offline section, it means he is not logged in and cannot receive instant messages. But you can double-click his listing and send him an Enote message.  Please note that if someone has blocked you, they will not get your IMs and thus will not respond back.

While the instant message window is open, click the block icon on the top right, next to the citizen's thumbnail photo (or placeholder). The block will remain permanently until you remove it.

Yes. Just close the BiggerCity browser window without logging out and keep City Messenger open.

If City Messenger does not recognize your webcam or microphone, please refer to the Adobe site for additional help. While the vast majority of webcams and microphones will work with Flash (as long as the operating system recognizes these devices), it is possible certain configurations may be incompatible. Unfortunately this is something out of our control and should be addressed by Adobe Flash support, or your webcam/computer manufacturer.

No. Only one video chat at a time is supported.

City Messenger relies on your BiggerCity logon session to maintain its connection active. If for any reason your BiggerCity logon session is interrupted, City Messenger will automatically go offline. When this happens you can close the window and sign on again. BiggerCity logon sessions can be interrupted by several things, including logging on from another computer, a slow/interrupted Internet connection, or a server reboot on our end.

There are two ways to see who's online using City Messenger. From your City Messenger window, click on the "See who's online now" link in the My Alerts ticker at the bottom of the window. If you're not signed on to City Messenger, you can also click the "Who's on CTM?" link on the site menu (left hand side). To send an Instant Message, make sure you are signed on to the site and just click on the citizen's thumbnail.

Click here to see who's using City Messenger right now.

City Messenger is a Flash based web application. As such, your computer must have the required and free Flash software installed. If you are experiencing problem, please visit the Flash web site to get the latest version of Flash for your computer.

Once installed, if you continue to have problem, try to clear the cache on your web browser. You can follow the instructions posted here.

If that does not help, then consider using a different web browser or check any firewall settings on your computer that may prevent your browser from loading Flash applications.

Mac OS X Users: A common problem that Mac users encounter is the "webcam in use by another application" error message. When this occurs, make sure you do not have any other webcam-enabled applications running (even in background) before you load City Messenger. For example, fully exit iChat, MSN Messenger or any other instant messenger application that could place a lock your webcam for itself and not allow Flash to access it for City Messenger. If that does not help, other workarounds are to logout and log back on to your Mac account or reboot your Mac to try to clear the problem.

City Messenger is provided as a free service to all our users. As such, it is provided "AS IS" with no expressed or implied guarantees. Due to proprietary third-party technology requirements involved, City Messenger may not work with your particular computer system, web browser, or webcam.

Credits are points you gain by participating on selected sections of the site. Credits are awarded based on your participation and can be collected over time. Once you have collected enough, you can redeem your credits for items or services. You can access your history of credits from the My Credits History page.

Here's the list of credit awards. The awards are subject to approval and this list may change from time to time as the awards are revised.

To redeem credits for a Premium subscription extension, you must have an active Premium subscription and only one extension is allowed per subscription period.

Yes, only products (such as the hat or discount codes) can be given (or sent) to someone else. The Premium subscription extensions will only apply to your own account and cannot be transferred.

If you are awarded credits for something and then remove it, the system will take the credits as well. For example, if you post your personal ad you will be awarded credits for that. But if you later remove your ad, then you will loose those credits.  In certain situations, this may set your total credits in negative numbers. This is done to prevent abuse of the credits system.

The top ranks are calculated every night for total credits accumulated over time (regardless of how many credits have already been redeemed). This ranking system's purpose is to show who are the most active citizens on the site when it comes to content contributions.

The first step in troubleshooting email problems is to make sure the email address registered with your account is correct and has been validated.

Site emails (account management, support, alerts, etc.) may be sent to any registered citizen account upon user request. If you are not receiving site emails you should add BiggerCity's email addresses or domains to your email application's Contacts or Safe list. See the instructions here to learn how to do this.

Receiving emails from other citizens is only available to Premium citizens with an active subscription. To receive emails from other citizens, first go to the My Settings page and confirm that you have the "[x] Enable the Email button on all my profiles" option checked. Lastly, follow the instructions here to add BiggerCity's email addresses or domains to your email application's Contacts or Safe list.

Please note that every citizen email sent through your profiles is also saved in the "Emails" folder of your Enotes. This ensures you don't loose any emails that may get trapped or blocked by spam filters on your email application.

We have a mailing agreement with AOL, Hotmail, and Yahoo Mail that require us to invalidate email addresses when the recipient reports any email message from BiggerCity as Junk mail or Spam. Please pay careful attention to which emails you flag as Junk/Spam in your email application. If you flag any emails that originated from BiggerCity as Junk/Spam, those will be reported back to us and your email address will become unvalidated. You will then have to go through the email validation process again every time that happens. To prevent this, we recommend you use the DELETE button on your email application to clean up your mailbox from any unwanted BiggerCity emails. Alternatively, you can change your contact options here for the site or here for the newsletter to better control what mailings you get from BiggerCity.

Your email address may also become unvalidated if emails from BiggerCity to you bounce-back "undeliverable" or "rejected" after a few tries. Please make sure you have a valid email registered with your BiggerCity account.

It is also very important that you add our site source email addresses or domains to your email application's Contacts or Safe list. Please refer to the instructions here for information on how to do this.

To prevent your email application from blocking or filtering emails, you should add BiggerCity's emails / domains to your mail's Contacts or Safe/White list. This instructs your mail application that emails from BiggerCity should be delivered to your Inbox and not blocked or filtered into your Junk/Spam folder:

Instructions for popular ISPs and web-mail services:

AOL:

1. Click the Mail menu and select Address Book.
2. On the "Address Book" window, click the Add button.
3. On the "Address Card for New Contact" window, type in the "Other E-Mail" field.
4. Make the From address the "Primary E-Mail" address by checking the associated check box.
5. Click the Save button.

AOL Web Mail:

1. Click Contacts on the menu.
2. Click New and select New Contact.
3. In the First and Last name box enter "BiggerCity" and "Mail" respectively.
4. In the Email 1 box enter:
5. Click Save.
6. (repeat steps again for all emails listed above)

Hotmail / Windows Live Mail:

1. Click Options on the upper right hand corner. If a drop down menu appears, select "More options...".
2. Click Safe and blocked senders.
3. Click Safe senders.
4. In the Sender or domain box enter "biggercity.com" and click Add to list.
5. In the Sender or domain box enter "bigger-news.com" and click Add to list.
6. Click go to Inbox on the menu to return to your Inbox.

Yahoo Mail:

1. Click Contacts on the menu.
2. Click Add Contact.
3. In the First and Last name box enter "BiggerCity" and "Mail" respectively.
4. In the Email box enter:
5. Click Save.
6. (repeat steps again for all emails listed above)

Gmail:

1. Click Contacts on the menu.
2. Click Create Contact.
3. In the Name box enter: "BiggerCity Mail".
4. In the Primary Email box enter:  
5. Click Save.
6. (repeat steps again for all emails listed above)

Enotes are our internal messaging system. It is very similar to web-based email systems (e.g., Hotmail), but only works through the site and with its citizens. Enotes are an excellent way to communicate with other citizens while keeping your email address private (email addresses are not used) to avoid spam or unwanted messages.

There are two ways you can send an Enote. If you know the citizen's username, you can go to the My Enotes section and click "New Enote". Then just type the username and your message and click send.  The other way is through any of the citizen profiles. The profiles for each citizen will have an "Enote" link, which you can click to send a message.

You can read your Enotes from the My Enotes section. Also, when you sign-on the site will direct you to the My Home page which will have an indicator of how many new (or unread) Enotes you have. Clicking on that link will direct you to the Enotes section.

From the folder view, just check the box next to the Enote(s) you want to delete. Then click the Delete button. When reading an Enote, you can also click the Delete button to delete it.  Deleted Enotes are placed in the "Trashcan" folder.  That folder is emptied out once a week and any Enotes there will be permanently deleted.  You can also manually empty the Trashcan folder by viewing it and clicking the Empty Trashcan button.

Yes... If you have an active Premium subscription, you can attach up to five photos from your photo collection to any Enote you send. Please note that the photo attachments are links to photos in your My Photos collection, so if you remove the photos at a later time, the original recipient of the Enote will no longer be able to access the photo.

From the list page, enable the checkbox next to the Enote you wish to move and then select the target folder from the "Move To..." drop down. If you a reading the Enote, you can also use the "Move To..." drop down to move that particular Enote to another folder.

Because storage of Enotes is limited, each Enote you receive will be assigned an expiration date of six months. After that period is over, the Enote will be automatically deleted from the system to save storage space. If you wish to store an Enote permanently, simply move it to the "Saved" folder and the Enote will not expire and be deleted.

Each citizen type (Premium or Basic) is allotted a specific maximum number of Enotes he can store. The Enotes system will keep track of your storage use and show you a graph with the number of Enotes you currently have, the maximum allowed, and the percentage use.  If you reach your limit (or you are close to), we recommend you cleanup your Enotes by deleting those Enotes you no longer need.  That way you will ensure you can continue receiving new Enotes from other citizens. Please note that once your maximum limit is reached, you will no longer be able to receive any new Enotes.

Yes. You can enable the email notification alert, so you are notified via email when you receive new Enotes. Just go to the Enote Options page, enable the Email Notification option and click Save.

If you are getting unwanted Enotes from another citizen, you can block him from sending you further messages. To do this, just open the Enote he sent you and click on the "Block this Citizen" icon on the upper right hand side of the Enote. Alternatively, you can go to the My Blocks section and enter the citizen's username to place the block.

The current settings on your web browser are preventing the rich-text editor from loading. Since it is hard to troubleshoot incorrect settings on your browser, it is best to simply disable the rich-text editor and use the standard editor instead to solve this problem. To do so, just go to your Enote options page and uncheck the "Use Rich Text Editor" option, then click the Save button.

The Enotes system uses an anti-spam filter that may flag some Enotes sent to you as spam (a.k.a., junk mail). When this happens, the filter still delivers the Enote, but it will be placed in your Spam folder instead of your Inbox. Flagged messages also do not trigger new Enote indicators on the site.

The Enote Spam Filter system uses several rules based on language and keywords to flag a message as Spam or not. These rules are automatically updated on a regular basis, as the system continuously learns of new spam patterns and messages that are reported by users over time via the "Report Spam" link. The Enote Spam Filter weights spam keywords and links heavily in determining if a message is spam or not. When messages are flag as spam, certain keywords and links may be removed from the message to protect our citizens from clicking on links that may be unsafe or disguised.

My Photos is management system for the collection of photos (of yourself) which you have uploaded for your profiles (citizen gallery, personal ad, contest entry). With My Photos you can view all your photos in a single interface and assign the photos to (or remove from) your profiles as well as delete or upload new photos.

From the My Photos page, click the "Upload Photos" link. From the Galleries section, click "Upload Photos" and then select "My Photo Gallery" for the destination when prompted.

Your photos will always be shown in your Photo Gallery profile by default. You can also attach any number of your photos to other profiles such as your Personal Ad or Contest Entry.

From the My Photos page, just enable the checkbox below the thumbnail of the photo for the profiles where you want the photo shown and then click the Save Changes button. When viewing the photo in full size, you can also set the profile checkboxes and click Update.

From the My Photos page, click on the trashcan icon right above the thumbnail to delete that photo.

When viewing a photo in full size, click the red Delete button.

The photo editor is available so you can do some basic online editing of the photos in your My Photos collection. With the photo editor you can rotate, crop, resize and adjust the colors of your photo online, right on your web browser. To use the photo editor, you need to have the latest version of the free Java software installed on your computer.

Permissions can be applied to any of your photos to lock them for viewing by a particular group of citizens. You can set the permission of a photo to "Everyone" (the default setting) and any citizen (Basic or Premium) will be able to see that photo. Setting the permission to "Premium Only" will only allow Premium (pay subscription) citizens to view the photo. Setting the permission to "My Friends Only" locks the photo for viewing only to those citizens who are in your My Friends list. Certain limits apply to the "My Friends Only" permission (see next question for more information.)

To lock a photo to "My Friends Only" you must have at least one friend in your My Friends list. There are also two additional limits that apply to this permission. If you have 10 or less photos total in your My Photos collection, then you are allowed to lock up to 2 photos with "My Friends Only". If you have more than 10 photos then you are allowed to lock 10% of your photos to "My Friends Only". For example, if you have 43 photos total, you can lock 4 photos (10%). These limits are in place to promote sharing of photos with all citizens on the site and not just to a select group.

The photo manager previously allowed citizens to upload photos to their account and not post them publicly on any profile. This was known as "hidden" photos, because only the photo owner (you) could view the photo from the My Photos collection. This hidden-photo feature is no longer supported, but those "hidden" photos that remained at the time of conversion, were kept in that same state. New photos uploads cannot be hidden as before, but the existing ones were left the same for the owner to decide what to do.

If you were unfamiliar with this feature, you may have set "hidden" some of your photos unknowingly, depending on how you managed your profiles and photos. For example, if you had some photos attached only to your Personal Ad, but then removed your Personal Ad without resetting the photos, then you would have ended up with some hidden photos in your account.

If you have any photos in your collection with this hidden status, you have three options; You can leave the photo "as-is" and continue to hide it from other citizens until you decide what to do later on, you can delete the photo, OR you can update the photo and attach it to a profile. If you choose to update the photo, it will immediately become visible to other citizens and will be posted by default to your Photo Gallery profile and any other profile you may have chosen. Remember, if you wish to control who views this photo, you can also set the permissions for it to Premium Only or My Friends Only.

As we move forward with the development of the site and mold its framework for future features, we sometimes have to change how things work. This was one of those occasions, and this rather unknown feature had to be dropped. Future features planned for the photo system will require all photos to be attached to at least one profile. Now, all photos are attached to the user's Photo Gallery by default, and this will allow us to add planned new features in the future. Although this change does not affect most of our users, we did consider it greatly and the best solution that was devised, was to keep the hidden photos in place after the conversion and let the users decide how to handle them. Left-over hidden photos are now visually marked in a red thumbnail frame in your My Photos collection so you can identify them with more ease.

The My Photos collection is designed for citizens to upload photos of themselves and share with others on the site. The primary subject of photos in your My Photos collection should be you, the account holder.

If you upload a photo to your collection, which does not portray you and has no direct relation to other photos in the series in which you are the main subject, then the photo may be flagged as "off-topic" by the site administrators. This means the photo will not be removed from the site, but it will be removed from your profiles and placed in a special folder called "Extra Photos". This folder will be attached to the list of photos in your Photo Gallery and will be visible and accessible by all users of the site.

Examples of "off-topic" photos may include cartoons, drawings/graphics, political or religious statements, photos of objects, bumper-sticker comedy, scenery, etc. It is important to note that not all of these photos may be considered off-topic. The site administrators will make a judgment call based on the ratio of off-topic to standard photos as well as other parameters in your photo-series and profiles.

Please note that this Extra Photos space and policy are provided as a way to allow our citizens to occasionally share some off-topic photos. It is not meant as a pass to upload lots of off-topic photos, as this is still against the rules because it drives down the quality of the galleries and profiles in general. The site administrators continue to reserve the right to remove any photo deemed out-of-order with the proper use of the profile space, and per our Terms of Service and guidelines.

My Videos is a management system for the collection of video clips (of yourself) which you have uploaded to your citizen video gallery. With My Videos you can view and manage your video clips from a single interface.

From the My Videos page, click on the "Upload Video" link. From the Galleries section, click "Upload Video" and then select "My Video Gallery" for the destination when prompted.

The supported formats are: Windows Media, RealMedia, QuickTime, and MPEG. The video files must have the proper filename extension before upload (e.g., .wmv, .mov, etc.)

The site uses the industry standard Zip compression format to compress and archive all uploaded video clips. This is done to ensure the video clips can be downloaded without problem by all our citizens. Once downloaded, the video clips must be "unzipped" (extracted from the Zip file) before they can be played. Many operating systems nowadays have built-in support for Zip, but if you for those that do not there are freely available Zip programs on the Internet (required to unzip the downloaded video files).

From the My Videos page, click on the delete icon next to the video clip listing.

My Favorites is a collection of items you bookmark through the site so you can access them quickly at a later time. The items are stored in an easy to access page. You can use favorites to bookmark personal ads, citizens, photos, videos, and other items.  Some items like events and venues when bookmarked, will list you as having an interest or being a participant of that event or venue if you are sharing your favorites with others.

Items throughout the site that can be bookmarked will have an "add to favorites" ( or  )  icon. Just click that icon and the item will be added to your favorites collection.

Go to the My Favorites page, then click on the category where the items are located. When the items are listed, they will have a "delete favorite" ( or ) icon next it. Click that icon to remove the item from your favorites collection. If these delete icons are not listed with the items, just click on the item and the icon will show on the view page for that item.

Yes. There is a maximum limit for the total number of items you bookmark. This limit is shown in the My Favorites page along with your current percentage usage.

Yes. You can share your list of favorites with other citizens on the site. This is a good way of letting other know what photos, profiles, or citizens you like. To share your favorites, go to the My Account Settings page, enable "Share my list of favorites with others" option. and click Finish. You must have an active Premium account to change this setting. If you wish to stop sharing your favorites, return to that page and disable the option. Your shared favorites will be accessible to other citizens through any of your profiles.

If you bookmark an item which is then later removed from the site by the owner or the administrator, the item may disappear from your favorites list. This is because the item is no longer available on the site for viewing.

My Blocks is a management interface from where you can place blocks against other citizens. For example, if there is a profile you dislike and do not wish to see in your searches you can place a block and it will not be shown in your future searches. Also, if you wish to stop receiving Enotes from another citizen, you can block that citizen and stop receiving his Enote messages.

From the My Blocks page, you can enter the citizen's username and select the block options then click the Add Block button. Also, some items (like personal ad listings or Enotes) will have a block icon which you can click to quickly block a citizen.

From the My Blocks page, disable the block checkbox next to the citizen listing and click the Update button. If you wish to remove the citizen from your list altogether, enable the checkbox to the left of the citizen listing and click the Delete button.

Yes. If you receive an unwanted email message you can go to the My Blocks page and place a block on that particular user.

My Uploads is a repository of your unprocessed uploads that are destined for the general Galleries. When you upload photos or video clips for the general Galleries (Chubs, Husky, Twink/Muscle) they are placed in a queue until they are processed. With My Uploads you can see all of your unprocessed uploads for these galleries, and you can also delete them before they are processed.  Processing of the uploads happens on our end, and if your uploads are approved they will be posted to the galleries. If they are declined, they will be deleted from the system.

For unprocessed uploads go to the My Uploads page, enable the checkbox next to the upload item and click the Delete button. For processed uploads that are already posted to the general galleries, you must submit a support request and provide the item ID, location, and reason for removal.

Due to the large number of uploads we receive every day, it may take up to a week for your uploads to be processed. We thank you for your patience.

Yes. In order to keep the queue to a manageable size, there are limits as to the number of uploads (or total size in kilobytes) of unprocessed uploads you can have.  These limits are displayed in the My Uploads page along with a percentage usage graph.

My Friends is online social networking. It allows you to add other site citizens to your own "friends list" and be part of others' lists. Mutual friends (with an active Premium subscription) can post comments or testimonials on each other profiles. The friends list and comments are public, so anyone on the site can see who your friends are and in turn dig down and see who your friends' friends are too. It is a fun way of connecting friends online that encourages communication among citizens who may not know each other, but have a friend in common. My Friends is also a good way to learn more about someone by reading the comments posted for that person by his own friends. Another great feature of My Friends, is that you can send bulletin messages to all your friends at once. For example, if you want to let all your friends know that you will be hanging out at the bar this weekend, or going to next month's social, just send them a bulletin and ask them to meet you there.

To add someone you know to your friends list, all you have to do is send them an invitation. You can do this by clicking  the add friend icon " " on the top right any of your friend's profile pages, or by going directly to My Friends and clicking the "Invite" link.

Go to your My Friends page and click on the trashcan icon shown above the thumbnail of the citizen you wish to remove from your friends list.

Once your friend is on your list (My Friends) you can post a comment by visiting his citizen profile page (click on the citizen thumbnail) and clicking "Post a comment". Please note that you need an active Premium subscription to post comments.

To remove a comment, sign on to your account and go to your citizen profile page (My Friends, click "View my profile..."). Then click on the "comment" icon with a red "x" shown to the left of the comment you want to delete. Remember that if someone on friends list is abusing the comments feature and posting unwanted comments on your profile, it is best to remove this person from your friends list. This will prevent them from posting any further comments on your profile.

Go to your My Friends page and click on the "Send bulletin..." link. Then type your message and click send. All citizens in your friends list will receive the message via Enotes.

Joining a friends list is done by invitation. You can invite other citizens to join your friends list or other citizens can take the initiative and invite you first. Any time you send or receive an invitation it is recorded in your My Invitations page until it is processed (accepted, declined, or canceled). If you sign on to the site and receive a notice of new invitations, it means someone has sent you an invitation to join. You can either accept or decline the invitation. If you accept, this person will be added to your friends list AND you will be added to his list. At this point you are both mutual friends and can post comments on each other profiles provided you have an active Premium subscription. If you decline the invitation, then nothing happens. The invitation is removed from your list and you have not joined nor accepted anyone onto your list. For invitations that you have sent, and have gone "un-answered", you can cancel them also from this page. Lastly, if you keep getting unwanted invitations from the same citizen, you can use the block button to prevent him from sending you any further invitations.

You can only have up to a pre-set number of friends. Once that maximum limit is reached you will no longer be able to accept or send new invitations. The limit is posted in your My Friends page. The only other limit is for comments. Your account will only display up to 300 comments. Any new comments posted once you reach that limit will be accepted, but the oldest comment past that limit will be automatically deleted.

My Visitor Log allows you to track other citizens who have visited your profiles. The log keeps a record of the last visits to your profiles and shows you a thumbnail listing of these citizens, with the last date they visited and the number of times they have viewed any of your profiles (citizen profile, personal ad, contest entry, photo gallery, video gallery, blog, etc.).

The visitor log is an opt-in program, which means that for you to see who has been visiting your profiles; you must agree to be tracked as well. Unless you agree to enter this optional program your visits to other's profiles will not be recorded and you will not be able to see who has visited yours.

The date represents the last time this person viewed any of your profiles. The number is the total number of times this person has viewed your profile.

A higher number of views could possibly indicate a higher interest in your profiles by a particular user. You can sort your visitor log by number of views or date of visit among other options.

The Visitor Log only keeps the last 100 visits to your profiles. This means that once you have 100 tracked visits to your profiles, new ones that come in will result in the automatic removal of the oldest ones.

The Blogs section is a categorized directory of blogs that are created and maintained by our citizens. Blogs are sites that capture particular views, ideas or opinions over time. Each blog tells a story, be it a person, an organization, an event or any other subject. You can search our blog directory by community identifier, blog owner location, or category. Premium citizens can also rate blogs.

Wikipedia has a good definition of blogs.

No. But there are several free providers online. Blogger.com is a popular one.

You must have a public (no password required to access) blog hosted somewhere online and it must have a published RSS (or RDF) feed. To list your blog all you have to do is provide the URL (web address) for the RSS feed, edit the description and select an appropriate category. The RSS feed is required.

No. Only RSS (or RDF) feeds are supported at this time. However, if your blog service provider does not offer an RSS option, you can use FeedBurner to convert your Atom feed to RSS and then use the FeedBurner link to register your blog in the directory.

Your RSS feed must publish a <pubDate> element with the date and time of the last updated entry in your blog. Without this element, the site does not know when your blog was last updated and will only list the date you registered it on the directory. Check with your blog provider to find out if your RSS feed can publish the <pubDate> element. The site will check for updates every few hours by pulling the blog's RSS feed.

BiggerChat is a text based chat room where you can chat with other citizens and visitors of the site. There are no set topics, thus BiggerChat is mainly an informal meeting place where you may meet people in the community that are close to you or from around the world.  BiggerChat also supports webcams and you can view other webcam users online or use your own webcam to transmit your image.

Please visit BiggerChat's webcam page.

Please visit BiggerChat's FAQ page, or the Cams & Chat page for more information.

BiggerChat is an IRC based chat system. If you choose to connect through the web site, you will be using a Java client to chat online. The Java clients are Java-based applications that run inside your web browser and allow you to establish and maintain a chat session with the chat server. As such, your computer must have the required and free Java software installed. If you are experiencing problem, please visit the Java web site to get the latest version of Java for your computer.

Once installed, if you continue to have problem, try to clear the cache on your web browser. You can follow the instructions posted here.

If that does not help, then consider using a different web browser or check any firewall settings on your computer that may prevent your browser from loading Java applications. Alternatively, you can avoid using a web browser and Java and instead use a stand-alone IRC program to connect to the chat room. For more information please visit the BiggerChat IRC page.

BiggerChat is provided as a free service to all our users. As such, it is provided "AS IS" with no expressed or implied guarantees. Due to proprietary third-party technology requirements involved, BiggerChat may not work with your particular computer system, web browser, or webcam.

The Columns section is where we publish articles, stories and other readings of interest to our community. It is similar to an online magazine, with columns such as news, travel guides, horoscope and cooking recipes.

We're always looking for good talented writers. If you can write articles that are of interest to the Chub and Chaser community in general, we would like to hear from you. You could write single articles from time to time, or get your own column and post your writings more frequently. Please contact us with your ideas and sample writings.

Absolutely. We have three main categories for erotic stories (Chubs, Husky, and Twink/Muscle). You can submit your stories from the Columns section. If your story is approved and posted, you will also receive credits for it.

Yes. Once your article or story is posted, you can edit it online by viewing the article or story and clicking the "Author" link. Once edited, your article or story may be subject to re-approval.

Yes. When you submit a question to the Bear Abby advice column, you can sign it with an anonymous alias (e.g., "Sleepless in BiggerCity"). Your account or username will not be associated with your posting.

The Contests section hosts our two contests; The yearly "BIGGER Contest", and the monthly raffle. The yearly contest is open to citizens with a Premium subscription, and there are two winners selected; a "big guy" and a "small guy". These winners are selected based on the total number of "star" ratings collected over the duration of the contest. The monthly raffle is open to all citizens (Basic and Premium) who are active (logged in at least once) within the preceding month. The monthly raffle picks a random winner on the first day of each month.

To participate in the yearly contest, all you need is an active Premium subscription and at least one photo. Use the Contest Wizard to create your entry. Participation in the monthly raffle is automatic. All you need is an account (Basic or Premium) and be active (logged in at least once) within the preceding month.

The yearly contest wraps up in mid December, with the winners announced before the end of the month. Winners for the monthly raffle are announced on the first day of every month.

The prizes for both the yearly contest and the raffle are posted in the Contests page.

Yes! In the BIGGER Contest you can rate as many contest entries as you like.

Yes. You can vote at any time during the contest, as well as change the rating you gave a contestant any time. You must have an active Premium subscription to vote (or change your vote).

Yes! You can record a video message online with your entry. Video messages are a great way to spice up your entry and differentiate it from that of other contestants.

Yes. From the My Home page, under the My Profiles section, you can see how many times your entry has been viewed and how many votes you have received so far.

However you will not be able to see how many stars you have collected. But, each vote can count for at minimum of one star or a maximum of 10 stars. So if you have 10 votes, you know you already have anywhere from 10 stars or a max of 100 stars collected. The winners will be those with the highest number of stars collected at the end of the contest period.

Use the Contest Wizard to enable or disable your contest entry.

At least one photo is required to participate in the yearly contest. If you enter the contest, and later remove your photos from the entry or the site, then your contest entry will in fact be disabled automatically. To re-enable your entry, you must attach at least one photo to the entry and go back to the Contest Wizard to re-enable it.

Another reason your entry may no longer be listed could be that it is currently disabled (you can re-enable with the Contest Wizard) or it was removed by a site manager for a violation of the rules or guidelines.

The Community section hosts a listing of venues and upcoming events that are of interest to our community. In this section you can find when and where the next gathering is, or local bars or clubs in your area.

Events are gatherings, conferences, parties, or meetings held on particular dates. Venues are places like bars, or dance clubs, and places where the events are held. Venues are also membership clubs, like Girth & Mirth, who sponsor or host events.

Yes. If you're in charge of a venue or event that caters the Chub/Chaser or Bear communities, you can post them in the Community section. Please note that to post an event you must first have the sponsoring or hosting venue posted, as each Event must be linked to a venue. To post your venue and events go to the Community page and click on the appropriate links.

You can contact us with your request to feature your venue or event. We will consider all requests, but please be aware that featuring an event or venue is usually reserved for large national (or international) events or well known venues.

If you are planning to attend a particular event and want others to know it, just add that event to your favorites (bookmark it) and make sure you are sharing your favorites. This way your citizen username will be listed in the event page as someone who plans to attend the event. This is a great way to meet others who plan to attend the event and start making connections before the event begins.

You can bookmark (add to your favorites) any of the venues that you visit or participate in. If your favorites list is shared, then your citizen username will be listed below the venue as someone who participates or visits. This is a great way to meet others who are interested in attending the venue or already do.

If you posted the event or venue yourself, you can view it and then click on the "Manager" link to edit the listing. If the Manager link is not available, and you are the person in charge of the venue/event, please contact us and we will assign editor rights to the listing to you. This way you can keep your listing up to date with changes and last minute updates.

This link allows you to download an iCalendar file with the event information and dates/times. The iCalendar file can be automatically imported into your personal information manager application (e.g., Microsoft Outlook) so that the event dates are marked in your calendar for a reminder. If you use Outlook, all you have to do is click the link and then click the Open button when prompted. This will load the event right into Outlook. If you use a Macintosh computer, you will have to save the iCalendar file to your desktop, open your iCal application and then import the file into iCal.

The Forums is a message board where citizens can post messages and interchange ideas, questions or information. In the Forums you can ask general questions or share opinions and ideas, as well as look for travel information or make suggestions about the site and its features.

To start a new topic (thread), just enter the most appropriate forum for your question or message, and click the Start a New Topic button at the top or footer of the page.

While reading a topic thread, you can click on the Reply to Topic button on the page to reply directly to the original post that started the thread. If you wish to reply directly to another message in the thread, click the Quote button right below the message you want to reply to.

This is possible under certain circumstances; If you use Internet Explorer for Windows, you will have access to the Rich Text Editor when posting a message to the forums.  This editor allows you to type and format your message in HTML mode. You can then open a second web browser window and find the photo you wish to attach. Then with your mouse, drag and drop the photo from the second browser into the writing area of the Rich Text Editor. This will cross-link the image into your message post.  This method only works if the photo you are attaching is available online (on this site or any other site) and the site allows drag and drop of the photo and cross linking.

Click the Advance Search link at the footer of any of the forum pages and use the search tool to find posts by any of the available criteria.

There are various reasons why a thread or a post may be removed or relocated.

Threads and posts may be removed if...

• The original poster of the thread requested removal of it with justified cause.
• The original poster of a message requests removal of his post with justified cause.
• The thread or post violates the site's Terms of Service or Community Guidelines.
• The thread or post significantly strays away from the thread topic to a point where it hampers the original purpose of the thread and the conversation within.
• A database problem that resulted in data loss and restoration of the forums to an earlier state.

With our implementation of the forums software, sometimes a single post cannot be removed without rolling back the thread to an earlier state. When this happens, other non-offending posts in the same thread may end up being removed as a result. Unfortunately, this is a limitation of the forums software currently in place. It should not be taken as an indication that all posts that were removed were in violation of any rules of the site.

A thread may be moved to another forum if the topic of the thread does not match the purpose of the forum where it was posted. In this case, the thread will be moved to another more appropriate forum or removed completely at the sole discretion of the site administrators.

Please note that the BiggerCity forums, while not actively monitored, are moderated. Thus BiggerCity and it's site administrators reserve the right to edit, move, or remove any content posted on the forums without notice to those affected. This includes any content whether it be in or not direct violation of our TOS or Community Guidelines, but deemed by us to be inappropriate, promotional of other products or sites, in bad taste, mean spirited, or off-topic, among others.