Registering.
In order to use the classified ads system you must first register. We are using the latest upgrade as an opportunity to clean up the membership list which means that you must re-register even if you have been a member before. To register just click the register link at the top right of the page and fill in the details. Registrations are limited to BMFA members and the number you give will be checked against the current list before you are approved.
Note: because of the spam/fraud problems we do not accept registrations from anonymous email services such as Hotmail. You must use a valid ISP email address. Unless you only ever access the internet from internet cafes then you will have a UK ISP email address available to you.
Because we have had a lot of problems with scammers, we now require all accounts to be manually approved by the ads administrator. This normally takes place within a few working days but sometimes may take longer. You will receive an email when your account has been approved. If you have not received the approval message after 5 days, you can contact the ads administrator via email. Be polite: rude messages will result in your registration being denied...
Problems
If you are having problems logging in then contact the ads admin: adsadmin@bmfa.org
If you are a new user then remember you cannot log in until you have been approved, which might take a few days if you registered on a Friday, for example.
If the problem is that you cannot remember your password there is a facility to request a new ome. NOTE: this will only work AFTER you have been approved. Doing it before then will just make it more difficult to resolve your problem.
Posting an advert
Once you have logged you will be taken to your member area. From here there are links to:
Frontadmin |
takes you to the member area start page |
New ad |
post an ad, |
Edit ad(s) |
edit, mark as sold or delete existing ads |
Favourite |
afds you have marked as favourites |
| Notify new ads | set the system to let youknow when a new ads is posted |
Change info |
change your user details |
Change password |
change your password |
Log out |
log out |
To post an ad:
Click the 'new ad' link. Next, choose the category for your ad. You can then fill out the various fields with the details of your advert and click 'register'.
You are required to choose a geographical location as part of your ad: this is to assist prospective purchasers as they can now filter ads based on location. There are options for all UK and Islands areas including choices for All areas of a country for sales which might not be georgraphically dependant.
You will then have the opportunity to add an image to your advert. If you want to do so then click on the 'I want to upload a picture' link. This will bring up the upload page: click 'browse' and navigate to the location of the image on your computer. Note that the maximum file size you can upload is 100kB, images larger than this will not be accepted. Also note that the largest image size you can use is 500x400 pixels. Images larger than this will be scaled down with a consequent loss of quality.
Once you have picked your image click the 'upload' button.
To modify an ad:
Click the 'edit ad(s)' link. You ads will be listed like this:
Details of ad
click on:
to delete the ad
You can delete an ad immediately or mark the item as sold if you want to let enquirers know that it has gone. All ads will automatically be deleted after 10 days. Make the changes in the form that appears and click 'register'.
Change info:
You can opt out of the newsletter option here but be warned that you may miss out on notices of changes and updates to the site. We do not send out regular messages, only information on important changes, once or twice a year, so opting in does not mean that you will deluged with pointless emails.
You can also choose to show or hide your email address. If you choose hide then a 'contact seller' link will appear on your advert instead of your email address. Be warned that this service generates emails via a script on the server and some ISP's automatically filter out such script generated messages. If you find that your control panel reports contacts made that you have not received then this is what is happening. The only solution is to show your email address instead, unless you are able to persuade your ISP spam filter to accept messages from bmfaclassifieds.co.uk.
Change password:
Simply type your new password into the boxes and click the 'change password' button.
Log out:
You should always log out of the system if you are using a publicly accessible computer.
FAQ...
The page keeps telling me that the code I typed in from the images is wrong: this is a cookie problem. The script sets a session cookie when you correctly type in the code - if your firewall or browser will not accept the cookie then you will just get sent back to the registration page. The answer is to configure your firewall/security software/Internet Explorer to accept cookies, including session cookies, from bmfaclassifeds.co.uk.
'not yet approved' error message: this should be obvious. This is not a commercial system and the ads admins are BMFA volunteers, so sometimes it takes longer than usual to approve registrations. If this is the error message you receive then please do not waste time requesting a new password - it won't help!
'username not found' error message when you try to log in': you have probably tried to log in with the name you chose to display on your adverts.The username here is the email address you registered with - when you register you can pick any name to display on your adverts but you log in with your email address.
Can't upload an image: check the file size - there is an 100Kb size limit on images and a maximum of 3 per advert.
Images not visible: if you view the details of an advert that says it has an image but the image does not appear you may need to alter the settings of your firewall/pop-up blocker. In some cases the images can be mistakenly assessed as pop-up ads and blocked from being displayed. You may need to set bmfaclassifieds.co.uk as a trusted domain in your firewall and in your browser. You should also set bmfa.org as a trusted domain.
Adverts not appearing: see the above answer and also make sure that your browser is set to allow scripts. The ads system uses PHP and javascript extensively and if you have your browser set to deny active scripting then you will be lucky to see anything at all :) You will also need to set your browser to accept cookies from bmfaclassifieds.co.uk. You should check that you have www.bmfaclassifieds.co.uk added to your list of trusted sites.