RV Friends

Frequently Asked Questions

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Free Access or Membership?

When you click here and register you get Free Access with No expiration (and no credit card required) and have read/write access to all the discussion sections and member profiles.  Registration is to help us combat spam!

It's just like signing up for Facebook or other Social media, except we don't sell or share your data or have advertising!

OR  you can be a valuable Supporting Member (click here) who helps keep the site running for everyone using it.
We are not supported by advertising!  
Based on our Budget of  $24.00 (per 1 Year Supporting Membership), we need 103  more Supporting Members.

Supporting Members:

  • Have everything available to Free Access
  • Can Attend the Monthly Video Get-Togethers
  • Send Direct Messages to Others
  • Suggest Map Markers about places
  • Optionally show their Location on the Map
  • Access Free & Discount site related benefits
Don't want Free Access:

  • You can only view the website and read some Discussion sections.
  • You cannot see the Profiles.

* We do not support these countries: China, Russian Federation, Belarus, Iran, Syria, North Korea

What UserName should I choose ?

Use something unique, a fictitious name, or cryptic - Never include your full  last name.  Do not use your email address!   Also do not use spaces in your UserName, but you can use an underscore ( _ ) or Dash ( - ) or a period ( . )

NOTE: 

  • Once you pick a UserName, it cannot be changed.  
  • This is a Family Friendly site, obscene or suggestive UserNames will be deleted.
  • You and your S.O. can create different separate accounts, or use one that represents both of you.
    We provide for this by having a "S.O. Name" field in the profile for a primary user.
  • Otherwise, do not use multiple UserNames attempting to circumvent our Terms of Service.

What about Passwords?

  • Do Not use the same password you use other places.
  • Use a Strong Password that has more than 10 characters with letters (both uppercase and lowercase), numbers, and symbols, and includes no obvious personal information or common words.
  • Please write it down and keep it in a safe place away from your computer.
    You can also use a password manager program, or let your browser store it for you.. at your own risk.

We have no access to your password and cannot tell you what it is.  You can however Reset your Password by clicking on the "Lost Password" link on the Login page.   A message will be sent to your email address on file in the system with a link to change your password.

If already logged in, change your password if desired by accessing under your username in the main menu:

  • Your Membership  (there is a section to change your password)

What Payment types do you Accept?

We do Not require ANY payment for Free Access to the site.  You only have to Register.
If you decide to become a paying Supporting Member, you are in full control.. the billing is not automatic so you get to decide to renew or not.  The system lets you know if you need to renew only when you sign-in.

We accept Credit or Debit Cards
Our payment service provider (payment gateway) is Stripe which is an very  respected international company.  We do not process your payment, Stripe does, and lets us know if your payment went through, and we have no record of your card information - which is a good thing for everyone.  It is a secured transaction method used throughout the online industry.

Stripe currently supports:

 Global: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diners
+ in US: Discover
+ in Europe: Cartes Bancaires

Here is a link that gives you some background from Stripe: https://stripe.com/newsroom/information and more interesting is the Wikipedia article about them, and the list there showing some of the large industry names that use Stripe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stripe,_Inc.  such as Airbnb, Amazon, Microsoft, Uber, BMW, Maersk, Zara, Lotus, Alaska Airlines, Le Monde, and Toyota


  • We discourage the mailing of checks as payment.  We do not want to accept them.
    • There are a lot of problems with checks.. including currency conversion and any written on non-US based banks will not work.
    • They will delay your membership until they clear.
    • If they bounce, you will incur a $60 fee from us - on top of the fee that your bank charges you.
    • If you absolutely have to use a check, this is done on a case by case basis ONLY after you contact us.
    • Checks that are sent without prior approval will be voided and sent back.

How do I upgrade from Free Access to Supporting Member?

Just Click Here and it takes you to the Renew / Upgrade page.

Do you have Membership Levels?

Nope... we feel they make folks that cannot afford a different level feel left out.  With us, you are either a Supporting Member or not.  

We do offer Free Access which does not expire. Then you decide if you want to support the site.  Every Supporting Member is at the same rate to use the features.

Do you offer a Lifetime Plan for a one time fee?

No.  Projecting the lifetime cost of administering this service and adding/maintaining functionality is impossible.

We are Transparent about the costs we have to run the site.  You can read about that and our actual Budget HERE

What does SO mean?

  • Colloquially, "Significant Other" is written as SO or S.O. and used as a gender-neutral term for a person's partner in an intimate relationship without disclosing or presuming anything about marital status, relationship status, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Synonyms with similar properties include sweetheart, other half, better half, spouse, domestic partner, lover, soulmate, and life partner.
  • We expand on this to include your traveling companion (not in a relationship, but important none the less).
  • Its usage in psychology and sociology is very different from its colloquial use. In psychology, a significant other is any person who has great importance to an individual's life or well-being.

Excerpts from

What size do my Profile & Cover photos need to be?

As this is a site to make friends and chat, it's a lot easier for folks to know who they are talking to if you add your Personal Photo (a.k.a. Avatar or mug shot).  You can also change the default cover photo background to one of your own.

  • The system only accepts JPG / JPEG / PNG file types
  • Maximum allowed image File size is 5 Gbytes.  Many modern cameras and smartphones save photos larger than this.  You can reduce the size or sent it to us for help (see below).
  • Profile Personal Photo  - 300x300 pixels minimum!
  • Profile Cover Photo  -  For best visibility choose a landscape aspect ratio image with a size of 1400 x 300 pixels minimum.
  • How to do it:
    • Click on the little camera icon on the picture(s) in your profile.
    • Click on "Change Photo"
    • Then Select your new photo by browsing your computer / phone.
    • You will see a Processing symbol If it runs a long time, you will most likely get an error message about the size of the file.
    • Once it uploads, it will let you reduce / enlarge the selection area and crop your photo.

NOTE: If you have an image in another format, or are having trouble getting it to upload, or need help with cropping / resizing it, just contact us and send the image as a file upload and we will help you.

Go to your Profile

Why is there a Delay on Editing my Profile?

As soon as possible (generally within 24 hours), We will assign you to the main  group which lets you fill out the rest of your Profile so everyone gets to know some more general information about you.  This gives us time to double check things, then we activate your Profile completely and send you an email letting you know. 

  Once it is fully active it will show one
of these icons:
 

Please edit it at any time to keep it up to date!    For RVer's your profile tells other members about yourself, your Rig, and more, and is divided into 3 sections:

  • Details - things about You
  • How you Travel - info about your Rig
  • Affiliations - what clubs and things you belong to

Folks also greatly appreciate seeing your photo.. and you can set it and a cover photo via your Profile.

What are Affiliations in my Profile?

Affiliations are Clubs or Organizations you are also a member of.   Listing these in your profile is Optional. The list is stored by entry order, not alphabetically.

So when we got in a great suggestion from one of our  members Tink H.  recommending to add the Elks and 1000 Trails.   We went ahead and did this, the only caveat is any new Affiliation types we add will appear at the Bottom of the list.   

What makes this site Different?

Simple,

  • We are a division of a privately held company - that is not up for sale, or at the whim of investors.
  • We have a lot of experience with creating and running websites, and how to keep them viable
  • We know they are not free to exist and have a lot of costs associated with them.
  • Websites can only survive with income - like from Member Support, advertising, or selling something.
    • We have a Supporting Membership Fee structure that is Fair and Low Cost
    • We have ZERO advertising on the site.
  • The site is not an aggregated portion of a larger system.  These have some advantages, and in our opinion, a lot of disadvantages, and hooks into getting income.. while sill marketing themselves as "free".  
  • We are Transparent about the costs we have to run the site.  You can read about that and our actual Expenses and Planned Budget HERE
  • We automatically make a rotating backup each week .. so if something does go bump in the night, we can restore the site to the last backup. This causes some data loss, but not everything is gone.
  • We have actual staff to maintain the site, research new features, and grumble & curse as they fix the above "bump in the night" things.

Do you have a mailing list?

Simple answer: NO   And we do not sell or provide your information to 3rd parties.

The only time we send out emails are:

  • To automatically let you know of any Discussion threads you subscribed yourself to. {see Alerts FAQ below]
  • If a member has sent you a Direct Message, we let you know.
  • If you have asked for our help, or we have a question for you.
  • Notice of an Announcement (done rarely, and deemed important)

We don't even send an email if your Supporting Membership has expired.   The site will let you know if you access something that requires you to be "Active".

What are "Alerts" in the Discussion Forum?

Alerts = a Notification "Subscription"  There are no costs associated with this feature.

This is a part of the Discussion system that will Alert you to what you chose.

To comply with GDPR, etc. you MUST make these choices yourself.. we do not automatically set it up.

In a Nutshell, you are asking the Discussion system to let you know via eMail of any new Topics and/or Posts, and have several options in doing so.  This is done by clicking on the "Alerts" item in the Discussion Menu.

  • Individual Subscriptions - You get notified about activity in forums and topics you request to be subscribed to.
          After you select this option, at the bottom of each Topic you wish to keep track of, just click on this:
  • New Topics - You are requesting to be notified about ALL new topics in any section.
  • New Topics & Posts - You are requesting to be notified about all new Topics and Posts.

Video Get-Togethers

Supporting Members can access the Monthly video Get-Togethers.
Access is via the Discussion menu > Video

Normally the 3rd Sunday of every month at 2pm Pacific Time (5pm ET)

How to add a URL Link in a Discussion

  • Copy the URL from the address bar of your browser and then Paste it into your message.
  • Then, IF there is a ? (question mark) anywhere in the link, please remove the ?  and anything following.  That stuff is Tracking Information and can, in time, break the link.
  • Then Highlight everything that is left, and click on xx in the menu.
  • The highlighted link should already be filled in.
  • Important: Click on the Gear icon and then the "Open in new Tab/Window" check box.  
  • Save the link.

Why does this site exist?

Well, a bit of a tale.    There once was a website called RVillage - a popular Social place to meet and talk with other RV'rs which was affiliated with RoadPass (info here).   RVillage was shut down by the new CEO of RoadPass Digital.

There is an excellent article about all of this by the Getaway Couple website that you can read HERE

So, jumping forward a bit, a gentleman created RVgroup.fun which had the same intent as RVillage, but the website did not survive.

Now to the Present... We are privately held, and have a fair number of decades of experience in creating websites - and keeping them afloat.

  • As a member of the public, You can read most of the website and Discussion sections.
  • With the Free Access, you can Post topics, reply, and see more features. This requires NO Credit Card, just sign up!
  • We do not pester you with emails to join as a Supporting Member, and do not sell your information.
  • You can upgrade to our $24 12 month Supporting Membership at any time for full access. It does not auto-renew, so it's totally in your control.
  • Please continue to read this FAQ to get additional important information!

It is our intent to provide an inexpensive Social platform for "Bringing Together Fellow RV'rs"

Do not Copy Paste Copyrighted articles/images

It's not OK to copy / paste an article from a publication without permission.  

This is VERY important as we do not want to have a big entity come after you (or us).   We state that you are responsible for your own content, but it is best to not put up a lighting rod.   For instance, this is typical wording from most any publication:

© Copyright 2024 Military.com. All rights reserved. This article may not be republished, rebroadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Military.com, please submit your request here.

SO, instead of doing a Copy / Paste, you should write your own abstract about the article, why it should be read, and then provide a link to it.

At RVF, we use https://unsplash.com/ for free images (and also pay for Stock photos)   For instance: https://unsplash.com/s/photos/home-for-sale which is where the image below came from.  We NEVER use things just "found on the internet" as most are actually copyrighted.

This is a great example from Richard R. (@usafe7Ret). on how to reference information from another publication: 

There is an Excellent article on Military.com written by Blake Stilwell that goes into the FACTS about VA Loans, and how so many Veterans do not know them.   This leads to them not pursuing a huge benefit to Veterans - a VA Loan.

I encourage all of you to sign up for Free Access at Military.com to Read this Article.

 

You mention Transparency, what is it about?

As an ethic that spans science, engineering, business, and the humanities, transparency is operating in such a way that it is easy for others to see what actions are performed.  Transparency implies openness, communication, and accountability.  Transparency is practiced in companies, organizations, administrations, and communities.  For example, in a business relation, fees are clarified at the outset so there are no surprises later.

One of our specific transparency items is our Budget for the site.

In information security, transparency means keeping the arcane, underlying mechanisms hidden so as not to obstruct intended function—an almost opposite sense.  It principally refers to security mechanisms that are intentionally undetectable or hidden from view.  Examples include hiding utilities and tools which the user does not need to know.

Excerpts from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  

Affiliate Disclosure Notice

Some links to products or services may earn the site a small commission for any purchases that you make via the link. This is at no additional cost to you.

This helps keep the site available with no direct advertising and lowers the threshold for the number of Supporting Members needed.  RV-Friends is technically a for-profit business – but run like a non-profit, which means we attempt to generate just  enough income only to offset its operational costs to meet the annual budget.

You should assume that any referral links leading you to products or services are tracked links and that we might receive a commission from your purchase.

Can I Advertise on the site?

NO - We do not accept Paid Direct Advertising!  OR  blatant Advertising in a Topic/Reply/Comment.

However RV Parks, Attractions, Service Centers, and Sponsors can have a presence on the site including a distinct profile separate from members, post limited updates about their business, and answer general questions from Members. They don't have access to the Members profiles, and cannot solicit or promote their business.  This is VERY tightly moderated.

Click for full information with no commitment:

What is a Moderator?

These are people that are active members, on the website a Lot, and have volunteered to assist on making sure everyone has a nice time and follows our Discussion Rules, Policies and Procedures, and Terms of Service. 

They work as a team to assist you, and if there is a questionable issue, they consult with the entire team before we make a final decision. They typically will be active moderators in one or more sections of the the Discussion forum that they have an interest and expertise in.

  • Moderators must be respected contributors and members of our entire community who treat everyone with respect.
  • We will have a limited number of Moderators based on the discussion sections.

If you need help formatting your Topic content or Reply, a Moderator will assist you.

Moderators are able to:

  • Edit Topics and Replies
  • Move Topics to another more appropriate section
  • If necessary, and only as a last resort, Delete a Topic or a specific Reply.

What is an Administrator?

They are responsible for running the site, keeping it up to date technically, making final decisions about implementing features, and also have the same abilities and responsibilities as Moderators.  They also moderate the Moderators to make sure all things are handled properly.

Of the Administrators, there is one "Super Admin" (Tark H.) who makes sure the other Administrators are handling things properly.

What is an Ambassador?

They spread a truthful  message about RV Friends, and advocate for others to join us.  Ambassadors offer more than what we could accomplish from traditional marketing because they directly address our demographic.. Fellow RV'rs .. through their own communications channels.

  • Ambassadors must be respected contributors to the RV community as a whole.
  • If an ambassador is asked about any aspect of RV Friends that might be considered a flaw or failing, they must address the question directly and honestly.  Then let us know of the concern so we can address the issue with a change if possible.
  • We currently do not pay Ambassadors, but do provide them with a membership.
  • Ambassadors are required to say they are one in full disclosure, as a free membership is a form of compensation.
  • We will have a very  limited number of Ambassadors (if we decide to have any at all).

Test Accounts

In order to effectively test features and changes, we have several Test Accounts on the website, this is often because a decent test requires a bunch of data or things to display (like the list of Profiles) based on internal user levels.
These are fictitious individuals (based on real people who work with us) and since we believe in transparency there is a Note at the top of their Profiles. 

Once the system has enough real people on it, we will often start removing the Test Accounts.

Here they are:

  • Béatrice Rea Guest     Free Access
  • Jason R. Gonaught      Editor
  • Justen Xavier Ample    Moderator
  • John Jackob Handyman   Subscriber
  • Jay Quentin Harlequin  Author

Why can I see some Menu items others cannot?

Because there are Security concerns, and we also only show special items to our Staff, Moderators, Testers, etc..  not everyone sees the "special sauce".

If you happen to know that something exists, and think it's an error that you cannot access it, Please let us know.   Likewise, if you are seeing something that might not be actually intended for you, be SURE let us know.  It is to everyone's best interest.

Can I change my First and Last Name?

We would prefer you did not, as it will cause some issues.   

But if you edit your Profile, you can present any First name or S.O First name you desire..  Items marked "(not public)" are only shown to you and our staff, not other members.. for example we hide your Last name and only put the Initial publically.  For instance Tark Henderson is shown in the profiles as Tark H.   

We appreciate your Profile last name always matching your Membership.  But if you change your Legal name, please do so in Membership.   This Membership information must always real.

EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

The General Data Protection Regulation is a European Union law that was implemented May 25, 2018, and requires organizations to safeguard personal data and uphold the privacy rights of anyone in EU territory. The regulation includes seven principles of data protection that must be implemented and eight privacy rights that must be facilitated.  The GDPR replaced the 1995 Data Protection Directive, which created a country-by-country patchwork of data protection laws. The GDPR, passed in European Parliament by overwhelming majority, unifies the EU under a single data protection regime.

California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)

If you are a California resident, you may ask businesses to disclose what personal information they have about you and what they do with that information, to delete your personal information, to direct businesses not to sell or share your personal information, to correct inaccurate information that they have about you, and to limit businesses’ use and disclosure of your sensitive personal information.

Brazil’s Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados (or LGPD)

Brings sorely needed clarification to the Brazilian legal framework. The LGPD attempts to unify the over 40 different statutes that currently govern personal data, both online and offline, by replacing certain regulations and supplementing others. This unification of previously disparate and oftentimes contradictory regulations is only one similarity it shares with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, a document from which it clearly takes inspiration.

Site Maintenance & Schedule, System Outages

During ANY backup of the system you might experience a brief time when your browser says the Server is not responding.  Or it may throw an error.  You should just wait about 15 minutes and try again.   If it is a longer planned outage, you may encounter a screen showing you our Countdown Clock to the expected time of the system being back up.

RV-Friends is automatically backed up every Monday at 17:05:02 (5:05pm) Mountain Time, using a rolling backup system.

It is also backed up before any minor and major updates to the system as needed.  These are typically done any day after 22:00 (10pm) Pacific Time, and occasionally Sundays from 10:00 to 02:00 Monday Pacific Time (10am to 2am)

Your Browser may from time to time also say the Site is Down, or Not Responding, or other such errors.  This is almost Always an Internet issue, not with the website itself.   Wait an hour and try again, as these internet outages can take time to be resolved.

If this is a topic that interests you, check out https://www.thousandeyes.com/outages/

Where is RV Friends based?

  • Our Main Office is in the Pacific Northwest - located in Whatcom County, WA, USA
  • USA Servers are located in Arizona, California, Michigan, and Seattle.
    • Data is Stored in Arizona (primary server)
  • VoIP Services are via our PoP in Manitoba Canada
  • As we grow in membership, the number of server sites may expand if needed.
  • We do travel, and one of our rigs is a Mobile Office / Studio / Workshop... so you can find some of us out on the road.

How can I contact the RV Friends Staff?

For:

  • Comments and suggestions about the website
  • Questions about your account and/or billing
  • Additional discussion sections you think should be considered
  • Offers from Advertisers, Service Providers, and Purveyors of SPAM will be ignored!

Click Here to send us an email (prefered)
Note: This link is at the bottom of every page as well.

Our Mailing Address is:

RV-Friends
P.O. Box 243
Lummi Island, WA 98262-0243