ipb

A helpful hint for whether or not a signature is too big: find a one line post. Does the signature stretch the left hand bar? If it does, it's too big!

An OK signature height will have a left hand side that looks something like this with a one line post:

A signature that exceeds our height requirement may look like this with a one line post (note: click to see it full size):

For clarification: it also includes requesting optional donations.

Does anyone know what that is on Sarah's label? It looks to be a woman's torso with her arms folded up so we can only see her elbows in the frame. Then... she is wearing a belt with sea sponges or foie gras hanging off it? Haha!

 

It looks like a bunch of skulls partially buried in smooth stones to me.

I think your "smooth stones" are femoral heads or humeral heads -- arm/leg bones, where they attach to your shoulder/hip.

In accordance to PayPal policies, we do not allow sellers to pass along paypal fees by adding a surcharge on top of an items sale price. (This includes required fees AND suggested donations.) Our price caps were already designed to have enough padding to them so that sellers could have some flexibility in deciding what expenses (initial shipping to you, decanting supplies, transaction fees, etc.) they could and could not tolerate taking on and building that into the price of the bottle and are more than generous enough to cover any burden of expense you might face by accepting PayPal as a form of payment.

We allow $2.50 over the cost of the bottle. The purchase price of the most expensive bottle typically sold, at $25, therefore has an allowed markup of 10%. The purchase price of the least expensive typically sold bottle, at $15, has an allowed markup of 16.7%. With Paypal fees being no more than 2.9%, there is at least 7.1% (and up to 13.7%, since there aren't many bottles from the era of $10.50-12.50 being sold) of "wiggle room" that takes into consideration things like the $0.30 transaction fee and the initial shipping to you.

Violations of the Paypal fee policy will result in the same consequences as violating the topic bumping policy. HOWEVER: If you are found requiring Paypal fees, and this requirement puts your prices over the price caps, it will *also* be treated as a price cap violation.

• First time: After the first time you have added additional Paypal fees, a reminder will be issued.
• Second time: After the second time you have added additional Paypal fees, a second reminder will be issued.
• Third time: After the third time you have added additional Paypal fees, a warning will be issued.
• Fourth time: After the fourth time you have added additional Paypal fees, a second warning will be issued. In addition, you will be banned from the swaps sections for a one month period of time.
• Fifth time: After the fifth time you have added additional Paypal fees, a third warning will be issued. In addition, you will be banned from the swaps sections for a six-month period of time.
• Six time: After the sixth time you have added additional Paypal fees, you will be permanently banned from swapping.

Many of you have reported receiving spam in your PM box. The PMs have been deleted and the individual has been suspended.

As well, I have changed it so members who have not completed the validation process (registering, validating their email, and reading & verifying that they have read our guidelines) cannot have use the PM system.

Just a note that linking to off-forum swaps to circumvent the price caps are ALSO not allowed.

Since this is a FAQ and 10mL bottles are not going to come back any time soon (outside, perhaps, of eBay), I am locking this topic.

Please do not bug the Lab about it -- it's been three years, they're not coming back.

Go here: http://www.bpal.org/swaplift/index.php

Fill out the form even if you have reported this on LJ or to twistygirl. Do NOT PM twistygirl anymore. She's gotten so many PMs she cannot deal with them anymore.

Fill out the form even if you have cancelled your swap or have gotten your package return via USPS. We will be adding to it this evening to allow people to update that they have gotten their items (either the sent, or gotten the promised ones) or cancelled.

By popular request, we're adding three seasonal LE categories: Samhain, Yule, and Lupercalia. We're slowly moving the topics into their new location; please do NOT report that they need to be moved or start a new topic in the appropriate area. We expect this transition to take approximately one week - there's a lot of movement, yo

Recently, it has come to light that Paypal requires that you file claims within 45 days of purchase. Since we had a 6 week (42 day) time limit before we considered something to be swaplifting, that gave y'all three days to file problems with Paypal. It also gives people much more time to potentially swaplift.

As a result, effected immediately we have decided to reduce the time that we consider something to be a swaplift from 6 weeks to 1 month. It makes it easier for everyone to determine if enough time has passed for it to be a swaplift -- I don't know about you, but I had to break out a calendar for 6 weeks; it's pretty easy to tell if it's been a month! It reduces the time people can arrange more swaps, and thus reduces the impact a mass swaplifter can have on the community. It increases the window between reporting swaplift and filing with Paypal (for those of you who purchased items instead of sending). All in all, it is a good thing.

But that does not mean that this decision does not come with a negative, because it does. It decreases the time that you have if the post office or customs is being slow, something none of us have control over. For your own sake, keep receipts of things you send if you use buy shipping online or directly at the post office, and keep the stamped copy of the customs forms for international shipping. It's my experience that people who haven't received their items within a month and do later tend to be victims of the supreme slacker, not of the post office, so this change should not impact most people - and it's unlikely to be effecting all of your transactions. We feel that overall, more good will come from making swaplifting reporting easier and allowing those who purchased (instead of swapped) more time to file charge disputes or non-receipt of item with Paypal.

Please review the FAQ: What to do if I've been swaplifted to review how to handle swaplifts! But, the summary is: PM a swap moderator with the details of the swap (or by forwarding a PM with the details in it) one month after the swap was finalized, leave negative feedback, and if it was a sale whose items have not been received, approach the appropriate entity to initiate procedures to get your money back.

If you're on facebook and weren't aware, we do have a page there! (There's also an application that lets you show everyone what scent you're wearing today!)

It's a good thing to become a fan of (as is our twitter feed), because if the server goes all the way down unexpectedly, as it did today, you can be informed!

If we think of it, we may announce it on LJ's sinandsalvation, but since I don't really use LJ anymore, that's more likely to have someone else who sees our other updates say what's up when someone asks why the forum's down

After a loooooooooooooong break following Carnaval Diabiolique, a new season of the forum games is about to begin! You can sign up by posting in this topic through the 12th of January.

This season takes place in Prohibition era Chicago...

Smokey air fills the club. Jazz wafts through the air, and people are laughing and dancing in the middle of the room, and the forbidden liquor flows freely. Rumor has it there are card games in the back, but of course, nobody knows for sure.

 

Out of nowhere, the door bursts open. Two men stand in the door, holding large guns, pointing them at the crowd.

 

"One Eye, where's our payment? You're late, and you know the boss, he doesn't like late payers..." one of them says to the bartender.

 

"Business, it's just not as good as it wa ..."

 

"He thought you'd say that." The mobsters stalk into the club and start pointing their guns around at the crowd "And he said it'd be a pity if you had to close up because it wasn't a safe place to visit" he said as he cocked the gun, preparing to it to shoot.

 

Just as he was about to aim it at the singer, sirens could be heard, right outside the door. The gangsters exchange looks and run through the back of the club, out the secret exit, just as the police burst in, raiding the club.

Due to malware/spyware problems with littleticker (such as the one shown below), all littleticker.com tickers have been removed from signatures, and will continue to be removed without warning, as long as we get reports that the site is causing malware/spyware/etc software from going crazy. There are lots of other free ticker hosts available, please use one of those instead.

The website at www.bpal.org contains elements from the site www.littleticker.com, which appears to host malware – software that can hurt your computer or otherwise operate without your consent. Just visiting a site that contains malware can infect your computer.

For detailed information about the problems with these elements, visit the Google Safe Browsing diagnostic page for www.littleticker.com.

Bumping because I just banned someone from swaps for having a third price cap violation with "make me an offer" in their swap/sale post and responding to a Wanted request with something that was nearly double the price cap.

Hi guys! I just wanted to remind y'all, because it's come up a few times lately, that "put in an offer" is not an acceptable price. You must follow our price guidelines if you want to sell your stash here.

For those of you who enjoyed playing our version of werewolf / mafia / paranoia, there are now a few small rounds (10 players) being played in Between Games. Check out that forum as new games will be popping up without further announcement as people (both friends of mine that I'm bringing in, myself, you guys) start running smaller games

Right now our host is experiencing some networking issues, and the forum may pop off and on as they diagnose and repair the problems.

We are currently experiencing latency and packet loss affecting portions of our network. Our network engineers are currently working on the issue, for up to the minute updates please see: http://www.liquidweb.com/support/. I will also keep you updated in this ticket when I get more information.

Very patient, I'm at a workshop and basically, my days go from 7:10am to 12:00am, with small breaks for food and about two hours in there for going to/from MIT.

Today's the last day to enroll in either Werewolf game!

After the smashing success of the first Werewolf game, Bpalvilleshireford Parish, we have opened up two new simultaneous games for the summer! Both games have sign ups through the 23rd of May, and players will be randomly selected out of the pool of players that sign up.

The first game, Dead Man's Gulch, is set in the American wild west, near the turn of the century.

Dead Man's Gulch don't make fer easy living. It ain't no place fer cowards or snooty upstarts; them that won't get their hands dirty. In the Gulch, all that matters is strength of character. Gold and such is pretty (real pretty, to be sure!), but it don't buy the spirit of this Wild West... and if yer not cut out for the Gulch, well, you'll figure it out soon enough, perhaps at the end of a rope...

 

It's hangin' time at Dead Man's Gulch. The Gulch don't abide by ruffians and troublemakers, and there's been a right mess of them come lately! It's time to sort the chaff from the wheat, so's life can return to normal. The frontier's rough enough without all this tom-foolery, and it's time to find out what in tarnation is going on! The upstanding folk of Dead Man's Gulch must prepare themselves fer the hard choices- they must listen fer the sounds and watch fer the signs of the mischief-makers, and then they must stand up and help save the town, by hanging the guilty.

 

Townsfolk be on your guard. You are the heart of the Gulch, and it is your duty to cleanse this place. You must investigate the village as much as you can, searchin' fer the unnatural or just plain evil. You may not leave the village to speak of these things, but you are certainly welcome to pass messages to those you trust. Just remember that those you trust may not be trustworthy at all and can lie till they're blue in the face. Be careful who you trust. When the outlaws and all other manner of evil are put to rest, you have won this time, and secured the safety of the Gulch. But as we all know, it's only safe till the next band of outlaws passes through. When word spreads of your victory, however, most bandits will know better than to tangle with you, and only the stupid or the very best will have the gall to come near the townsfolk of Dead Man's Gulch.

The other game, The Agency, is a modern day spy game, of GUD versus EVOL.

As you know, you are being recruited by GUD. Our mission is to protect the world from the forces of evil. As a GUD agent, you have a vital role to play in that mission, especially at this critical time. We have recently received intel that GUD has been infiltrated by three other organizations.

 

Firstly our arch-nemesis agency, Eternal Villains Overthrowing Liberty (EVOL): EVOL’s mission is directly opposed to our own. We believe that EVOL intends to bring about the very downfall of civilization as we know it. Unfortunately, our intel did not reveal how many agents of EVOL have managed to get past our security. It will be your primary mission to unmask these EVOL agents. EVOL is believed to have established an independent communications center, which allows their agents to coordinate their attacks upon GUD.

 

In addition, we believe that Professor Aquavit Bitters, having been spurned by both GUD and EVOL for being completely uncontrollable, will attempt to subvert agents for her Ominous Menace Group (OMG). Professor Bitters is only one person, but if she is successful in subverting one agent per day, she could quickly gain control over GUD. OMG is also beleived to have their own communications center.

 

Finally, we have reason to believe that at least one agent from the rogue organization Kaotic Invisible Trouble Team Extermination Helpers (KITTEH), has also managed to infiltrate GUD. KITTEH’s goal is unknown, and as far as we are able to determine, they just really like killing people. It is believed that KITTEH is too disorganized for its agents to have formal communications with one another.

 

However, we do have positive information to report. There are several individuals with special abilities available to assist you with your mission. Those individuals are operating in a covert manner, as they would likely become primary targets for EVOL, OMG, and KITTEH, should their identities be compromised. Those individuals are:

 

The Legal Offices of the Lawful World United Tribunal (LOLWUT): The representative of this agency may detain one agent each day. The agent in question will be subjected to a day full of excruciating investigation, interminable meetings, and daunting quantities of official paperwork - in triplicate, no less. Of course, since the agent in question is under the supervision of LOLWUT at all times, there is no possiblity for them to be attacked by EVOL or KITTEH agents, or subverted into OMG. Unfortunately, 10% of subjects interviewed by LOLWUT succumb due to unknown causes. Writer's Cramp, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Terminal Boredom, and even suicide are suspected, though further research remains to be done. Should the LOLWUT representative fall in the line of duty, another will be appointed to take their place.

 

The Sagacious Dr. Ming: Dr. Ming has spent years honing her mental faculties. She is able to read the minds of others and discover their innermost secrets. Unfortunately, she has not yet discovered how to avoid the exhaustion that overcomes her after this procedure, and thus she is only able to read one mind each day. Occasionally, the mind of the person being read is insufficiently disciplined, and cannot withstand the stress. If the person is an agent of GUD, there is a 10% chance they will die. Their deaths, while regrettable, are looked upon as necessary for the greater GUD. If the person is an agent of OMG, they will certainly die. If the person is Professor Aquavit Bitters, Dr. Ming will die too. Dr. Ming also has the ability to pass her special abilities on to another agent, should her death be imminent.

 

Authorized Personnel Only (A.P.O.): a network of agents known to be good at one time. It is possible that they may become corrupted by OMG if they're not careful.

 

Individual Neatly Violating Inconvenient Space-time And Bureau Laws (INVISABL): has the ability to provide and receive intel from both sides of the game. We are not certain of his true allegiance, but he's an active part of APO.

 

 

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be successful once only GUD agents remain.

If it was for shelldoo's swaps or sales, this is in the wrong place as swaps and sales should be taken care of in the Swaps forums.

If this was for shelldoo's nail business, this is in the wrong place, as she cannot support her nail business on the forum.

The only way this is remotely appropriate in BPAL FAQs is if it's for the BPAL stuff she retails -- and even then, and like the Lab, shelldoo doesn't do CS for BPAL stuff on the forum.

Earlier today, we experienced a database problem and the only way we were able to fix it was to roll back the database & backend two days and add in the last day's worth of posts/topics through approximately 5:20 AM. The forum went down at approximately 10:50AM, so effectively, only 5 1/2 hours of posts/topics were lost.

Unfortunately, PMs were not recovered because midway through the database recovery, the forum spontaneously turned itself on, and people started sending PMs and I don't have the time to go and renumber everything (and even then, ther'es no guarantee that it'd be done correctly). Approximately two days of PMs were lost.

That search engine is very outdated. We are aware of that. I'm in the process of work on a huge backend update to the search engine and moving the search here to bpal.org. Even though it's not identical to the one that's currently in use, I'm setting up a redirection this weekend as I'm leaving my old host (site5) for inadequate technical support and utter failure to fix a major problem (my inability to FTP from home).

Incidentally, if you missed registration but still want to be involved as a cameo death, like grrrlennyl's death tonight, and have access to the dead people forum - PM me before 5pm Monday! You'll be able to discuss the game in Exquisite Corpse, but like the real dead: discussion of what you see in the privvy forums (or special information that you may get) with active players is strictly forbidden.

After an overwhelming response -- filling up all 75 slots in just under 15 hours -- registration is closed.

Those of you not playing: I hope you enjoy reading, and if you weren't able to register before it closed, if this is fun for all, we'll probably have another round