Frequently Asked Questions and Answers

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- We will delete posts (and block those) that ask about pricing because these types of questions are too controversial and answers will vary too widely to be beneficial -

If you are looking for a specific plumbing product we recommend searching PlumbingSupply.com
This is a plumbing advice site and is not intended to help locate specific plumbing products.

Freedom of speech is free at Plbg.com but it does come with some responsibilities.

We ask that you please respect others.

Know that copyright infringement as well as other negatives will not be tolerated by us. If we are made aware by the owner of the copyright or their representatives of a post that violates copyrights we will not only delete that post but we will also ban the member that violated copyright laws from ever posting on Plbg.com again. If you violate any copyright or defame someone on Plbg.com we want you to know that you may be personally responsible.

We will never share personal information about you with anyone EXCEPT if, due to your post, we should receive a court order regarding you violating a law, we may be able to provide your traceable IP number and any other personal information that we know about you to that court, and know that we would do so as we will abide by all laws. We wish to respect everyone's rights. Including copyright laws, etc.

Plbg.com is for sharing of plumbing knowledge and nothing more. Prices and costs vary far too widely depending on the item/job, location, situation, and individuals involved and hence are NOT discussed in this forum.


jump directly to questions about:
using the forum - how to show an image - how to show a link - tech support - general site policies & information

General Information

"Do you obtain any personal information about us when we visit or post to your site?"
During our first over 77,000 posts we did not gather ANY personal information about you. We did put a "cookie" into your computer (as do most commercial sites) when you posted but we did NOT use it to gather any information from you. We also have never tracked where you came from before you visited us or where you went to after visiting here. Currently we do now collect information from your computer whenever you post to our site. We must do this so that we can block people who harass our site or who impersonate others. We can (and will if need be) provide that information to the proper legal authorities. This is not something that we set out to do or wish to do. We have been forced to gather the information in order to protect us and the innocent victims of mentally unstable or childlike participants. We keep the information for up to 30 days and then dispose of it. We do not give or share the information with anyone unless it is governmental bodies such as the FBI in order to catch someone who has made threats to another person.
"How many visitors does Plbg.com get?"
To see some of our visitor statistics - click here.
"Can I advertise my products on your site?"
Our site is made possible by the generosity of PlumbingSupply.com. We want to keep it clean and free of advertisements, so we do not allow the placement of ads on our site.
"How can I pay for this great advice?"
We would like to thank all the people that are giving of their valuable time. If you feel you have gained from our site we hope that you will give the value of that advice to your favorite charity.
"I wish to contact the owners of this site?"
Please go to our contact us page. We do not personally answer specific plumbing questions. That is what the forum is all about.

Tech Support

"How do I change my password?"
When logged in and viewing the main forum page, there are 6 buttons at the top of the list. Click on the "Settings" button and on the next page click "Change Password".
"I'd like to change my user name. How can I do that?"
Sorry, but we can't change the user name for our members. You can create another new name by signing up again.
"When I go onto the site, I log in and then hit 'post new.' I then get sent to the log-in page again. Am I doing it incorrectly?"
Probably you've turned 'cookies' off on your browser. Cookies must be on in order for everything to work correctly.
"After I write/send a post, how long will it take before my post is seen?"
It can be seen and read immediately. If you do not see it just "reload" or "refresh" your browser.
"Why didn't my post show up?"
It probably has posted. You probably haven't 'reloaded' the front page. This will generally happen unless your cache setting is 0. Your post most likely did not show up because your browser did not reload the page, it simply pulled it out of cache. Press the reload or refresh button on your browser and it should then appear. Also, it is possible that if you posted a new subject and that same subject was already discussed on the last 2-8 pages, we might have deleted your subject. Simply scan through the last few pages for the same subject matter and you can read what others have said about the subject that you were interested in. Also, our "ideal" is to have different subjects being discussed and sometimes a promoter of a particular product will start discussions under a different name but with the same subject matter. When/if we notice that this happens we will delete the same subject in previous posts as well. We also delete subjects that ask questions in regard to pricing and prices charged by plumbers. The reason for that is that this question is so controversial and also it is difficult for someone to judge what someone should be paying for a job. We keep posts that are related to subjects that are not dated. This is a for-profit-operation and therefore references or links to competing sources are eliminated as well.
"I attempted to post and got a message that said that you blocked my message?"
This subject is one many forums try to avoid dealing with. Negatives and foul language. It can ruin a sites reputation and credibility. To keep our site as clean, upbeat, and positive as possible, we have instituted/created a blocking system. Our software is capable of blocking messages and blocking posts from sites/IP numbers that have posted negatively on our site (or continual advertisers, etc). If you have never posted a negative post then we apologize for that blocking. Errors do sometimes happen. Please let us know if you feel that we should not have blocked your message and we will then review our logs and possibly unblock your computer or IP number.
"I received a 'Data Missing' error, is there something wrong?"
What probably happened is that you posted a message and then pressed reload or refresh on the response page it sent back to you. You'll need to go back to the original form to re-post the message.

Using the Forum

"Why do some people who give advice have their names shown in blue?"
There are many wonderful folks here that have been great contributors over the years and we thought that it would be nice for our new visitors to know who they are. It is our way of honoring those experts who have given advice here for a significant period of time at one point or another. A few of our advisors are shown in bold (blue). Those have been advisors for many years. (If you feel that you have earned that honor, and would like to have us show your name in blue, please e-mail us.)
"Is there a setting that sends me an email when there is a response to my thread?"
Currently, this feature is not available, but this will certainly be added when we update the forum software.
It searches only the original subjects. In other words, there are tens of thousands of posts and many subject headings and our search feature checks only those subject titles (not what is written in the posts or the responses). We do not allow the search feature to search the actual words in the original subjects or the reply posts. This way you don't get thousands of results with the search feature. We want our search feature to produce "quality" not quantity results. Our search feature isn't "perfect" but no matter which way we design it, it has it's drawbacks. We think, overall, this way of searching works best for you.
"I just saw someone use foul (or derogatory, degrading or defaming) language."
Usually we catch childish posts immediately but we are human and can miss some. Please immediately e-mail us and let us know what post number contains the childish gibberish (every post has a number, it's at the end of the URL - Internet address). Just let us know the URL on top. If you don't know the URL or post number, that is ok, just let us know the title of the post or the name of the person that supposedly wrote it (we get a lot of ghost writers). Our visitors truly help make our site what it is and with your help we can keep our site totally positive and upbeat.
"I saw a lot of a certain person's posts and now they are all gone?"
Sometimes we will not only delete a specific negative post, we also reserve the right to delete all posts from a specific person, negative or otherwise at our discretion. There are many other reasons that a post/thread may be deleted for. For example, unpaid advertising and negative, abusive, critical language or tone. We also delete subjects that ask questions in regard to pricing and prices charged by plumbers. The reason is that this question is controversial and it is difficult to judge what someone should be paying for a job. Plus, there are too many variances in pricing between various cities and states which can lead to misinterpretation.
"Why don't you show the e-mail address of the person that posts?"
In order to prevent people from receiving unsolicited e-mails we decided it is best to not automatically show e-mail addresses. People can still show their e-mail address in the actual post if they so desire. We just don't make it mandatory.
"Why don't you have an automatic date stamp, like most other forums, so that we know what is recent?"
We have found that most subjects are not related to time. If time is important then just read the first few pages. Our page number one is usually only a few days old. If you feel that your post IS time sensitive then simply add a date after (or before) your name or subject. If your answer or question is not time related, then please don't show a date.

This is a copy of an actual e-mail that was sent to us:
"I am a reg. plumber and find it rewarding to help people with their problems...however I am finding that with your question and answer section that I don't know what state or date that they are referring to for me to answer their questions properly...answers vary from state to state and if the date is too long ago there is no point in leaving advice."

This is what we wrote back:
"Thanks for your comments. During our first 3,000 test posts (no longer shown) we did show time, e-mail addresses and location. We have found that not showing dates/locations does have drawbacks but it is our hope that most questions and problems are timeless and that the place/location is not important. Sometimes they are important and then the writer can add that in their post. We do have a great search feature on subjects and you know that when you spend the time answering, unlike other advice sites (where a few people read your answers THAT day), your answers here will be read for a long time to come. The ratio of 'thanks' and compliments about the way our site is set up, compared to complaints is at least ten positive letters to one negative letter, and so, we will continue to have our site as it is now. Thanks for your comments and we do recognize that we can not please everyone 100% of the time but we hope that you see the wisdom of why we designed our site the way we did."
"My message used to be on the front page now it's not. Why?"
"I posted a message a few days ago and now it's gone. Where did it go?"
The most recent 500 posts are shown on our front page, depending on the complexity of replies and the subject matter). The next 500 plus posts are shown on the next page and so on. So unless your message contained negative language or was not plumbing related, it has probably been scrolled off to one of the older pages.
"Why does the page number keep changing?"
Our site is "dynamic." Our newest page is always page number one. It will always have exactly 500 posts on it. The oldest page can have 1 to 500 subjects on it. When we designed our site we felt that it was more important to have the most recent pages all be "uniform" in length versus the original page. That meant that all page numbers will also be "dynamic."
"Why exactly 500 posts per page?"
There is no "magic" number of posts that is "correct." Some sites show posts by the month, week or whatever. Many have either a lot of posts or no posts, depending on the time of the month, week, page, etc. We now prefer a specific number of subjects per page, 500 posts per page. We feel that having exactly 500 posts per page makes our site more uniform, faster loading, etc. than having an unspecified number of subjects. No one idea or number of posts is "perfect" and some prefer more or less. With our old style forum we prefer 75 subjects per page and with our new forum 500 posts per page.
To place a link to another site in your post, simply use the following format:

Add [url] before your link and [/url] after your link.

Example: [url]http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org[/url]

This will produce the following link: [www.doctorswithoutborders.org]


You can also show a smiley face in your post or signature

Example: When you place :) on your post, it will be replaced with the image :)

Keyboard Version Image Result Keyboard Version Image Result
:) or :-) :) ;-) ;-)
:$ :$ :( :(
:S :S :X :X
:disappointed: :disappointed: :footinmouth: :footinmouth:
:nerd: :nerd: :sick: :sick:
:think2: :think2: :laugh: :laugh:
:thumb: :thumb: :clap: :clap:
:love: :love: :cry: :cry:
(td) (td) (tu) (tu)
Keyboard Version Image Result Keyboard Version Image Result
8-) 8-) :-* :-*
:O :O :P :P
:\ :\ :lol: :lol:
:sleepy: :sleepy: :think: :think:
:applause: :applause: :confused: :confused:
:santa: :santa: :sleep: :sleep:
:cool: :cool: :grin: :grin:
:eek: :eek: :disappointed: :disappointed:
:cheers: :cheers: X( X(


Disclaimer

The Plbg.com site allows our visitors to exercise freedom of speech but we do sometimes censor posts which we believe are not in our best interest. Any plumbing related issues may be posted. Common decency, courtesy, and tolerance should be exercised.

Because of the nature of the Internet please do not assume or believe that any information posted on this site is anything but fiction.

We do not confirm any information on this fun site and all views, opinions, advice, suggestions, hints, etc. are to be taken as strictly for entertainment value and not to be relied upon as having any basis in fact. This site is not a public site and is privately owned. Sometimes we delete posts for personal or business reasons. We will delete posts as we wish. Any derogatory or defaming remarks made towards (or about) any individual or company will be deleted once we are made aware of such remarks or statements. We never want to see, nor will we allow any disparagement of any company. We do not look at every post and can not be held responsible for any negatives. We are, in principle, against any negatives, and once we are made aware of any posts that are negative, we will delete them.

Plbg.com has no control over external material that users may link to in message posts. Use of or reliance on any external links posted is at your own risk.

We hope that you'll visit our sponsors. Thanks to them this site is free for all.

Note that a number of governmental regulations in some countries, states, counties, cities, territories, etc. require plumbing permits and/or licensed/registered trades/contractors.

Always check with local governmental agencies before doing any plumbing work as to local requirements and never rely upon any information given on Plbg.com as none can be considered reliable.

All discussions and words on all of our pages are owned by Plbg.com and are copyrighted and may not be reproduced without our permission. If you post any information on Plbg.com you are giving permission for Plbg.com to use it as we see fit.

Some have said: "Free advice is worth exactly what you pay for it."

Plbg.com is strictly for entertainment. You are more than welcome to ask for all the plumbing advice you want.
You can't offer to pay anyone. Nor should anyone ask you to pay for advice given on Plbg.com.


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