Problems with account activation are always due one of these two circumstances:
1) You did not receive out email after you registered. Scroll way
down for the solution.
2) You received the email but have not been activated.
Dealing with Problem #1
Spam is a fact of life on the internet. So most email services provide
spam filters. However the spam filters usually operate by making a lot of
decisions based on generalized concepts.
The #1 thing a good email service will do is to check the SPF records for the
origination domain. The SPF record is an official record provided by the
domain name that indicates who & what computer can generate email for that
domain name. In our case, the SPF record shows that only my server can
originate email with the from=SecondHandRadio.com If the SPF record does
not match, then all reputable email services will never deliver the email to
your inbox. If the SPF record does match, the email service will put the
email in your inbox (unless you have marked it as junk, or the originator has
been listed on the blacklist.) Unfortunately, most 'free' email services
do not do this, they rely on very unreliable methods.
A well run, paid email service does excellent job controlling spam. How do
I know? Well, my email address is webmaster@SecondHandRadio.com - there it is
for all the spambots to find, and has been since 2008. Yet I only receive
two to three spams per year because the email service always uses SPF records
and blocks new spammers from
its 12 million customers as soon as they are detected.
Isn't that worth a dollar a month?
Because way too many people are using these free email services, it is way too
easy for spammers to impersonate YOU and get your emails placed into other
peoples spam folders. By maintaing reputable SPF records for
SecondHandRadio.com, your email will get through when you are responding to an
ad, because the registration process has marked the email as safe. This is
why we strongly encourage users to never put their email address in their ads.
You may notice that your email service has your normal "inbox" and a "bulk mail"
or perhaps a "junk mail" inbox. They should also have a button to "mark as not
junk" and "mark as junk" to help the filter make future decisions.
You are doing the work that your email provider should be doing (if it's free,
you can't complain.)
There is usually an option, depending on where you get your email service, to
"mark as safe" or "add to safelist". However, unless you regularly look
through your 'junk mail' folder, you will not ever have the opportunity to "mark
as safe".
Another common way of determining if mail should not be marked as spam is by
comparing the incoming email sender address to your 'contact list' (perhaps it
is called your 'address book').
So one of the first things you should do if you think you are not receiving
email from our site is to look in your 'junk mail' folder for our activation
email. If you find it in that folder then you should immediately mark it
as safe.
Note that if your activation instructions email are being marked as junk, or
blocked altogether, that you will never be able to get inquiries from site users
about any ads you have placed. Therefore it is imperative that you ensure
that your email service is delivering our emails to your inbox.
Dealing With Problem #2
Since February 2008 when this site was created, 100% of the cases where there
was a "problem" after receiving the activation email has been caused by exactly
the same single 'problem'.
That problem is that the recipient did not READ THE EMAIL. The activation
email has very simple instructions of what one thing to do next. It is
very simple for a human to do, but so far it is impossible for a computer
spambot.
So if you did receive the activation email, but you have not been activated,
please go back and read that email.
I will not tell you here what that is because
we do not want
the 419ers to know.