Why did my event not show up on the map?

It is important to note that no mapping tool on the internet is perfect. Unfortunately, both Google and Mapquest have difficulty keeping up with the construction pace in Northwest Arkansas. There are also some addresses that will accurately map on one mapping tool and not the other.

Generally, both programs are pretty accurate. Usually when the address isn't known, it is either because the address was entered incorrectly, or because not enough information was given. Mapquest typically requires more information to map an address than Google. If your map does not show up correctly on Mapquest, consider adding ST., LN., AVE., etc. tags as appropriate to your street address. Also, sometimes it wants the postal code (ZIP) to be added to the address in order to correctly map it.

Google Maps work a little differently, in that the program actually works of latitude/longitude coordinates, rather than street addresses. When you enter an event, the latitude/longitude is retrieved from a Google database, based on the address you enter. If the database knows it, all is well. If it doesn't, then we cannot map your address.

If this happens to you, and you happen to know the latitude/longitude of your address, you can email them to us and we can add them in manually to your listing.

Your Terms and Conditions page says you won't use "tracking cookies", but my browser warned me you were setting a cookie, what's up with that?

Cookies are files that are stored on your computer so that a website can "remember" certain values.

Cookies are used for various reasons on websites. Some of them are good. Some of them are bad. The bad ones (in our opinion) are tracking cookies. These are set on your computer in order to track your browsing behavior and report it back to the site that set the cookie. The intent isn't so much to spy on you as it is to target advertising to your interests. However the net result is... it's spying on you!

However, as I said, cookies do have good purposes as well. There are three reasons that cookies are used on NWASells.com. The first is to allow your computer to remember your email address as your login ID. This cookie is set when you go to the log in screen and check the box that says "Remember me the next time I come...". So the only thing it does is automatically log you in when you visit, and only with your permission.

Another reason we set a cookie is to determine your row display preference. There are several pages on NWASells.com that contain tables with rows and rows of data. These generally display 10 rows at a time, and have buttons that take you from page to page. In addition, they have an option to increase or decrease the number of rows that are displayed. When you change this, it sets a cookie so that the site can remember the number of rows that you want to display. That way, the next time you visit the site, the layout of the screen is the same as the last time.

The last reason we use a cookie only happens if you were referred to the site from someone else. A code is stored that allows us to remember who referred you if, and when you create an account. That way, you get credit for having been referred by another member, and they get credit for referring you.

As you can see, the only reason we use cookies on NWASells.com is to enhance your experience while on our site. So, we are not being sneaky when we say we aren't using tracking cookies. We are not, and will not... ever.

I keep getting a message that says my image is too large when I attempt to upload photographs. Why?

If you are taking photographs with a digital camera, your camera generally does not know what you intend to do with the photograph, so it stores it in the highest quality format that it can. This gives you the flexibility to print it out (or have it printed) in fine detail. Unfortunately, that means the image file that it stores is very large. Often the file size of these images is over 1 megabyte.

These files are not suitable for display on a website because it takes too long for site visitors to download the photograph to be displayed on their computer. The generally accepted optimal way to display a photograph on a website is at 72 dots per inch resolution, and saved in a JPEG format (*.jpg). As the native format of a digital camera produced image is much larger than this, there is an option in most digital camera software that allows you to reset the resolution to 72 dpi.

In order to fit well on NWASells.com, photographs should also be no wider than 500 pixels. In our experience, most photographs that are 500 pixels or lower at 72 dpi resolution, will fit in about 50k of file space. Sometimes it will be necessary to choose a slightly reduced quality setting for the photo to make it fit in this file size limitation.

As stated, there should be an option in your digital camera software to change these settings. However, it isn't always easy. There are some alternatives however. There is a website called ShrinkPictures.com, that makes all of these changes for you very easily. You just choose the picture you want to resize, choose the size you want the picture, select the quality (good, better, best) that you want, and click resize.

Your resized photograph will then be displayed. At that point, you can right-click on the image and save it to your computer. Then you will have an image you can upload to NWASells.com. It's pretty simple, and it results in a very good looking reproduction of your original photograph.

I went to add my garage sale or event and found that it was already on the site? How did that happen, and what do I do?

In order to ensure that we have good content for visitors to the site who are looking for garage sales, we do sometimes enter garage sales that are advertised in the newspaper into NWAsells.com. However, it is still best if you enter the garage sale yourself? There are several reasons for this.

This list will be updated regularly. Please check back often for more Frequently Asked Questions.

Last Updated: 10/03/2006