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Fark Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): TotalFark Only Questions

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TotalFark Only Questions

Where do I sign up for TotalFark?

Right here.

I'm short on beer money and have to cancel my TotalFark subscription.

The TotalFark Signup form is also the cancel form.

My TotalFark is about to expire. Where do I go to renew?

Wait until it expires and then simply sign up again.

What do the different colored headline on the TotalFark pages mean?

  • Black - links that have not yet been reviewed by an admin
  • Blue - links which have not yet been reviewed by an admin and were submitted in the past ten minutes
  • Red - links which have been rejected
  • Green - links which have been approved to the main Fark page for future listing
  • Bold Green - links which have been listed on the main Fark page

Why don't I see some greenlit articles on the main Fark.com page?

They are probably in one of our other sections: Sports, Showbiz, Tech, Politics, Foobies.com, etc.

If they are in normal green and not yet in bold green then they have been approved for future listing and won't be on the Fark pages yet. We have a system that lets us approve stuff several hours in advance, or for Photoshops, several days in advance. The actual listing time is somewhat random, so it looks like we're working through the whole day when we're really out drinking beer.

How do I use the Favorite Links feature?

At the very top of each comments page, right under the headline, TotalFark subscribers will see an add to favorites link. Clicking that will put the link on your favorites list.

Or, if you already know the link number, you can add it from the My TotalFark profile page. For example, entering link number 99999 would add the TotalFark Forum to your favorites list.

Links on your favorites list are listed in the "TotalFark Tools" section of the My TotalFark profile page. Next to each favorite link is a counter of how many new comments have been posted since the last time you looked at the link, so you can jump directly to just the new comments and skip the old ones.

To remove a link from your favorites list, just hit the checkbox next to the link and hit "Submit Changes". Or, you can return to its comments page and click the remove from favorites link under the headline.

How do I highlight or hide posts from specific users?

TotalFark has a feature for highlighting posts from your favorite Farkers, and hiding posts from your least favorite. (Actually, this is not a TotalFark-specific feature anymore...)

Head to the My TotalFark profile page and look in the "TotalFark Tools" section. There you will see options for adding someone to your favorite users list or your ignore list.

Just type their Fark login name (not their number) into the box provided and click "Submit Changes". For the favorites list, you can pick a highlight color -- their posts will show up with the background in that color for easy visibility.

To remove someone from a list, just hit the checkbox next to their name and click "Submit Changes" again.

Alternately, if you are viewing someone else's profile, we now have the add and remove links there too.

Currently there are no limits as to how many users can be on either list.

How does Link Voting work?

TotalFark has a way to vote for your favorite link submissions. This is similar to Photoshop voting, but for the entire article. Unlike Photoshop threads, you can also vote against links you think really suck.

Submissions do not have to be greenlit to be eligible for voting.

To vote for links, go to the comments page for that article. Under the headline, you'll see vote for and vote against links. Just click that and the page will refresh and print a note saying the vote was accepted. Once you've voted for a link, the voting buttons will disappear. If you can't find them, that's probably why.

To see the results, follow the results link on the page. The overall voting results are updated every few minutes. Links will only stay on the results page for 2 days.

Links with the most votes do not get automatically approved for listing on Fark. This is just a fun contest for TotalFarkers to participate in, just like Photoshop voting. It doesn't (usually) have any bearing on the admins' link approval process.

There is no list of links that got the fewest/negative votes.

How do I report a problem with a comment or a link?

At the very bottom of every comments page, TotalFark subscribers will see two links:

Notify moderators about this thread is for giving the comment moderators a heads-up about posted comments that are in violation of our posting rules. Sometimes we miss a few.

Notify admins about this link is for giving the link pickers a heads-up about a submitted link that doesn't work, a repeat link, a misspelled headline, and so on.

Clicking either option will bring up a comment box where you can explain what the issue is in detail.

I can view the TotalFark main page fine, but I can't view any comment threads. Why?

The AdBlock Plus extension for Firefox was known to cause the comments threads to appear empty. This was reported as a bug to the authors already. If that's the symptom you're seeing, try temporarily disabling that extension.

Other possibilities are that you have cookies disabled, or you have some firewall or antivirus software stripping cookies out. ZoneAlarm in particular will cause problems unless you allow third party cookies from fark.com and totalfark.com (which is kinda weird as we don't really use third party cookies...) Norton Internet Security and BlackIce may have similar problems. If nothing else works, try temporarily disabling those programs and see if it helps. (The firewalls built into Windows and MacOS X tend not to cause these problems.) Try using Internet Explorer, Firefox, and (if you're on a Mac) Safari. If only Firefox doesn't work, disable all Firefox extensions and if that fixes it, turn them back on one at a time until you find the problematic extension. And let us know via FarkBack which combo of settings works so we can improve the answer to this question. :)

Here are the specific instructions for ZoneAlarm:

  • Open the Console, go to the left side menu, and pick Privacy.
  • In the main window there are three tabs: Main, Site List, and Cache Cleaner.
  • On Site List, click Add and enter: fark.com
  • (Optional) On Main, make sure Cookie Control is off.

I can view comments fine, but I can't view the TotalFark main page. Why?

When viewing the TotalFark main page, your web browser should pop up a realm/username/password dialog box. If that box does not come up at all, and you are using Internet Explorer on Windows (which is where we usually see this problem), try this:

  • In Internet Explorer, go to the Tools menu and pick Internet Options.
  • Select the Security tab, highlight the Internet icon, and pick Default Level.
  • Or, if you don't want to use the Default Level, pick Custom and scroll to the "User Authentication" section at the very bottom. Make sure you have "Prompt for Username and Password" OR "Automatic logon only in Intranet zone" turned on -- do not use "Anonymous logon" or "Automatic logon with current username and password".

If that doesn't help, or if you're using Firefox or Safari, try the tips in the previous questions about temporarily disabling personal firewalls and/or Firefox extensions.

Why did I get a cancellation notice when I didn't really cancel?

Paypal has a habit of cancelling subscriptions whenever your payment details change -- for example, if the credit card you were using for the subscription expires. Simply sign back up again when the current subscription runs out.

I think someone bought a TotalFark subscription for me (sponsored me). How do I find out who?

You should have gotten an email about it. If you didn't, check the "TotalFark Tools" section of your My TotalFark profile page, and the sponsor should be listed there. Note that sponsors can choose to be anonymous.

Can I transfer my TotalFark subscription to a different account?

Paypal does not provide a way for us to transfer TotalFark subscriptions between accounts.