• change password
• add a small image / photo that will appear beside your Display name in posts
• choose to accept (or not) private messages
• control your subscriptions (subscribe or unsubscribe to daily e-mail copies of postings that hit our Forums)
• ... and more ...

The majority of the response to this question relates simply to subscriptions ... so what are subscriptions?

Well ... we have found that many of our members like to receive a daily summary of what's new on our site. Each day -- early in the morning for most U.S. timezones -- our system performs a scan of all new or edited posts and replies in our Forums. After finding the new material, it e-mails this to all subscribers who have signed up for this service.

Subscriptions can be managed on a forum-by-forum basis. In your profile, you can turn subscriptions on or off for each of our forums. So, for instance, someone might subscribe to all of our forums ... or only two or three forums ... or only one forum ... or may unsubscribe all. That person will receive only updates on selected forums ... so ... if Joe subscribes only to Flying the Navion, then Joe will receive a daily e-mail only when new content is posted in that particular forum. A separate e-mail is sent out for each forum.

When a new member joins the Association, by default, all subscriptions are "turned on." For those members who prefer less e-mail, it is a simple matter of changing subscriptions to adjust "the squelch" on these ... in Forums, go to My Home ... then click on Subscribe / Unsubscribe from receiving forum posts by email, change message notifications, etc. ... this will take you to the page used to control subscriptions.

You'll also want to control the format of e-mails you receive from us. Do you get some "gibberish" in your e-mail? Most members are probably using e-mail that can receive HTML formatting ... so go into My Home ... then click on Subscribe / Unsubscribe from receiving forum posts by email, change message notifications, etc. ... and you will notice a question: Do you want your emails in HTML format or plain text. You may find that selecting In HTML makes e-mails look better when viewed in your e-mail program. If that is not true, use the In plain text option.

(a) The whole system is case-sensitive — both username (Login Name) and password — this means, for instance, that a username of johndoe is not the same as JohnDoe and these passwords are all different and unique: a2z, A2z, A2Z, a2Z. So the first things to check would be:

(1) are you being careful to enter username and password in the correct (upper or lower) case?

(2) is your Caps Lock key on, forcing upper case when you think you're typing lower case?

(b) We cannot see or tell you what your password is. But, if you know the Login Name or e-mail address that you registered with, you can request that your password be e-mailed to you ... go to the Forums Login page ( http://www.navionpilots.org/forums/login.php?Cat=0 ) and scroll down at the bottom. You will see that you can recover your password by entering your Login Name or E-mail address (just enter one or the other and press the I forgot my password button).

Our system will send you an e-mail immediately. After receiving the e-mail, you can either remember the new password or copy-and-paste it from your e-mail into the Login screen back at our Forums ...

(c) Once you're back in, we recommend that you go (in Forums) to My Home ... then Edit your Personal information, email, password, etc. to change your password to whatever you can remember.

• Our Classified Ads forum is used to advertise aircraft for sale / wanted, parts, books, and other products that are for sale, trade, or wanted. It can also be used to advertise or seek partners, clubs, etc.
• The Services forum is intended for advertising services -- primarily (a) ground / flight instruction and (b) mechanical / A&P / IA / FBO services. This is the place to post if you are looking for or offering particular services like these.

• Do not use a dictionary word ... use numbers or symbols mixed with letters. Why? Well, you may think it's hard to try all the words in a dictionary and it's a challenging task for any person ... but it's not difficult for a computer program to run through the whole dictionary, testing those words in a relatively short time ... not everyone who will try to find your password is a person!
• Do not use a short password (we recommend that you use at least five to seven places in your password) ... short passwords are too easy for brute force methods
• For your own sake, use a password that is easy to remember ... this way you're less likely to write it down on a slip of paper that might fall into the wrong hands
• Do not use a password that could be guessed based on a biographical sketch of you (names of relatives or pets, phone number, zip code, and any other information related to you could be guessed by someone who simply takes the time to learn more about you)
• Don't be a "Joe" ... this is computer techie slang for someone who chooses a password the same as their username (named after poor old Joe with username joe and password joe) ... very easy to crack ... very bad idea. Oh, and don't be a "clever Joe" either (reverse username, for instance) ... it's just a variation on the theme and it's easy enough to crack
• Your e-mail isn't Fort Knox! Don't keep a password for long after it has been received or sent via e-mail. Most e-mail is not secure (encrypted) and there is a chance that someone could intercept and read your e-mail ... so treat an e-mailed password as a compromised password ... change it soon to get back to a place where only you know it
• Watch out for "shoulder surfers" (people who watch over your shoulder as you're typing your password)
• Do not respond to anyone requesting your password; we will never request it and no one else should either ... if you give it to anyone, consider it compromised and change it

• If you have not completed the registration form, please do so; this is the first step. Detailed instructions are given on the top half of our detailed "how to join" page.
• Almost immediately after you register, our system sends an e-mail to you. It provides your login and password as a reminder of what you used in the registration process. It also advises that you must complete an e-mail verification step. It's simple really ... just click on the link provided near the bottom of the e-mail that you receive. We use this to ensure that we are dealing with real people at real e-mail addresses.
• Once you have completed the e-mail verification step, we must review and activate your account. You will receive an automatic e-mail from our system when your account is activated and we will normally send an invoice at the same time or shortly thereafter.