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For your Information...as i think some of you may not know this.
What Information Is Made Public?
The public WHOIS database is accessible by anyone, 24 hours a day, and includes the following information:
*Domain name holder's name and address
*Address, phone number, and e-mail address of the domain name WHOIS Administrative and Technical contacts
*Date of the domain name registration
*Date of the most recent update to the domain name record
*Date that the domain name registration will expire
*Host name and IP addresses for the domain name servers
What You Should Know
When you register a domain name, your personal contact information is accessible to anyone via the online WHOIS search tool that is available on the Web sites of all accredited registrars. While these sites typically allow searches to be performed one domain name at a time, some sites are susceptible to automated “mining” of the information by high-speed computer queries.
ICANN requires all accredited domain name registrars to make a complete copy of their WHOIS data — domain name contact data for all of their domain name customers — available to third parties that sign a contract known as a bulk access agreement. Once the agreement is signed, individual third parties become licensed to access all of the registrar's WHOIS data for an annual fee.
If you do not have Private Domain Registration and want to protect your personal details from scammers, spammers and identity theft you should contact your registrar (whoever hosts your website if you registered your website yourself OR contact your webmaster requesting that they add Private Domain Registration to your account, you will probably have to pay for this ) and set up some privacy protection.
Penny 
I have emailed you Jen and for anyone else interested.....
UNLESS you have registered your domain name with privacy protection ANYONE can go to a WHOIS search website and look you up......and possibly pop round and pay you a suprise visit!
To check if your details are available for the world and his wife to view go here...
http://www.internic.net/whois.html
or here:
http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp
and type your domain name into the box provided (or anyone else's domain name, which is the scary and slightly creepy part)
Hope this helps,
Penny
I notice that some people here are listing on etsy, and wondered what their experience was like? I love the site itself, and it looks nice and simple. Are there any other trading websites that anyone recommends? I don't sell much these days but would like to know for future reference!
Hi Helena, how you doin? 
Here is a link to the Power Sellers website which offers a frequently updated list of the largest auction sites listings so you can gauge how successful they are before having a go at listing with them. The whole website is interesting and very useful if you are looking for alternative auction sites so i suggest anyone who wants to keep up to speed with eBay happenings etc go take a look-see.
Penny I just went through the whole thing and never knew I had to register on ebay in this way...so I have done just that..registered as a business account. The weird thing is that there are loads of sellers on there that do not display any contact details..they sell on there all the time. Not just bear makers. Which means that ebay don't check..which they should ...because if it's the law for us to have to do certain things in order to sell on there then they should have mechanisms in place to stop people from effectively running businesses which are 'under the radar'..this is perfectly possible on eBay.
I want to be above board and run my business in a transparent way..but unless you set up a shop on ebay how do they know what you are doing?
Hi Jen,
Is'nt it all so confusing??? As far as i am aware, eBay itself is only just beginning to enforce this and it will not come into force until May 2008, which is why you won't see many sellers complying to the new regs at the moment!
I am still trawling through pages and pages of info but here's a few updates:
Here is a quote from an eBay employee posted on the eBay.co.uk discussion board:
kerstin.uk@ebay.com View Listings | Report 29-01-08 16:11 GMT 25 of 929
#14 Legally any seller who makes items for sale is a business, so should declare themselves as such. eBay will for now only enforce this for very high volume sellers, but we are encouraging all sellers to comply with the law.
#16 Under Distance Selling Regulations it has to be a geographical address, not a PO box.
Here's the link to the whole discussion, there's a lot of waffle to read through but this quote is about halfway down the page:
http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa...142136&start=0
Do I really have to expose my private address on the eBay site?
Sellers operating as businesses have a legal obligation to clearly display a geographical address to prospective buyers before they bid/BIN (which is the point of entry into a contract). eBay is working to help sellers clearly meet their legal obligations, by providing functionality to display addresses to buyers on the View Item page, and policies to enforce this.However, we have heard and we do understand the genuine security concerns of sellers who trade from their private residence. We are exploring ways to address these concerns without exposing our seller base to legal risk. We still plan to enforce appropriate address display by May, but we feel confident we can find a display solution that will be acceptable to the majority of sellers.
Read the full annoucement here:
http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?th … 37&start=0
I'm am still trying to find a definitive explanation...somewhere......if you get fed up with me posting just yell and i will stop!
:whistle:
'They Can't Get Me!'
Sorry, i should have posted the link to the info on eBay.co.uk where i read about the inclusion of addresses, here it is:
http://www2.ebay.com/aw/uk/200802.shtml … 2-04091251
I don't know if this reg applies to any other countries outside of the UK and the rest of Europe - i am off to trawl through the rest of eBay to find out. Laws vary from country to country obviously.
Jenny: as far as i can make out...you still have to include your address on your website even if you do not use a 'buy-it-now' option for your bears. I think that an address must be displayed if you sell any goods from a website.
Penny.........even more confused than ever - and that's saying something i can tell ya! :P
Just found this posting on the eBay.co.uk discussion board - to view the whole discussion go here:
http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?th … 59&start=0
E-commerce Regulations, 2002...
"Service providers, whether involved in e-commerce or not, should provide the following minimum information, which must be easily, directly and permanently accessible:
* The name of the service provider must be given somewhere easily accessible on the site. This might differ from the trading name and any such difference should be explained – e.g. "XYZ.com is the trading name of XYZ Enterprises Limited."
* The email address of the service provider must be given. It is not sufficient to include a 'contact us' form without also providing an email address.
* The geographic address of the service provider must be given. A PO Box is unlikely to suffice as a geographic address; but a registered office address would. If the business is a company, the registered office address must be included in any event.
* If a company, the company's registration number should also be given.
* If a company, the place of registration should be stated (e.g. "XYZ Enterprises Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 1234567") though this is a requirement of the Companies Act as from 31st December 2006, not the E-commerce Directive.
* If the business is a member of a trade or professional association, membership details, including any registration number, should be provided.
* If the business has a VAT number, it should be stated – even if the website is not being used for e-commerce transactions."
Hi Girls,
I have'nt made anything for ages so have'nt sold on eBay for ages either but i was interested to read about all the changes going on there. I had a good browse through the eBay announcements pages - howled with laughter at the thought of Paypal withholding monies for up to 21 days even though the seller had to dispatch the goods, i don't think i would send out stuff without having the moolah first. Or have i read that wrong?
Also, i'm not too sure about the new requirements for selling as a business seller. Anyone selling items that they have made (such as bears) is considered a business seller and must display their address both on the auction listing itself and on either their store page, if they have one, or on their eBay About Me page. As most bear artists work from home that will mean that their home address must be displayed for all the potentail nutters to see. A PO box address is not acceptable. When a bidder wins an auction they then receive an eBay/Paypal invoice with the sellers name and address included and i don't have a problem with that as i think the buyer should have the right to see where he/she is buying from - but should home addresses be visable to all eBayers? I don't think so. Maybe bear artists will be forced to rent premises to continue listing on eBay if they don't want their home addresses on view.
BTW - not including your address on listings etc will mean that someone can report you and your auction will be pulled so ignoring the new regs won't work. Damn! and i'm so good at sticking my head in the sand ha ha!
(I don't care that i am regarded as a business seller if i make a bear and sell it on eBay, that is'nt an issue for me.)
What do think of having to include your home address on your listings girls? I would be interested in hearing your views on this. A bit worried? - Don't care? - Appalled?
Penny
You have to ask Daffers? 
Sleep honey, sleep :crackup: failing that, eat all the slightly soft crackers remaining in the tin from Christmas with the odd left over dip/chutney stuff with celery and walnuts (barf).
PenPen's resolution for 2008 - find something better to do with the left over Christmas hamper 
x
THESE DID'NT GET IN? Remind me to send the judges a reminder for their next eye exminations before the judging starts. joke
JUDY: King Tut did'nt qualify? Well i'll go to the bottom of our stairs (as we say here in the UK), i just do not believe it!
I think all the unsuccessful entries are fabulouso and i shall be sending out reminders for eye examinations asap........but then, i'm biased
:whistle:
PenPen
:clap: Well done girls - totally fabulous work as always...............you know, you're a talented bunch; but the best thing about you all is that you're nice people too - of course, this makes me hate you more but i'm just a twitter and bisted old thing
:crackup: :crackup: :crackup:
Fantastic creations and deservedly in the running for these awards - go get 'em girls and please send PenPen a sample of your work.
OMG THAT'S ME!
I love Boogie Woogie :dance: :dance: :dance:
Albert Ammonds - i grew up with his records, my uncle was a jazz pianist in the 50's and he used to bang out a few honky tonk tunes on the old joanna!
The person below me.................has secretly hidden the TV remote control from the blokes in the house when they knew sport would be on
:twisted:
Paula wrote: In terms of shows last year, I thoroughly enjoyed taking a new direction by participating in a couple of onliners to bolster my two regular London shows. Both the online shows and the 'reality' shows proved very successful for me.
erm cough :redface: ......can i suggest you try some online shows Karen?
The great thing about them is that they keep your costs right down and there's no travelling etc etc. You do still have contact with collectors but it's via email rather than face to face and online shows often get seen by thousands of interested folk rather than a few hundred as with many 'real life' shows.
Just a suggestion - hope this is OK
Penny
:hug:
You'll do it Chloe - there's nothin like a deadline to get you going, believe me i know.
Just think of all the bears you'll sell and new collectors you'll have battering down your doors for more!
Penny
:hug:
Maybe they stole your credit details.....did'nt know what to do with the cash so bought a book on spiritual guidance so they could use the magic heebeejeebies on the horses? Did the horses win? Maybe you could ask for a cut Wonks.
:crackup:
PenPen
I have just watched the whole programme as i missed it last night due to being busy, if anyone is interested here's the link to watch it on your computer...http://www.channel4.com/video/my-fake-b … l_p_1.html
I felt so sorry for those women,obviously there is a huge gap in their lives which they believe the dolls can fill but i pray that i never bump into one of them and stick my head in the pram and see their freaky dolls peering back at me! Can you imagine the shock factor of meeting someone pushing a doll in a pram wearing Gucci or Prada? It's one thing to see it on the telly but it's a whole new ball game to actually meet someone don't you think? What would you say when presented with an adult pushing a doll in a pram??? "Goodbye gotta dash", springs to mind!
I have 2 of these dolls myself (open eyed so they look less morticians dummy like), one is called Daisy and the other is Delilah...........Daisy is dumber than a bag of hammers so p'raps it's a good thing she will never grow up and Delilah freaks everyone out as she's ginger and very realistic-What is it with people and ginger haired babies? I love ginger hair!
I don't push them around in a pram,change their nappies or anything like that but i like to leave them around the house and spook the life out of my family and any visitors-the temptation to do a Michael Jackson and dangle one over a balcony or tie one to the roof of the car is strong my dears but i resist.............so far.
To me they are dolls, fantastic workmanship, but just dolls and i have a great laugh with them but they don't even remind me of real babies if i am honest - they are too plastic looking no matter what workmanship goes into them, they only look like pale reflections of real babies to me but then i have no gaping hole in my life that could possibly lead me to play make believe with them.
I do understand that people take them seriously as baby substitutes and all this is just my opinion but i have to say this.........these ladies need to get a life, or a boob job, a face lift, a lover......anything.....just don't push their dollies out in a pram, it scares me.
:pray:
PenPen
I am going to get well and truly rat-arsed at a party at a friends house - i've warned them so they know already and have prepared for it - they're going to pretend to be out.
Please i beg you all, no loud noises or cooking of fish, i'm going to be feeling very delicate. :doh:
Have a great New Years Eve one and all, see you next year.
I'm off to party like it's the last night on earth, which, if i get alcohol poisoning could well be - oh well nothing ventured nothing gained as they say.............
PenPen
xxx
:P
Oh and i forgot to mention that i have a new bra which i will be wearing for the first time tonight - make of that what you will but from past experience a new bra usually signifies good times are on the horizon.
I wish you and your new husband all the very best for your life together Iva.
The photographs are fantastic - where were you married? It looks wonderful.
God Bless you both - be happy!
Penny
I suppose i had better own up to my gift misdemeanours...
I have never had a bad gift given to me because everyone knows i would kill them, slowly and with an audience.
:redface: I almost have no shame when it comes to telling family what i want - they ask, so i tell 'em and heaven help 'em if they don't take my advice...............it's what families are for.
:twisted:
However, and here's the awful truth, i am more than happy to buy a gift for someone who has been a pain in the arse all year with revenge in mind........think a beautiful expensive (i'm not a tightwad just evil) dress that i knew the person really really wanted but oh dear, it was a size too small - i spent many a happy hour knowing that it would have to returned to the shop for an exchange for a larger size (the worse case scenario for any woman worth her salt) or a full refund (as i said, i'm not a tightwad and am more than happy that they should spend the money on something else they liked once i had humiliated them).
Obviously i have not inherited any kindly genes from my parents but the wicked sense of humour has been passed on.
Forgive me girls, i am a worm but it's great to confess at last (and you all thought i was nice).
Penny
:P
P.S. But believe me she deserved it
Here's this year's tree... some of you have been here long enough to remember my 2005 Christmas tree Needless to say, THIS one is still pretty tall, by it is so nice and skinny! Yea... the husband has learned!!!! You can check out the 2005 monstrosity on my blog if you wish....
Ha Ha Ha..........or should that be Ho Ho Ho? I remember your HUGE tree Kim, it was fabulous but, as you say...Large!
I am really enjoying seeing all your fabby trees and decs Girls. My tree this year is refusing to play ball with my camera no matter how i try to capture it - it could be cos it's standing in front of the window this year and the backlight plays havoc with contrasts or something but also maybe it's because i have gone dark this year with the colour scheme too - think peacock tail feathers and you'll get the idea. In fact, quite a lot of peacocks have given up their tail feathers for my tree this year - poor buggers - i thank all male peacocks for their generosity but i'm guessing they did'nt have much say in the matter.................life's tough for birds this time of year dontcha think?
I love all your trees and am with Sue Ann on this one this year when she says...
All in good time . . . I'm pretty much a Scrooge at Christmas and I'm dragging my heels.
......i still have a huge red firebird to hang up (more feathers i'm afraid) with a jewelled crown sitting on a golden swing perch - no one wants to tackle the task of climbing up the stepladders to my high ceiling and attaching it, least of all me cos me knees knock whenever i get past the first 3 rungs of the ladder and i start to sweat (or is that a hot flush hmmmm).
Penny
My Christmas avvie is up............i am just so busy this year that i am late with everything. Thanks for reminding me Paula - it would'nt be Christmas without the TT Christmas avvies would it?
Penny
I want to say thanks to all the girls who have sent me a card
Marion (Acid Attic Bears), Tami (Dolls'n'Dreams), Valerie (Bears & Buds), Jane (Doodlebears),Andrea (Drea's Bears), Sandi (Snowy Days Bears), Janet (Janet & Bears) - they are all so lovely with the little extra's you have sent me............aw shucks, you spoil me you really do.
I wish i could have sent you all fantasic hand made cards with lots of sparkly gifts but i have been so busy and suffering from the worse cold i have ever had i just could'nt manage it this year.
Thanks so much my dears
Penny
Well, i don't know if this will be of any help Debbie but here's the UK mail website URL http://www.parcelforce.com/portal/pw/home/ whenever i want to track stuff being sent to me (via EMS) i just type the parcel shipping number in and see if the parcel has hit the UK yet - it may work to tell you whether it is here yet.
Parcels from the US and Canada can take weeks at the best of times but with the dreaded Christmas rush it may take even longer.........don't refund yet my dear, just wait a while.
The parcel could even be held at UK customs - they are real buggers for holding onto parcels, then they hit the buyer with import fees - no pay no parcel! Scrooges.
Good Luck Debbie,
Penny
Hi Everyone.
........my favourite author is Charles Dickens with my favourite novel being Great Expectations........
I LOVE Charles Dickens too but my fav book is David Copperfield, i can't count how many times i've read it - i love all Dickens books. I've got some really old (worthless) editions that were printed when they were first published and i think it's really nice to be reading a book that was actually around at the time of Dickens - the pages tend to drop out when i read them in bed so i have to be careful i don't fall asleep and end up laying on them all night!
My most favourite author of all is E M Forster - i don't know why, but i really get into his books, my copy of 'A Room With A View' has totally had it so i'm hoping for a new copy from Santa this year (hint hint Santy).
I also love A S Byatt, especially the short story 'The Djinn in the Nightingales Eye', a fairytale for adults.
JK Rowling - CS Lewis - Phillip Pullman - Jill Paton Walsh.................i could go on and on and on here but a mention for Steven King is a must too, such a good writer no matter what the subject matter.
I can read all night sometimes then have a quick doze and start reading again..........obsessed with books i am. Doh! I forgot to mention John Irving - fantastic writer!
Penny
:P
P.S.
If any of you want to read a great book in bed try Paul Gallico's 'Jennie'
The revised list came through OK Wonks :clap: :dance: :clap:
Do i have to send a card to any 5 people or the 5 above me on the list or 5 below me on list (i'm at the bottom so i dunno how that would work but what the heck, you know what i mean)???
PenPen
I have things like this cropping up in the addresses Wonks...L0K 2G0
CANADA
Help!
PenPen
Hi Dilly Dolly Dilu............you sent me the card list but i'm not on it so do i send cards to any five people??????
Also, some of the characters were replaced with symbols so part of the addresses are missing..........is this like the DiVinci Code Dilu? Have we got to work out the code for ourselves????
Confused, PenPen
