Information
PLEASE NOTE: This site is still in development. Not everything described here is in place and might yet change. Your feedback would be appreciated.
Terms & Conditions
Our terms are very simple in that by using this site you agree:
To our use of cookies to store the information required for you to use it and to analyse site usage.
That you will not use this site for any illegal purpose and are aware that, upon request, law enforcement agencies may be given the ability to monitor conversations without you being aware that they are present.
To be excellent to each other.
Privacy Policy
Our privacy policy is as simple as our terms and conditions in that although you have to give us your email address to use the site, this will not be used for any purpose other than to allow you to log in, and to notify you when other users have left a message for you. Your email address will not be given to, and is not accessible to, anybody else.
The same is true of the GPS coodinates gleaned from the map in your profile (we ask you to put a pin in the map). This information is used by Connectosaurus to estimate your proximity to other people but we will not give you their GPS location, or give yours to them.
Please note that a possible exception to the above is if we receive an OFFICIAL request for information from a bona-fide law enforcement agency.
A Note About Safety
As you can see from our privacy policy: we won't give out your contact details. Neither do we insist on using real names of photos of youself. So you are effectively anonymous here. People will only know, what you put in your profile, and what you tell them.
But of course the same is true of everybody else here and unfortunately scammers, trolls, and other unpleasant people are a fact of life, and they WILL find their way here. So be careful.
Our chat rooms have an eject mechanism that gives contol of who is in them, to the people in them. If you're in a room where, for example, swearing and flirting are deemed to be okay, then it's okay (nothing illegal though: see our Terms & Conditions). But if you're in a room where people don't want that behaviour: DON'T DO IT or you risk being ejected and possibly even banned from using the site.
Of course if you want to use your real name, real photos, and put links to your Facebook account and give you email address, and even your phone number, in your profiles, that's up to you... and of course if you are Carpet Fitter from Skegness wanting to find customers you probably should put that information in your "I am a Carpet Fitter based in Skegness" profile, but probably not in the profile where you are trying to find the love of your life (you can have multiple, completely seperate profiles).
Tread carefully. We are providing facilities to connect people. It's up to YOU to keep yourself safe. There will be dishonest people here just as there are anywhere else and with the best will in the world there is nothing we can do to prevent that.
A Little More About The Eject Mechanism
The eject mechanism requires that at least two people (three when there are four or more people in the room) vote to eject someone. Once ejected from a room the ejectee will be barred from re-entering it for the duration of that session (room sessions last until the last person leaves).
Please be aware that ejections are recorded and repeated ejections could result in the ejectee being banned from the site. Similarly, overzealous use of the mechanism (read: bullying) may also result in those doing the ejecting being banned. Be tollerant i.e. if somebody 'misbehaves', ask them to stop. We've been known to slip up and use the occasional naughty word ourselves. :-)
And if you are asked to stop doing something then STOP DOING IT... or go find a room where people are okay with it!
Note that ejections are meant to be a last resort. We think of our rooms as being like your local cafe or bar. You can choose where you sit and who you speak to but unless someone is making a real nuisance of themselves it would be wrong to kick them out. Warn them. Give them a chance. And if they still don't behave, then by all means eject them.
Profiles & Searches
While you can use our chatrooms to meet up with your existing friends and get to meet new people through them, our profile and search mechanisms provide a means of finding new people.
Profiles
Your profiles are where you say something about yourself and what you are offering. Subscribers can create multiple profiles and you should create different profiles for different purposes (See here for the differeneces between Free Tier and Subscriber features). Not only does this make searches more likely to find you for specific purposes, but it also let's you give different details. For example, if you have a business, and create a profile such that potential customers can find you, it would make sense to include contact details in that profile. But if you are also looking to date, it will be safer to use our onsite systems to get to know who you are talking to before giving away any informtion by which you can be identified and/or contact outside of this site. You might also be looking for a gym buddy or somebody with whom to play sports, and once again the details you will want and need to supply will be different. People who are contacting you about one profile do not need to know, and will not know (unless you tell them), that you are also here for other purposes than the one for which they found your profile.
nb: while it might seem strange to consider things like friendship and a desire to date as things that your are offering, if you are looking to make new friends or go on dates, your availability for those purposes is something that you are offering.
Searches
The details that you put into a search will generally be very similar to what you'd put in a profile, the major difference being that with a profile you are creating an "advert" and hoping to be found and contacted, whereas with a search you aare the one doing the looking and initiating contact. In many cases, e.g. dating or looking for a gym buddy, it makes sense to do both. However there will be other case such if you want find new customers for your buiness, where creating a profile to offer your services as, for example, a plumber, rather than search for people who are advertising that they need a new bathroom fitted...
...but that's just an educated guess on our part. Connectosaurus is on a mission to create mechanisms whereby people can find and communicate with each other. How you use those facilities, is really up to you.
About Subscritions
Connectosaurus is currently entirely free to use, but that can't last forever. The web resources that the site uses have to be paid for and rather that clutter the site with adverts and sell your data (see our Privacy Policy), we're planning to implement a two tiered structure:
The Free Tier
The free tier will let you set up a profile, so you can advertise your business and/or do searches to see if there are people here that you'd like to contact. You'll also be able to reply to people who contact you and use the chat rooms.
The Subscriber Tier
Subscribers will be able to create multiple profiles; so they can adversise their services, make themselves available as a gym buddy, as a potential romatic partner, and/or whatever else they might want other people to contact them about. Subscribers will also be able to initiate contacts, use the game rooms, and a host of other useful/fun stuff. We've given a breakdown below about the proposed differences between the free and subscribed tiers.
What will it cost for a subscription?
We're currently working on the idea of people being able to buy blocks of 28 days for about the price of a decent coffee. We figure that if you're not willing to buy us a coffee (or a beer) once a month for all the work we put in... :-)
Free vs Subscriber Benefits
| Action | Free Tier | Subscriber | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Create a profile | Yes | Yes | [1] |
| Create additional profiles | Yes | No | [2] |
| Upload a profile image | Yes | Yes | |
| Upload additional profile images | No | Yes | [3] |
| Perform searches | Yes | Yes | |
| Contact people via searches | No | Yes | |
| Reply to people who found you in a search | Yes | Yes | |
| Use the games chat rooms | No | Yes | |
| Use the text chat rooms | Yes | Yes | |
| Use the video chat rooms | Limited (see below) | Unlimited | |
| Create a room | No | Yes | [4] |
| Use a background image | No | Yes | |
| Enter public chat rooms | Yes | Yes | |
| Enter private chat rooms | No | Yes | |
| Instigate an ejection | No | Yes | [5] |
| Participate in an ejection | Yes | Yes | [5] |
| Mute other people in a chat room | No | Yes | |
| Upload an image in text chat. | No | Yes | |
| Send friend requests | No | Yes | |
| Accept friend requests | Yes | Yes | |
| View and maintain a list of friends | No | Yes | |
| Send peer-to-peer messages | No | Yes | |
| See other members email addresses | No | No |
Notes
Your profiles are what other people search for and while it might seem odd to treate things like "Dating" and "Friendship" same way as "Bricklaying Services" and "Website Design", they are (or may be) what you are offering and what somebody else might be searching for.
If you are, for example, a hairdresser, looking to date, and find a gym buddy, you would create them as three different profile because the relevant details for each will be different... and of course you may also not want people who need a hair cut to know that you are looking for dates.
Additional images that you have uploded in support of a profile will not show if your subscription lapses, but will show again if you resubscribe.
Subscribers can create rooms as either public (anybody can enter) or private (only "friends" can see that they exist and join them).
Ejection is the mechanism by which people can be ejected from a room for misbehaving. It takes more than one person to eject someone:
2 people in a room - ejections are not possible (just leave the room if the other person is misbehaving).
3 people in a room - 2 people must "vote" to eject someone.
4 or more people - 3 people must "vote" to eject someone.
The person who has been ejected will be unable to re-enter that room while it is in session (sessions last from when the first person enters/creates the room, and the last person leaves).
Free Tier members cannot instigate an ejection, but they are included in votes. In other words: at least one of the people wanting the ejection must be a subscriber.
Please note that ejecting someone should be a last resort. If someone is misbehaving: ask them to stop and give them a chance to change their ways. Ejections are recorded and repeat offenders can be banned from the site (subscriptions will NOT be refunded). Similarly anybody found guilty of bullying e.g. repeatedly ejecting someone simply because they don't like them, will also be banned. We think of the chat rooms as being like a cafe in that you don't have to sit with or talk to a person but it would be ridiculous to ask the management to eject them unless they are being seriously disruptive.
Our chat rooms are, by virtue of the ejection mechanism, effectively self-moderating i.e. the people in any given room can decide what is and what is not acceptible behaviour in that room. It should go without saying that any illegal activity is not permitted, will not be tollerated, and that upon receipt of official requests from a law enforcement agencies, said agencies will be granted access to email addresses, one-to-one messages, and given covert access to the chat rooms such that they can be in them without you knowing that they are there!