DreamBook: Troubleshooting

Having a problem with your guestbook? Maybe WE can help!

Why did the formatting of comments suddenly change?
We recently changed the display functionality of comments so that messages didn't lose the carriage returns or spacing that the posters put in them. If you'd like to strip out all of that and return your posts to look like how they used to you still can though! Go to the management area at http://www.dreambook.com/, choose your book, and click "Options". Then make sure the "Suppress Spacing" option is checked!

I got my password emailed to me, but it doesn't work! Why?
If you got your password emailed to you by clicking the link to do so when your log in failed, then that is the correct one for your account. It may be you had caps lock on when you tried to log in, or just typed it wrong. Please try logging in again with the password emailed to you, and also double check to see if you got your username right too!

When people sign my book they (or I) don't see their post! What's going on?
You might want to make sure you reload that page after posting to see new signatures.. otherwise your browser might just display you what it looked like the last time you visited (before you signed it!). That's called "caching", and web browsers do it so they don't have to reconnect to the web server everytime you go to the same, static page. It might not know that there's been a change to the page since you last saw it!

You might want to tell people to reload the page after signing it! Did you know you can customize your thank you page?

Some of my entries are no longer showing up! What's going on?
There is a limit of 150 entries per book. Once a book is filled up, it only shows the most recent 150 entries. If you'd like more entries, you should just make a second book!

When I click on the link to go to my DreamBook I get a file missing error!
First, check to see if the url you are going to is correct. It should look like this:

http://books.dreambook.com/ username / bookname .html

If it doesn't, you've just linked to the wrong place.

If it does, check to see that your DreamBook exists in our system. You can do this by logging into the management area (from Dreambook.com) and looking at the list of books that appear.

If your book isn't in there, you've deleted it or never created it! You should make it by clicking the "Make a Book" link on the left. This would only happen if you had gone in and purposely deleted the book.

If your book IS in there, click on it. Then click on "Options". Then click "Save" without making any changes. This will force a rebuild of your guestbook, and your book should reappear. This shouldn't ever happen, but it is possible if there is some sort of server malfunction while somebody signs your book.

Finally, your book may be set to be a "weblog", "diary", or "formmail" instead of a guestbook.. if it's not set to guestbook in the Options area, then either your public sign page won't exist (weblog), your public read page won't exist (formmail), or both won't exist (diary)!

That should do it!

Oops! I accidentally deleted the wrong entry from my guestbook, can I get it back somehow?
Sorry, it's really gone. You might be able to back up in your browser and it'll still be cached and then you can cut and paste the message into the sign form to re-create it. Sorry about that! :(

Be careful!

Why do some of the images in my DreamBook not work anymore?
It might be that they are hosted on Tripod, a free hosting site that recently changed their policy on letting people link to their images. You can view that policy here. Basically they've changed their system to break any images hosted by tripod that people try to show on non-tripod servers.

It looks like Geocities, Angel Fire, and Crosswinds.net also have started doing this, so images on their servers won't work anymore either!

If you're getting the "tripod image" all over your site, it's because your background image is hosted at tripod! You could just change your background to be a solid color instead..

You could sign up for DreamHost if you want to get a real web-host that doesn't have silly policies like that...