General
What is WineCHATr?
WineCHATr is the essential online resource for a rapidly growing wine industry, where both consumers and popular wine businesses can come together in order to share information on wine. Each side is able to connect to a larger community with the purpose of trading information, promoting wine businesses and products, discovering new wines, and engaging in countless other wine related opportunities. Whether an individual wishes to gain a greater understanding of wine or a business is looking to reach a larger target market, WineCHATr provides the perfect place to connect over wine.
How does it work?
WineCHATr.com is perfect for both individuals and businesses alike. It doesn’t matter if you are a wine master or wine illiterate as long as you have some level of interest or involvement in the growing wine industry. Just create an account, it takes less than a minute, and connect to a larger community of people that share a similar interest in wine. Find general wine information, get answers to your questions, or even promote your wine event and/or business.
Is WineCHATr free?
Yes, WineCHATr is free for individual members. If you wish to create a business account with the purpose of promoting a service, product, or event the cost is $10 per month with a FREE 30-day initial trial period.
Why should I join WineCHATr?
Wine is quickly growing beyond its austere image to become a more widely appreciated and commercially marketable product. However, getting the word out and finding the right wine information or recommendations can still be difficult, especially given the vast amount of content on the web. WineCHATr offers instant access to the information you’re looking for in one easy to use community.
Who uses WineCHATr?
WineCHATr.com is bringing both sides of the wine industry together from wine drinkers to popular wine businesses. For individuals it’s a great way to find, share, and learn about wine. For wine related businesses it’s an effective and easy place to share information and promote your business to a larger wine drinking audience.
What should I post on WineCHATr?
How you utilize the WineCHATr community is completely up to you. Rate wine and add tasting notes on bottles you've enjoyed. Review a new product or recent wine event you attended. Get the answer to that wine question you’ve been wondering about. Or, just offer your general thoughts on wine, the wine industry, or even a recent trip to wine country. It’s your community. Use it!
Who can see me and my posts?
WineCHATr is an open community so everyone has the ability to see and read your posts. Some posting categories such as wine ratings offer the ability to add private notes on the wines you’ve tried. Other features including the event calendar offer the ability to add private events for only you or your connections to see.
Where is WineCHATr located?
While WineCHATr was started Seattle, our community knows no boundaries. We will be building active WineCHATr communities in many cities around the country and throughout Canada. Since our site is powered by members like you, wherever you are, so is WineCHATr.
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Membership
Why should I create a WineCHATr account?
WineCHATr.com is unlike any other wine resource you’ve ever encountered. Part wine journal, part social networking, and part events calendar, WineCHATr is the best way to quench your proverbial thirst over wine. Discover what other people already know about wine or share some of your own knowledge, either way come discover what all the CHATr is about!
How Much Does it Cost to Join?
Nothing! A standard WineCHATr.com membership is FREE for individuals.
How do I join WineCHATr?
It takes less than a minute to sign up. Create your account by providing some basic information and once confirmed you will have access to a world of wine information. Each membership offers several key communication and information tracking tools, as well as your own unique URL (eg. http://chatrbox.winechatr.com).
How do I confirm my WineCHATr membership?
After completing the signup process a welcome message will be sent to the email address you provided. This email will contain a link needed to activate your account. Click on the link, or copy and paste the URL into your web browser, in order to confirm your email address and activate your account.
Why can’t I login to my WineCHATr account after signing up?
After completing your registration if you are unable to login to your account then your email address might not be confirmed. Check for the welcome email in your inbox and either click on the link provided or copy and paste the URL into your web browser. If you continue to have trouble contact support@winechatr.com.
Can I link directly to my member page?
Yes, each member is provided their own unique URL (eg. http://[your display ID here].winechatr.com), which links directly to your member page. Provide this URL to friends so they can visit your page or link to it directly from your blog or website.
How do I change my account information?
After you are logged in click on the MY ACCOUNT link located underneath the main navigation bar. You can update and change your account information by clicking “Manage Account Info.”
How do I change my email address?
From your account page click on “Manage Account Info”. From there you will be able to update your email address. Note: After changing your email address you will receive an email to confirm your new address. You must click the activation link provided before being able to login using the new email address.
Can I have multiple WineCHATr memberships?
Yes, you can have as many WineCHATr memberships as you wish as long as each one is associated with a different email address. Note: If we discover that a single person is CHATr-ing under multiple accounts as a way to unfairly market their own business or service, we will close all accounts but the original or most authentic one.
How do I cancel my WineCHATr membership?
To cancel your WineCHATr membership, just send an email to support@winechatr.com with "Close Account" in the subject line. For authentication, make sure that your email request originates from the primary email address used to create your WineCHATr membership. Shortly after you'll receive a cancellation notice from the WineCHATr Support Team.
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Profile
Why should I fill out my profile?
Your profile contains descriptive information about yourself, which can be viewed by your connections and other community members. Post a picture, create a headline, and provide some basic information about yourself to share with the rest of the WineCHATr community. It’s your web page. You’re in charge. So share as much or as little information as you want.
Who can see my name?
As a WineCHATr member you can choose whatever Display ID (your virtual name) that you want to be known as within the communities. At no point will we ever publish your full name. There may be times when your first name and last initial is reference, such as when you send someone an invitation to join WineCHATr. Or when someone searches for you in our Search for a Member utility.
Will people have access to my contact information?
No. Your name and email are never publicly displayed on WineCHATr.com. This assures the privacy of our users and keeps spammers at bay.
What is a Connection?
A connection is any WineCHATr member that you want to share information with or are interested in connecting to. Just click on “connect to member” from any posting or member page and a request to connect will be sent to that WineCHATr member.
Who should I add as a Connection?
Connections can be anyone from friends to co-workers to other WineCHATr members. These are people that you will regularly want to share information with or use as resources for the wine related information you are looking for. It is also possible, and recommended, to connect with WineCHATr business members to get current updates about upcoming events, wine releases, and special opportunities.
What's the point of building Connections?
With more connections you will have better access to the information that interests you most, or maybe that you didn’t even know you were looking for. WineCHATr is a community and communities are always better when shared with friends.
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Postings
What should I write about?
Review a new product or recent wine event. Rate wine and add tasting notes on bottles you've enjoyed. Get answers to that wine question you’ve been wondering about. Or, just offer your general thoughts on wine, the wine industry, or even a recent trip to wine country. It’s completely up to you.
Why should I add wines?
One of the most commonly asked wine questions is “what do you recommend?” Through WineCHATr you can help answer this question by sharing information with the rest of the community. In turn you can also find out what other people are drinking and what they have to say about it.
Why should I post a review?
By posting comments and recommendations on virtually any wine related business, event or product, you help other community members to gain a better understanding of what’s popular in the wine world right now and steer clear of those that should be avoided.
Can I review a business I'm connected to?
If you are connected to a business, through either a personal or professional relationship, we encourage you to provide your review, so long as you are honest and openly disclose your relationship to the business in your review.
What if the business I'm reviewing gave me something for free or at a discount?
WineCHATr is about real, honest reviews, so if a business gave you something for free to review just be honest with your experience.
What if I had a bad experience?
Can I say something negative?
Yes, absolutely. We want to hear about your good experiences and your bad ones. Be sure to include all the relevant facts and details. But whether it's a positive review or a negative one, please keep in mind that your opinions are generally protected but posting false information can have legal ramifications (eg. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libel).
Does WineCHATr ever remove reviews?
Rarely. But in some cases a member of the WineCHATr team will remove a review (and will typically email the writer to let them know) when we are made aware of certain situations including:
- Disclosure problems.
- Second-hand experiences and hearsay.
- Personal issues with an employee.
- Personal attacks.
- Slurs and stereotypes.
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Premium Membership
What is the WineCHATr "Premium Member Program"?
At WineCHATr we reward those individuals that take the time to share information. Members who remain active and continue to post information, provide comments, answer questions, and invite other people to join will earn “Premium Member” status. As a Premium Member you are qualified to receive free wine and products to review, as well as special discounts, industry deals, and invitations to exclusive events. The more active you are within the WineCHATr community the better chance you have to qualify and get free stuff!
How do I become a “Premium Member”?
There is no need to sign-up or even contacts us, we know who you are. The more active you are within the WineCHATr community the better chance you have to qualify. So, keep adding wines, answering questions, posting reviews & tasting notes, and building CHATr Nation and you will earn your spot into Premium status.
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Invite
How do I invite friends?
WineCHATr is a community. And like any community it’s so much better when the people you know are also part of it. So invite all your friends, family and work colleagues to join WineCHATr and connect with you. Go to MY ACCOUNT and click on the "Invite Your Friends" link. From there just enter the email addresses of the people you'd like to invite to join WineCHATr and connect with you.
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Privacy
What does WineCHATr do with my personal information?
We take privacy very seriously. We do not sell, rent, share, trade or give away any of your personal information, unless required to by law. We hate Spam even more than you do.
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WineCHATr for Businesses
How much does a business account cost?
It’s only $10 a month for access to thousands of wine drinkers. That’s only $120 a year to get connected to thousands of potential customers!
Why should I create a business account instead of a free personal membership?
WineCHATr is a perfect place to get your wine related business or product noticed by a captive wine drinking audience. Build a larger customer base and provide them with immediate updates and information. Whether you're a winery, retailer, restaurant, educator, promoter or tour company, WineCHATr.com is the best way to find new customers and keep them up-to-date on current news and information.
What are the differences between a business account and personal account?
There are many key benefits/differences that make business accounts more effective than personal memberships when communicating with and promote to potential customers:
• The ability to add contact information, such as address, phone, email, etc., to your public online profile.
• Connections are not public. While anyone’s Connections are publicly viewable from a personal membership, a businesses’ Connections are not, so that you can choose to keep your customer’s private.
• The ability to send out custom email blasts and notifications to customers.
• Option to advertise featured events, sales, and deals on your profile page.
• If your wine inventory has been uploaded to WineCHATr.com your businesses’ name will appear as an available vendor for that wine.
• The chance to be a featured business on the WineCHATr.com homepage and newsletter.
• Discounted advertising opportunities on WineCHATr.com.
What is a Connection?
A Connection is any person or business that is directly connected to you through WineCHATr.com. It is basically an online mailing or contact list. Anyone that is interested in your business, including potential customers, other businesses, and/or employees/volunteers, can request a connection to your company.
Why are Connections important?
Through your business account you have the ability to communicate instantly with everyone connected to you. So, whether you have an upcoming event or the release of a new wine or product you can let all of your connections know immediately through the built in messaging tools in your account.
You own or manage a business and you’ve been CHATr’d?
Congratulations! Now that you are in the game, we recommend getting involved in the CHATr community as a business member.
WineCHATr.com provides a great opportunity to promote your business online to a larger wine drinking audience. It takes less than a minute to signup, and for only $10 per month you will be provided an online account with all of the tools necessary to help market your business. Through your account you will be able to communicate directly with existing customers, and engage new ones by helping them create a better understanding and appreciation for wine.
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