DowneLink is an online LGBT community that allows users to interact with one another through social networks and resources. The foundation of DowneLink is to provide a space for Downe people and their friends to exchange ideas, build friendships, and utilize local and nationwide services. As with any community, we hope to grow and introduce new and innovative services that will suit their wants and needs.

Whether it is meeting new people, keeping in touch with old friends, searching for the best cafes or discussing your views on life, DowneLink is your online gay community for communication and resources.

The use of the word came out of the need to discuss or announce one's sexuality in a covert manner, like a code word. Derived from "Are you down?" and "downlow", downe eventually became an all encompassing term for those who identify as gay/lesbia/bisexual/transgender.

An individual who is straight that hangs out with gays/lesbians.

Yes. We rely on advertisers to assist us to keep this site running. In order for us to introduce our site to advertisers we need you, as a member, to cooperate by following our terms of service.

You MUST be at least 18 years of age.

We do our best to answer all our members' questions. Please make sure to type your valid email address correctly when sending us suggestions/comments/technical issues or we will not be able to respond to your questions. We have experienced a lot of messages bouncing back to us due to invalid email addresses. Always have a valid email address in your profile for us to contact you.

You can help DowneLink by promoting us! DowneLink is all about friends and community, and the larger this community becomes, the deeper and richer the experience will be for everyone. The best way to start is to invite your friends to join! Click on "Invite" in the navigation bar to invite them! They'll automatically be added to your friend's list upon joining!

The best thing to do if and when you encounter such a situation is simply ignore them. 99.9% of the time they will soon leave you alone. By NOT responding to offending user, most people will simply go away. You may also use the feature "Block User", which will prevent them from contacting you (via messages, blog and photos). If you cannot resolve the problem yourself, or if someone is threatening you, contact the DowneLink Team immediately.

No. We want our members to feel free to write whatever they want, but be considerate of others. If you, as a member, display any nude images or obscene language please remove them. Please contact us at info@DowneLink.com if you have an issue with a member not cooperating with our terms and we will resolve the problem. Copy and paste the URL address of the member's profile into your email. Members who still continue violating our rules after being contacted by us will have their account terminated.

Go to the login page and click on "Forgot password?"

1000 at this time. We will consider increasing it in the future.

A way for you to send a message to the entire network about an individual that caught your eye at a specific place, but never got a chance to come up to him/her. Here is a chance to describe what you saw and hoping that person will respond back.

1. Login to the site
2. Click on "Edit Friends" or "Edit Testimonials"

No. We apologize that we cannot provide you this type of service. We recommend you asking other members to help you out.

1. Login to the site
2. Click on the 'Account Settings' page from the left hand navigation
3. Follow the instructions to remove the account

The password is case-sensitive on the cancellation page so please make sure to enter the correct password.

1. Login to the site
2. Click on 'Account Settings' from the left hand navigation
3. Click on 'Change Password'

1. Click on the 'Blog's link tab from the top navigation
2. Scroll down to the blog that you would like to edit
3. Click the 'edit' link

1. Go to the friend's profile
2. Click on 'Add a testimonial'
3. Follow the instructions to send the testimonial
4. Once the testimonial is approved from your friend, it is posted on the profile

To change your notification settings:
1. Login to the site
2. Click on "Account Settings" from the left
3. Click on "Change notification settings"

To change your password:
1. Login to the site
2. Click on "Account Settings" from the left
3. Click on "Change Password"

Please send us the following information so we can search for the account:
1. First and last name
2. Zipcode
3. Date of birth
4. Password, if applicable

To change your basic info:
1. Login to the site
2. Click on "Edit Profile" on the left side
3. Navigate to the "Basic Info" tab

Since you do not access to your email account (to retrieve DowneLink password), we can reset your account but before we can do this, we need you to provide us with the requested information below. Please be aware we will investigate all claims regarding this account and this process may take at least one week.

* An image of yourself holding a handwritten sign with the word "DowneLink.com" and the date. Please email it back to info@downelink.com so we can verify against the photos in the account.

Sometimes the count goes out of sync. When you add a new friend the count is recomputed to the current/correct value.

This could be an issue with the browser cache setting. Please clear your browser cache and follow the instructions below if you are using Internet Explore on Windows:

1. Go to: Tools menu > Internet Options
2. Under Temporary Internet files, click the 'Settings' button
3. Note the value selected for 'Check for newer versions of stored pages'

The value selected should be 'Automatically'. If not, please select the value, click 'OK', and then 'OK' again to exit.

If the above does not work, try holding your keyboard Shift key and hitting the F5 button at the same time to refresh your browser.

In order to verify your identity, please send us an image of yourself holding a handwritten sign with the word "DowneLink.com" and the date. We can then remove the profile that uses your identity without your permission.

Please be sure to include the web address/URL to the profile.

Adding sounds/vidoes to your profile page is easy and requires only a basic knowledge of HTML. Simply go to "Edit Profile > Personality & Interests " and enter the desired HTML coding where appropriate. If you do not know HTML, just ask other DowneLink users.

Please make sure:
1. The image you are attempting to upload is in one of the following formats: gif and jpg.
2. The filename does not have weird characters, i.e. my~!image~~.jpg
3. The file is less than 1MB. If none of these work, go to http://www.download.com/ and download a copy of the free software program called IrfanView. You can use this tool to resize your image to than 1.5MB.

The HTML code in your profile (personality & interests fields) is incomplete/incorrect. Please review and modify your HTML code to fix this issue.

DowneLink filters out potentially malicious code, including all javascript, so be sure to not include JavaScript. In addition, make sure that your HTML code in your profile is properly closed."

This could be an issue with the browser cache setting. Please follow the instructions below if you are using Internet Explore on Windows:

1. Go to: Tools menu > Internet Options
2. Under Temporary Internet files, click the 'Settings' button
3. Note the value selected for 'Check for newer versions of stored pages'

The value selected should be 'Automatically'. If not, please select the value, click 'OK', and then 'OK' again to exit. Now, try to set a default photo.

If this does not work, please contact the DowneLink Team at info@DowneLink.com .