gay.com allows members to create profiles and run searches from a member base of over 1.8 million. With gay.com, members can connect with each other through member-to-member Mail or IM and, of course, it's all free.

gay.com Premium Membership offers many additional perks, including:

• the right to reply to any member profile
• the right to add any member to your Bookmarks, Hot List or Block List
• the right to access all photos - public, premium, and private (after receiving approval by the photo owner)
• the right to enter multiple chat rooms
• and much more.

Click here for more information on gay.com Premium Benefits.

Your gay.com profile address is a direct link to your gay.com profile. The URL is short and easy to remember.

The format is simple: www.gay.com/membername/

You can give your profile address to anyone, on or off, gay.com so they can quickly link to your profile.

A profile is created when you register on gay.com. This profile contains the basic information you provide during registration - Member Name, gender, location, age, etc.

You can update your profile at any time. Simply sign in and click on the My Account tab on the gay.com homepage. From your profile you can then click on any of the edit links to update and add to your information. To upload photos click on the My Photos tab within your "My Account" area. Once you see the photo gallery page you can upload photos using the photo manager.

Don't have a membership with gay.com? Click here.

Only gay.com Premium Members can change their Member Names (limit of two changes). To change your Member Name please contact our Premium Customer Service team directly.

If you are not a Premium Member and want to change your Member Name, you must sign out of gay.com and click on the Join now link to create a new member account.

To hide your profile, go to the My Account page, click the Account Info link, and select Edit in the Privacy section. Within the Privacy section you will have the option to either make your profile visible to everyone or no one.

When your profile is hidden, no one will be able to view your profile or your photos. Your primary photo (the photo that appears in Group Chat, in Mail, etc.) will display as a private mask. When someone tries to access your hidden profile, a message will display indicating your profile is private. Please keep in mind that while no one will be able to view your hidden profile, your profile may appear in search results should you meet the search criteria.

NOTE: If you hide your basic profile then your premium profile will be automatically hidden.

To hide your premium profile, go to the My Account page, click the Account Info link, and select Edit in the Privacy section. Within the Privacy section you will have the option to make your premium profile visible or hidden. Hiding your premium profile only hides the premium portion of your profile while keeping the rest of your profile (including your primary photo) visible. When your premium profile is hidden, the premium profile tab will not appear on your profile. Hiding your premium profile also removes your profile from premium search results.

If you'd like to remove your profile completely, you will need to end your gay.com membership. To do so, go to the My Account page, click the Account Info link, open the Membership and Billing section and select Cancel Membership. If you're a Premium Member, you will follow the instructions above as well as the screen prompts.

Maybe you're being too picky. To increase the number of matches, try selecting fewer criteria and including a greater search area-increase the distance from your chosen location and/or use the Select a City option instead of a specific postal code.

Maybe you're not picky enough. To narrow down your matches, select more criteria and narrow your search area-decrease the distance from your chosen location and/or use a specific postal code instead of the Select a City option. You can also add a word or phrase to the Keyword field to get an exact match.

One of the benefits of using gay.com regularly is the ability to save searches for later use. Once you find a search that gives you the results you want, select Save This Search and label it for easy reference. Once saved, you can run the same search whenever you want. (See the following entry for saved search options.)

Note: We can save the search *criteria*, not the search results themselves! For example, if your search criteria includes Who's Online, then the search results will naturally change each time the search is run.

• Click Find Members in the navigation bar at the top of any gay.com page.
• Click "Full Search" from Quick Search.
• Select the search criteria from the search form.
• Enter a name in the Save This Search box on the left-hand side or bottom of the page.
• Click Save and Search. Your search will be saved and run at the same time.
• The search will automatically re-run.

• Select the link for Find Members located at the top of each page.
• Click edit, delete or run search on the My Searches section of My Account.
• Click Delete under the "My Searches" tab for any saved search you wish to delete. This will stop emails from being sent for this search.
• Click the Edit option for any saved search for which you wish to change search criteria.
• Click Run to run any saved search.

To make your searches faster, try limiting your matches to smaller groups or a narrower distance from your city or zip code. Also, try using the "Back to Search Results" link rather than your browser's Back button.

When conducting a Keyword search be sure to deselect all categories that do not meet your criteria. Use the keyword field for specific words or phrases you want to appear on your matches, which can help make your searches more accurate.

To improve your search results and focus on the specific criteria most important to you, try selecting just the basic information (gender, age range, location) and then just a few other categories. If you select too many categories, you are unlikely to find a perfect match.

To maximize efficiency, click Search once and wait for your results to appear. Clicking multiple times will slow down the search process.

Remember, the broader your entries, the slower your results will display. Also, using the "Online Now" option to narrow your search to include only those members currently online will significantly reduce the speed of your search.

If you already know the gay.com Member Name of the person you want to contact, click the Find Members tab and then type the member name in the "Search by Member Name" box at the top of the page. If the Member Name is valid, the search result will appear. To access the member's profile simply click the View Profile link in the search results.

There are several ways to find members online.

• Group Chat: Entering a group chat room provides you instant access to other online members. Select "Interact" from the top navigation bar. From the Group Chat window select one of the chat rooms from the list on the left to enter.
• Online Search: By specifying "Online Now" when you conduct a search, you will be able to find those members who are currently online. To conduct an online search select Find Members from the navigation bar, enter the search criteria and click the "Online Now" check box.
• Who's Online: The "Who's Online" page displays hundreds of cities from around the world where gay.com members are online. Just click on a city to see who's online. To access the "Who's Online" page, select Find Members from the top navigation bar. Then select the "Who's Online" link from the Quick Search module.

The Who's Online section is divided geographically. A member's location is based on the member's profile location. Members with an online status set to something other than invisible will appear online.

There could be a few reasons why your profile is not showing up in the Who's Online section:

• To show up in Who's Online your online status must be set to something other than invisible. You can change you online status only in Messenger and select "I'm looking for:" from the drop-down menu.
• Who's Online updates frequently on gay.com. If you have just logged in and are still not showing up in Who's Online you may need to wait up to 90 seconds before your profile appears.

To see the latest profiles, click Find Members to open Quick Search, click Full Search and then select New Profiles in the "Only Show..." section.

Although we do our best to include everyone's city, sometimes we overlook one or two.

If your city is not listed, type in your postal code for the closest results.

In your search options, try searching for people a greater distance from your selected postal code.

Some people who live in small cities will list their postal code and manually type in the name of the nearest big city into the text field. If you are doing a search by postal code, you may get results that say they are in the nearest big city, but they will actually be within the radius of the postal code that you specified.

For major metropolitan areas, profiles may appear in more than one city based on your search proximity.

You must be at least 18 years of age to sign up for gay.com.

Only Premium Members who have verified they are age 18 or older are permitted to view premium content on gay.com.

Being a Featured Member is a great way to increase your chances of having your profile viewed by other gay.com members. By agreeing to be a Featured Member, you grant gay.com permission to use any information or public photos (including premium photos and information) contained in your profile in any and/or all featured member presentations (such as on the gay.com home page or in our Hotties of the Week email).

To sign-up to be a Featured Member, sign in to gay.com and go to the Account Info section under My Account.

From the Account Info page select the Edit link in the Featured Member section.

At this time, we do not offer the ability to block members from viewing your profile. However, the Block function can be used to prevent another member from contacting you via IM or gay.com Mail.

If another member is sending unwanted mail or harassing you in any way, this is a violation of our user agreement. Please report the offender to us immediately via the Report Violations form.

All member profiles must comply with the gay.com User Agreement and Community Guidelines.

To report harassment or content violations on gay.com, please click the "report abuse" link at the bottom of each member's gay.com profile.

When chatting, you may also report harassment or content violations by using the "Report Abuse" link. Complete the online Violations Report form to report the problem to gay.com staff.

Select the "Send Friend Request" link from the member's profile or the "mini-profile" pop-up whom you would like to be friends with. A request to join your Friends List will be sent to the member by Mail. Friend invites are also visible on the My Lists page and your Friend Invites list.

If the member approves your request, they will be added to your Friends List, and you will automatically appear on their Friends List.

Simply select the "Remove from Friends" link on the member's profile or on the My Lists page. Select the member(s) you want to remove and hit the "delete selected".

Yes. Simply remove them from your Friends List, and you will be removed from their Friends List automatically.

Yes. Your Friends List is public. This means other users will be able to see people you've added as friends.

To keep Notes about another member you must first be signed in to the site. Then, by selecting the My Notes link on a member's profile page you can keep private notes regarding this member. Your notes are only visible to you when viewing a member's profile. Your notes are never displayed to other's viewing the profile, not even the profile member.

There are two ways to contact another member from their profile. You can either send them a Mail message or, if the member is online, you can send a private IM. To send a Mail message just click the Mail link at the top of the member's profile. All replies are sent privately via gay.com Mail. A thumbnail of your primary photo will display on your mail message so the recipient can see who you are.

If the member is online and you wish to send a private IM, simply click the IM link at the top of the member's profile.

There are two ways to contact another member from their profile. You can either send them a Mail message or, if the member is online, you can send a private IM. To send a Mail message just click the Mail link at the top of the member's profile. All replies are sent privately via gay.com Mail. A thumbnail of your primary photo will display on your mail message so the recipient can see who you are.

If the member is online and you wish to send a private IM, simply click the IM link at the top of the member's profile.

The easiest way to reply to your favorite profile is via mail or, if the member is online, you can send a private IM. From the member's profile simply click the Mail or IM link to send a message or start a live conversation.

If you see a profile you like, you can save it to view later by clicking the Bookmark link within the member's profile. You can review, edit or delete your bookmarked profiles by selecting My Bookmarks. If a bookmarked member is currently online, you'll see a "Send IM" link as well.

The number next to the Profile Views represents the number of times your profile has been viewed by other gay.com members or visitors. The more times your profile is viewed, the higher the number.