frequently asked questions about the CircleUp service

The CircleUp service is completely FREE – there is no cost to register, join, ask or answer questions. The service will always remain free to consumers – we have no plans to add any fee or subscription for our regular users. We make money through advertising.

You do not have to ever register to receive or answer a CircleUp. Just click on the link in the email or IM that you’ve been sent.
Registration is SIMPLE – just provide a valid email address, your name and a password – that's it!

No – there is nothing to install. However, the service requires that you use a Flash-enabled browser to ask or answer questions. (This includes 98% of the world’s Internet users.) Browsers that support Adobe Flash include MS-Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Apple Safari. Since CircleUp uses the latest version of Adobe’s Flash product, you might have to upgrade if your browser does not have a recent version of Flash. The CircleUp service will automatically notify you if Flash is not enabled or is not the correct version. Check your version of Flash and see complete system requirements.

We found this article to have some great tips on best practices for organizing groups online with email: http://www.echoditto.com/best/organizing.

The service can be accessed by anyone, but only the person sending the CircleUp has to register. The privacy of your questions is variable – you can choose how private your results are. All of the people in your group can see the results if you want them to, or you can choose to not have anyone see the results. (see Who will see the responses to my questions?)

Your results can be accessed in 4 ways:

1.     If you’ve registered with CircleUp, when you log-in, you will be presented with your ‘My Questions’ page which has a list of all of the questions you’ve asked and been asked. Clicking on any of these links will take you to the Results page for that question.
2.      Alternatively, if you have not registered, you can follow the link provided in the email that was sent to you requesting that you answer the question. When the QuestionBox™ widget appears, just click the X to close it, and you’ll be taken to the Results page automatically. You can bookmark this page for future reference. If a question is designated as ‘personal’ only the author of the question can see the results.
3.      On the Results page you can subscribe to a Daily Result email that shows your current results at the end of each day. Just click ‘Watch’ and define the number of days you want to receive the email.
4.      You can also subscribe to an RSS feed from ‘My Questions’. Just click the orange RSS icon on the ‘my questions’ or ‘My Answers’ title bar, and you can cut and paste that RSS link / URL into any standard RSS reader for real-time display of results.

Widgets, gadgets and plug-ins enable you to use different aspects of the CircleUp service without going to the CircleUp website. A homepage widget or gadget enables you to ask questions directly from a custom homepage like Netvibes or Google, and you can then view your answers with any standard RSS reader widget. A desktop widget works the same way: instead of being embedded in a web page, it's now on your desktop or appears in Outlook as an additional toolbar. Widgets enable you to ask questions and see results in real time and make CircleUp a part of your everyday messaging.

Really Simple Syndication allows you to see the results of your answers right on your desktop or custom homepage through any RSS reader or gadget or widget. You don’t have to visit or check back with the CircleUp site to see when people respond to your question. To use an RSS feed, click the RSS button on any CircleUp page, then cut and paste that link from your browser into your RSS feed reader. It’s that simple!
For more on RSS watch this video

That depends on the visibility of the question, which can be set by the question’s author at the time the question is asked, and can be changed by the author at any time on the Results page. The visibility status of the question is indicated in the QuestionBox so recipients know how their question will be protected before they answer.
1.      Public question results are posted to the CircleUp website, and can be seen by anyone and are indexed by search engines.
2.      Private question results can only be seen by the people invited to answer the question and anyone the question has been forwarded to.
3.      Personal question results can only be seen by the Author.

Your CircleUp and results are stored indefinitely – or until you delete it. We have no plans to take it down or archive it at any time in the future. If we decide to archive data, we will inform all of our users well in advance.

Yes! CircleUp leverages the email and IM addresses you have for your contacts, regardless of what system you or they use. If you can send them an email or IM, you can send them a CircleUp. We send email on your behalf to all the common email providers and ISPs (Verizon, Comcast, BT, etc), as well as major IM services so it looks like the message is coming directly from you.

It depends on the AnswerPattern™. Most of the AnswerPatterns accept up to 30 different possible choices, and some have a ‘write-in’ answer. The Rows & Columns AnswerPattern can accept up to 30 rows and 5 columns (30 x 5), allowing up to 150 possibilities!

You can ask any question you want, and have a choice of eight different AnswerPatterns. We plan to add additional AnswerPatterns and expand their flexibility on an ongoing basis. You can also add web links, graphics, files and photos to both questions and results to further personalize them.

Each Circle on your 'CircleTop' on the My Circles page will accept up to 1,000 contacts. You can send a CircleUp to more than one Circle at a time, so you can send CircleUps to an almost unlimited number of people.

Circles are shared by default when creating a new Circle, or by clicking 'share this circle' on the Circle Details screen.

By sharing a Circle you are enabling every member of that Circle to contact the others through CircleUp if they sign up with the service. Shared Circles ensure your entire group can communicate without a 'reply-to-all' email chain, and that the group leader doesn't have to initiate every communication. In addition, only the group leader needs to create the Circle, saving time for everyone else. As an example, a coach could share a Soccer Team circle with the co-captain, team manager, parents, and players to allow everyone to make announcements or request information through CircleUp.

A Circle you have shared is designated on your CircleTop by a blue plus sign, and a Circle someone else has created and shared with you appears on your CircleTop with a green plus sign. Only the creator of the Circle can modify its membership.