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<%pname%> (<%ver%>) - Frequently Asked Questions<br>
<i>(Culled from emails to my users.)</i><br><br><u>Table of Contents</u><br>
<%toc%>
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<%que 0%>How do I customize the tabs and columns?
<%ans%>This is more of a hint than a FAQ.  Try right-clicking (or control-click
on Mac OS X) on the tab name.  There's a whole set of controls for columns and
tabs available, but they're not well exposed.
<%end%>

<%que 1%>I'm 'Not logged in...', why?
<%ans%>Move your cursor over the 'Not logged in...' message, and a tooltip
should appear, telling you why JBidwatcher couldn't log in.
<%end%>

<%que 2%><%pname%> failed to bid 'for an unknown reason', what's up?
<%ans%>Pull up the context menu on the item that failed, while JBidwatcher
is still running, and select 'Show Last Error'.  It will show the web page
that JBidwatcher got instead of the bid success page.  It will give you some
idea what went wrong.  You should also report it, and the information that
was on the 'Last Error' page to <a href="mailto:cyberfox@gmail.com">cyberfox@gmail.com</a>.
<%end%>

<%que 3%>How does sniping work?
<%ans%><%pname%> places a single bid at the snipe value, at the snipe timer's
number of seconds before the end of the auction.  The amount sniped is the
amount you entered, BUT because eBay is a 'High Bidder, Second Price' auction
format, that won't necessarily be the amount you pay.
<%end%>

<%que 4%>If I enter a snipe amount at $100, would it bid $100 in the last 30 seconds?
<%ans%>Yes, but that's not necessarily how much you'll end up paying
for the item.  It is the maximum you could pay, however.  The person
who is the highest bidder is the winner, but they only pay an amount
based on the second highest bidder's price.  This means the price
will be generally lower than your real bid.  See the next question.
<%end%>

<%que 5%>But the cost of the highest bidder is only $60...would jbidwatch bid $61 in the last few seconds or would it bid $100?
<%ans%>JBidwatcher would place a bid with eBay for $100, eBay would
look at the current high bid, see it's $60, and place you as the high
bidder with a visible high bid of $61, and a hidden proxy bid of $100.
If another user comes along and places a bid for, say, $75, they will
NOT be the high bidder, you will be, with a visible high bid of $76,
and a hidden proxy of $100 still.  Once <%pname%> places the bid,
it doesn't need to be involved anymore.
<%end%>

<%que 6%>How do I select what currency to bid in?
<%ans%>You don't.  All bids are in the currency of the item, so check
that the amount is correct for that currency.
<%end%>

<%que 7%>What files does <%pname%> create, and where?
<%ans%>There will be a directory in your home directory
named .jbidwatcher.  On MacOSX, it's at:<pre>   /Users/{Username}/.jbidwatcher</pre>
on Windows it's usually at:<pre>   C:\Documents and Settings\{username}\.jbidwatcher</pre>
on Linux (and other unices), it's at:<pre>   ~/.jbidwatcher</pre>
<br>
In that directory would be a set of files:<ul>
<li>searches.xml - all the searches you've defined for it.</li>
<li>JBidWatch.cfg - the configuration file for the program.</li>
<li>display.cfg - Display-related configurations (windowsize, column widths, etc.)</li>
<li>errors.##.log - Error logs of what happened during a given run of the program.</li></ul>
There is also a 'auctionsave' directory, which contains a compressed
copy of the HTML from the last successful update of all the auctions
you are monitoring.  This lets you view an auction (through
<%pname%>'s internal web server) long after it's been removed from
eBay's own site.  This directory is only used for cached-views, and
the files can be deleted regularly if you don't use that feature.
<%end%>

<%que 8%>What are dangerous multisnipes?
<%ans%>Dangerous multi-snipes are ones where two or more items have
an ending time too close to one another.  The basic problem is this:
<blockquote>Item A ends at 5:27:10pm<br>
Item B ends at 5:27:15pm<br>
Your snipe time is 10 seconds.<br>
At 5:27:00pm we snipe on item A.<br>
At 5:27:05pm we don't know if you've won item A yet!<br>
- Since Item B hasn't been cancelled yet, it fires.<br>
At 5:27:05pm we snipe on item B.<br>
<br>
At 5:27:10pm, Item A ends with us as winner.<br>
At 5:27:15pm, Item B ends...with us as winner.<br>
<br>
This is dangerous, and I try to warn the user about it.  With the
advent of pre-set listing start times, it's become even more common.
Basically, a user will set a multisnipe on two items of a seller's,
but they were both listed to start at the same time.  This means
they'll end at the same time, which makes it just not possible to
multisnipe successfully.
<%end%>

<%que 9%>How do I save the auction data as a comma-seperated list, or load the historical auction data into Excel?
<%ans%>Right-click (or control click under Mac OS X) on
the tab name itself, and there should be an option 'Export', which will save
all the information in the currently visible columns for all the rows in the
current table out as a CSV file.
<%end%>

<%que 10%>Can I add searches that are more specific than <%pname%> lets me?
<%ans%>Yes!  The <b><a href="/SEARCH">Search Manager</a></b> has a special feature named
'URL Load', which lets you input a URL to load all the items from.<br>

<br>How does this work?<br>

<br>You could go to eBay, search for Zippy.  Wow, that's a lot of
hits, lets add 'pinhead'.  There we go, but you only want comics.
Click on the 'Comics' under Matching Categories on the left.  Now you
have a very specific search for Zippy Pinhead under Comics.  You also
want just the ones that accept PayPal, so you click the 'PayPal items'
under Display.  There, that's the perfect search.<br>

<br>Now, go to your browsers 'Location' bar, where there's a very
complex URL.  Copy that URL into your platforms clipboard, and go to
the <b><a href="/SEARCH">Search Manager</a></b>.  (The binoculars on the toolbar, or <b>Edit
| Find</b>).  Click the <i>New</i> button.  Give the new search a name, and
change the Search Type to <i>URL Load</i> from the dropdown, and paste the
URL you copied before into the Search: field.  Enter in a tab for where this
search is to store its results, either picking an existing one, or entering
a new tab name.  Now click <i>OK</i> to save it.  There will now be a line in the
Search Manager with the name you gave it.  You can just double-click that line, and
it'll run that search.  You can go back in and change anything except the search
type later.<br>

<br><i>You're done, you've added a complex search into <%pname%></i>!
<%end%>

<%que 11%>How do I view 'Mature Audiences' items in <%pname%>?
<%ans%>eBay has a 'Mature Audiences' category which requires you to
authenticate yourself as an adult with them.  If you haven't done
that, then they don't allow you access to the Mature Audiences
categories.  eBay also doesn't allow access to the Mature Audiences
category from non-US accounts, so you'll get login failures if you
turn it on and your primary account is not on ebay.com.<br>
<br>
JBidwatcher needs to know whether you've registered with eBay as an
adult in order to determine what type of login to do, so it can monitor
and bid/snipe on adult items as well.  Once upon a time this was a
checkbox, but it was responsible for the majority of support problems
with login failing.  Now, in order to access Mature Audiences items,
you will need to go to the Advanced Configuration tab of JBidwatcher's
Configuration Manager, and enter 'ebay.mature' (without the quotes) as
the key, and 'true' as the value.  Set it, save it, and restart JBidwatcher.<br>
<br>
<strong><em>Don't do this unless you have to.</em></strong>
<%end%>

<%que 12%>How do I get items into JBidwatcher from my browser?
<%ans%>Try dragging and dropping from the Firefox, IE, or Safari 'location' bar,
or from any link to an auction onto the main display of JBidwatcher.  It should
add the item into JBidwatcher's list of monitored auctions!<%end%>

<%que 13%>How often does it update the items I'm watching or sniping on?
<%ans%>About once every half hour, and then once a minute through the
last half hour before closing.
<%end%>

<%que 14%>Can the 'Select Search' do anything other than titles?
<%ans%>OH yeah...!  I added some super-special filtering trix0rs
to the select box.  This allows searching for:<ul><li>just sellers (~s {pat})</li>
<li>just buyers (~b {pat})</li>
<li>just users (sellers or buyers) (~u {pat})</li>
<li>just comments (~c {pat})</li>
<li>just title (default)</li></ul>...or...<ul><li>EVERYTHING (~a {pat})</li></ul>
Cool related feature note:
<blockquote>Since comments and bidder search ONLY search
if there is one at all, you can highlight all
items with comments using:
<pre>  ~c .</pre>
and all items with bidders with:
<pre>  ~b .</pre></blockquote>
<b>Also, you can invert searches with:</b>
<pre>~!{search}</pre>
for example...  All items without buyers:
<pre>~!~b .</pre>
All items without 'anime' in their title:
<pre>~!anime</pre>
<b><i>ENJOY!</i></b>
<%end%>

<%que 15%>Why are my snipes failing?!?
<%ans%>Some of the possible and probable answers are:<ul>
<li>Communication problems to eBay (can't reach their site).</li>
<li>Some problems trying to bid (bid price not accepted, mainly).</li>
<li>eBay time synchronization problems could have caused it to
snipe too late (how close was it sniping?).</li>
<li>A process on your computer could have kicked in (backup, for
example) that drew away too much CPU time and delayed the program from
sniping for too long.</li>
<li>You are running a computer with a 'sleep' mode, and it went to
sleep before the snipe fired (especially common on Mac laptops, which
sleep on lid close).</li>
<li>eBay may have changed their format, making <%pname%> unable to
place snipes.  Check the
<a href="http://www.jbidwatcher.com"><%pname%> homepage</a> for new
updates, and status of emergency fixes.</li><%end%>

<%que 16%>I have a laptop/sleep-enabled computer.  What if it goes to sleep?
<%ans%>When most computers go to sleep, they are not running any software,
including JBidwatcher, until they wake up again.  Often they will shut down
their network connections, too, until they wake.  This means JBidwatcher will
<b><i>not</i></b> be able to snipe while the computer is asleep.  Make sure to
disable sleep mode well in advance of any snipes you want JBidwatcher to fire.<%end%>
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