Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q.)

What is popisms.com?

popisms.com is a site for submitting, discussing and, posting questions about popular culture and connections between various items of popular culture. For more information, check out our About Us page.

What are popisms? What is a popism?

A popism is the name for a connection between two items of popular culture. A song played in a commercial, a movie shown in the background of a TV show, or a movie based on a comic book are all examples of popisms.

Who can use popisms.com?

Popisms.com is for everyone. If you are interested in popular culture then popisms.com is for you. Visitors can browse, search, vote and comment on our blog, but you must be a member in order to add new content, add posts to the forum and gain levels and reputation points.

Do I have to be a member to use popisms.com?

No. You can still use popisms.com without registering for membership. However, there are many benefits to joining the popisms community. Want to know more? Take a look at the About Us page.

Does it cost anything to join?

No. Membership is 100% free.

Why can't I log in?

Login problems are typically caused by one of two issues:

• You do not have cookies enabled
  popisms.com requires cookies for you to be able to remain logged in. You can view our cookies help page for instructions on enabling cookies in your browser.

• You have not confirmed your email address
  Once you have registered for membership and provided a valid email address, you will receive a registration email with a confirmation link. We require you to click the confirmation link before you are able to log in for the first time. If you need it, you can have your confirmation email re-sent to you by clicking here. If you are not receiving the confirmation email, see the "I did not receive my verification email" entry below.

I have forgotten my username or password. How can I log in?

If you have forgotten your password, you can retrieve it here.

Your username is the email address you used when you registered. Unfortunately if you have forgotten your email address, we cannot help you.

Can I change my email address or password?

Yes. Details are available below under the "Membership > Profiles" section.
Change Email | Change Password

I did not receive my verification email.

If you did not receive your verification email you can have the email re-sent to you by clicking here. If you are still having trouble, be sure to check your Junk Mail or Spam folders for any email from popisms@popisms.com in case your email client or service provider incorrectly filtered our email. If you use an email whitelist, be sure to add popisms@popisms.com to your allowable recipients list.

The verification link did not work.

Some email clients will break up long lines of text which can include URLs. If the link does not work, you may need to copy and paste the URL into a single line of text in the address bar of your web browser.

How much does it cost to become a member?

Membership is completely free.

Why should I become a member? What are the benefits of becoming a member?

Members can:

• Add new pop culture references
• Add connections between various pop culture references (i.e. "popisms")
• Start new topics or ask questions in our forums
• Reply to existing topics and questions in the forums
• Earn levels and reputation points based on site participation
• Vote on content
• Participate in our Lists and polls by adding new entries or rating existing entries

What are reputation points?

Reputation points are points that you earn for participating in various portions of the site such as:

• Adding new pop culture references and connections
• Posting or answering questions in our forums
• Voting on existing popsims.com entries

Once you have started earning reputation points, you can have the following benefits:

• Your submissions will be automatically be pre-approved (will not require approval by our moderators)
• You can use your points to add to or vote on any of our lists
• The value of your votes will increase, meaning your opinion will count more on the site
• Bragging rights

How do I earn reputation points?

Reputation points are earned in the following ways:

Receiving votes on information that you post

• When you post pop culture references, pop culture connections, forum topics/questions, forum comments, and more, other members can vote on your submissions.
• Positive votes will gain you one (1) reputation point per level of the user who is casting the vote.

Helping identify both correct and incorrect postings by other users

• After a posted item gets a certain number of positive votes, it is considered to be officially "approved" by the popisms.com community.
• Conversely, when an item receives a certain number of negative votes, it is considered to be "rejected"
• If you gave a positive vote to an approved posting, or a negative vote to a rejected posting, you will receive one (1) reputation point

Answering questions in our forums

• The member that asked the question can mark your answer as the approved answer which gives you an additional bonus

Staff bonuses

• On occasion, the popisms staff may choose to give out reputation points as bonuses for members who provide high quality content or are especially helpful in submitting corrections, bug reports, or otherwise to provide assistance on the site.

Why have I lost reputation points?

Just as you can gain reputation points, you can lose them as well. If someone gives you a negative vote, you will lose the same number of reputation points as the voting member's level. In addition, if something you post is deleted, you will lose all the reputation points earned from that particular submission.

What are levels and how do I earn them?

Levels are a convenient way to let you and other members know your status on the site. Your level is based strictly on your reputation points. There is no limit to the number of reputation points you can earn, meaning there is no maximum level.

Higher levels allow your opinions on the site to count more:

• each vote you cast has a weight equal to your level
• you can vote on one item (or add one new suggestion) to our lists for each level you obtain
• other guests and users can easily see how much you and your submissions can be trusted

It is very easy to reach the lower levels, but each subsequent level becomes slightly harder to reach as shown by the chart below. As you can see, each level requires twice the amount of reputation points as the previous level.

How do I update my personal information?

You can change your personal information - including your email address or password - by clicking the "My Profile" link at the top of any page, then clicking the "My Account Settings" link.

Can I change my email address?

Yes. You can change your email address by clicking the "My Profile" link at the top of the page, then clicking the "My Account Settings" link on your profile. From there you will have the option to change your email address.

It is important to note that you will be required to verify your new email address (similar to how you verified your email address when you registered) by clicking a confirmation link sent to the new email address before the change will take effect.

How do I change my avatar/image?

popisms.com uses Gravatar for member images (avatars). Members without a Gravatar account will have a unique image created for them. If you want to update your avatar, be sure to sign up at Gravatar with the same email address you use on popisms.com.

Do you keep my information private?

popisms.com will always respect your privacy and is dedicated to keeping your private information safe. We will not share or sell your private data or any personally identifying information with anyone. For details, see our Privacy Policy.

That said, the following information from your profile may be publicly displayed:

• your username/display name (not your email address)
• your Gravatar image (if applicable)
• your location (if optionally provided)
• your home page/web site (if optionally provided)

Can I delete my account?

We typically do not delete accounts. If you would like to terminate your relationship with popisms.com, you can stop logging in, or request to have your personal information removed and lock your account. Locking an account is permanent and cannot be reversed. We will not delete your content, however you have the ability to update or remove some of your submissions if you would like to do so.

Can I still submit new pop culture entries even if I only have partial information?

If you don't have all the information that is requested on the site to enter a new pop culture entry, we suggest you check out the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) for movies and TV information, or Wikipedia for nearly anything else. Other sources of information include credits shown at the end of a movie or TV show, and product packaging (i.e., CD and DVD cases, book title/publisher pages).

If, even after your best effort to find the information requested to submit a new pop culture entry you still only have partial information, we will accept that. Please note that we cannot control how our members or visitors spend their votes, and some of them may choose to give negative votes to submissions with only partial information.

How do I know what date(s) to enter when I'm adding a pop culture entry?

Between limited release dates, release dates for different countries, second or third edition prints, re-release dates and more, it can be confusing to know which to choose. Here at popisms.com, we always choose the first, earliest, or original release date.

Can I edit my own or other submissions on the site?

We allow our members to edit their own forum topics, forum replies, and any comments, but we currently do not allow anyone other than our staff to edit pop culture references or connections.

Why was my submission deleted?

Submissions may be deleted for a variety of reason. Here are a few examples:

• The post may have violated our Terms of Service or User Guidelines.
• The information in the post may have been incorrect.
• The post may contain duplicated content.
• The post may have been "rejected" by receiving a significant number of negative votes from our members
• You may have replied to a forum topic or question that was deleted. When a topic is deleted, all replies are removed as well.

What should I title my entry? What are your naming conventions?

You should always use the official titles for all pop culture entries. Due to multiple or alternate titles, and titles in different languages, sometimes it can be difficult to determine what title to use. We suggest the following options (in order of importance):

1. Internet Movie Database (IMDB) - for movies and TV shows/episodes use the title as specified on the IMDB
2. Wikipedia (English) - for other pop culture entries, or for movies and TV shows not found on IMDB, use the titles as specified on Wikipedia
3. American (USA) title - when applicable, use the title as it was released in the USA
4. English (language) title - if the title is available in multiple languages, the English language title will almost always be the most appropriate choice
5. Most popular title - typically one title will be more well known or popular than another more obscure title
6. Most recent release - if you are still unclear, use the most recent release of the title

Why don’t you have a specific movie, TV show, book, song, etc., on your site?

popisms.com is about connections. We are not striving to list every movie, book, song or TV show ever created. If there are no connections to or from the pop culture reference you are looking for, then it is likely that it will not be listed on the site.

If there are connections to or from the item you are referring to, see the next question.

Why don’t you have a connection between __________ and __________?

If it's a valid connection that isn't listed on the site, it is likely not there because no one has added it yet. As a member, you may add the connection yourself, or contact us with the suggestion.

What should I do if I notice incorrect or inappropriate information on a submission?

The first thing you can do is vote on the submission (see below). Additionally, you can submit problems or corrections by clicking the "Submit a problem" link near the bottom of any posting, or you can visit our Contact Us form.

Why is it important to vote on submissions?

Voting helps our members, visitors, and staff to determine what information posted on our site is correct or incorrect, acceptable or unacceptable, and liked or disliked. In addition to helping everyone else, voting on other member's submissions can allow you to earn reputation points.

How much is my vote worth?

Your vote is equal to your current level. Guest users (non-members), and members with a level less than 1 have a vote value of 1.

There is nothing wrong with my submission. Why would someone give me a negative vote?

There is no way to know why someone decided to give you a negative vote. Maybe they made a mistake, maybe they think you're wrong even though your information is correct, maybe they're just being mean. We advise you not to worry about it too much – overall, if you post accurate, quality information, your reputation will go up. Don't worry about those few exceptions where you get a negative vote that you don’t think you deserve.

How does the forum work?

Our forum is grouped into two main sections:

• Inquiries
  Used to ask questions to help you identify pop culture connections. For example, if you hear a song in a TV commercial and can't identify the name of that song, you can post a question in our forum and our members will try to help you identify it. Topics posted in the questions forums can have their replies rated by the original member who posted the topic.

• The Water Cooler
  Used to discuss your favorite TV shows, movies, books and more. These forums are just general topics related to popular culture. Questions are welcome, but they should not be about trying to identify unknown pop culture references (those questions go in our inquiries forums).

We also have areas devoted to general discussion and for discussing the site itself.

How can I receive updates if someone replies to my topic/question in the forum?

When posting your question, there will be an option to subscribe to updates to the topic. You can also subscribe later (to your own or to any other topic) by clicking the "subscribe" link in the toolbar at the top of each topic.

Who do I contact if I have a problem/question/concern/suggestion?

If the problem/question/concern/suggestion is something you would like to discuss with other members, you may post it to "The Site" section of our forum.

If you would just like to contact a member of our staff, you can use our contact form.

Does popisms.com sell merchandise (DVDs, CDs, books, etc.)?

popisms.com does not directly sell any merchandise, however we do offer products for sale through our affiliates including Amazon.com. You can help support the site by making purchases through our Store.

What do I do if I have a problem with another member (complaints, posting incorrect information, bullying, etc.)?

Please see our complaints page.

If you continue to have problems, or if the user is violating any of our Terms of Service or User Guidelines you can report the problem through our contact form.

What is "Taco Ritz"?

That's a secret. We will tell you that it's bigger than a breadbox, but smaller than a Fraggle Stick Car, but that's the only hint that you will get.