Shubh.org : User Guide - Terms of Service

Shubh.org

The word Shubh originates from Sanskrit and means Auspicious or Good or Happy, which a union of two persons, rather of two families, ought to be. This site is about helping Indians living all over the world find a partner for oneself or a family member. We encourage you to post your own profile - there is nothing stopping you from finding a partner yourself. Family members of a prospect looking for a bride or a groom will find our site going a long way in helping find a suitable match. And the best part of all - the site is totally free. There is no catch offering you to post your profile free and then ask for money the moment you wish to communicate with a prospect. You will never pay a penny here.

Registration

To fully utilize the potential of our site, we ask you to register at the site and post your profile. It only takes a minute or so to complete the registration. As soon as you fill-up the registration form and click Register, an e-mail is sent asking you to verify your e-mail address. The e-mail contains a link which you need to click or copy and paste in your browser address bar. Once done, you are verified and your registration is enabled to utilize the site.

While registering you will find three check boxes at the bottom. The first one about whether you wish to receive our newsletter or not. Our news letter contains important information, tips and messages about the site and we suggest you to receive the newsletter which is sent only occasionally. The default - unchecked - is to receive the newsletter. If you decide not to receive, please check this box.

The second box is about hiding your e-mail address. The default is - checked - to hide your e-mail address. We strongly recommend that you leave it checked. This will show a link to a contact form in your profile and anyone wanting to send you a message can do so via this form without knowing your e-mail address. If you wish to receive messages directly then, of course, uncheck this box.

Checking the third box is mandatory as it relates to the Terms and Conditions, you are reading now, on which our service is provided.

Login

Your e-mail address is your login ID which, along with your password you selected while registering, will enable you to get access to the Member's Area of the site. From here you can create a new profile, upload photos, videos and documents to your profile, and edit existing ones. You can also change your password if you so wish and update your preferences for newsletter and e-mail address. For the best browsing experience, we suggest that you login as soon as you open the site. This will enable you to bookmark profiles or contact prospects without leaving the page. You will be automatically logged out as soon as you close the browser window.

Creating Profile

When you wish to create a new profile, login to the Member's Area via the User Login link at the top. Inside, click on the link New Profile in the left side menu. This will bring you to the category selection menu. Most categories have an asterisk * mark while some may not have this mark. You can post a profile only in a category or sub-category which has an asterisk * mark. Please select a category most appropriate to your profile. As soon as you do, you will be taken to the profile form automatically. You can always go back and select another category if you made an incorrect choice.

Profile Form

While filling-up of the profile form is mostly selecting from drop-down menus or radio buttons or a two or three word answer, you should pay particular attention to the Profile Title and Description and about the Preferred Partner box. The last two require a detailed write-up. The profile title is the first thing another prospect sees about your profile. It is based on the title and, of course, the category, age, height and education, that the other person decides to view (or to ignore) your detailed profile.

Devote due thought to the creating of the profile title. Similarly draft, redraft and refine the detailed description about the prospect, i.e. yourself or a family member or a friend. This again will either lead the other person to contact you or to ignore your profile. Do not write just one liners - write in detail; you are looking for a life partner. There is no restriction on the length of your profile. Once you have submitted the form, you can upload up to five photos, one video and one document to your profile. We strongly suggest that you upload at least one photograph - profiles with a photograph definitely have a higher response rate.

Upload File Formats

The following types of files may be uploaded with your listing: (a) Images (5 per listing, max size 250KB per image) - gif, jpg, png; (b) Videos (1 per listing, max size 2500KB) - avi, wmv, pn-realaudio, rn-realmedia, x-png, quicktime, mpeg; (c) Documents (1 per listing, max size 100KB) - word, pdf, zip.

Compulsory Items

In the profile form, items marked with an * asterisk are compulsory, those unmarked are optional. About Preferred Partner is an optional box. However, we strongly suggest that you fill-up this box in detail about what you expect in your desired partner.

Profile Approval

All submitted profiles require approval of the Site Administrator before they become publicly visible on the site. Approvals take about 24 hours. Sometimes we may write to you requesting or suggesting corrections or changes to the profile. Please do not create profile title in all caps - it is okay to create a title with the first alphabet of each word in capital.

Profile Searches

While one can browse through the profile listings by category, people often search for a match based on keywords. The keyword based searches are confined to words appearing in the Profile Title and Description boxes. So keep in mind while creating your profile to include keywords for which you would like to be found by others. For example, if you are an NRI and wish that others looking for an NRI prospect find you, you should include the word NRI or Non-Resident Indian in your profile. Similarly, if you are a doctor and wish others searching for a prospect who is a doctor find you, include the word in your profile. Again, if you live in USA and wish someone searching for a prospect living in USA finds you, include the word USA in your title or write-up. In addition to keywords, Advanced Search enables you to filter search results based on category, person listing - self or family member, age, height, mother tongue and location.

Favorites Link

At the bottom of the detailed profile page is the link to bookmark, Add-to-Favorites, profiles of prospects you wish to short-list or contact later. To use this feature you must be a registered user at the site and logged-in. Click on Add-to-Favorites link to bookmark any profile. Links to bookmarked profiles can be seen inside your Member Area from the Favorites link in the left-side menu. If you wish to delete any bookmark, click on the bookmarked profile link - you will see that the bottom of the detailed profile page is now showing Remove-from-Favorites. Click on the remove link to remove the bookmark for this profile.

Annual Income

While you would more or less be able to judge the living standards of a person in India based on his/her annual income, please be careful in making judgment based on the income of a prospect living abroad which is converted and stated here in Indian Rupees. An annual income of Indian Rupees 5,00,000 may indicate a relatively comfortable middle-class living standard in India but this amount - about US$ 12,000 - may not have the same purchasing power in the United States.

Listing Duration

Listings are made for a period of five years (1825 days) which we think is long enough to find a match. You can certainly renew or relist your profile on expiry, if required. You can edit and update your profile anytime and as many times as necessary. You can mark it as Engaged if you have found your match. You can certainly delete it if it is no longer required.

Metric Measures

The site uses metric units for height and weight - meter and centimeter for height and kilogram for weight. Here is a quick conversion table for height: Multiply meters by 3.2808 to get feet. Multiply feet by 0.3048 to get meters.

Categories

The division of our categories starts with religion occupying the top categories. This is how most people look for a partner. We do have categories called Other for minor religions and for people who do not care about religion. We will create a specific category from Other Religions as and when necessary depending on the number of listings. Each top category is divided as Brides and Grooms - Brides listing profiles of prospective brides, and Grooms listing profiles of prospective grooms.

Site Navigation

We have tried to keep the navigation of the site as simple and intuitive as possible. The links at the top and the bottom will appear on all pages enabling you to go to any of these pages from anywhere on the site. The detailed profile page has the links to contact that person, tell a friend about a profile, bookmark it, print the profile, and more. The name on the header is linked to the Home Page and clicking on it will bring you to the front page from anywhere on the site. Profile Stats are shown on the detailed profile page. In addition, your Member Area will have information on the number of people who contacted you via the Contact Form. Do give your suggestions on improvement - it will be appreciated.

Contact Form

Only a registered user can contact another via the Contact-this-Person link on the detailed profile page. If you wish to contact a person who has posted a profile, please register first at the site if you have not already done that. You will need to login before being able to use the Contact Form. This prevents from anonymous users being able to send unwanted e-mails and lets us keep a strong leash on spammers. We, therefore, strongly recommend that, while registering, you opt for keeping your e-mail address hidden.

Communication Courtesy

While communicating with another, everyone is expected to maintain due politeness, decency and courtesy. Everyone understands that sometimes it is necessary to say no. Communicating a no need not be an abusive and insulting reply. Do exercise extra precaution and politeness when conveying a negative reply. Anyone found to be violating this implied rule may have his/her membership privileges terminated. Spamming is strictly prohibited and will result in instant termination of membership. Membership privileges are granted and can be terminated solely at our discretion.

Accuracy of Profile

We expect and require all members to be truthful and accurate in their profiles as far as possible. Any exaggeration or inflating of facts and figures is neither ethical nor will result in a long-term relationship you are trying to create. Do avoid this. We are a family friendly site and tolerate no nuisance of any kind here.

Free Invitation Cards

You can send free engagement or wedding invitation cards to your relatives and friends. Use the link at the bottom to go to the invitation sub-site. More card images would be added in the library in due course. Should you wish to use your own image, you will have the opportunity to do so while creating the card. In addition, you may upload sound and, of course, write your own custom invitation text.

Caveat and Disclaimer

There is no way for us to verify the accuracy of profiles posted on our site although we do take general precautions to filter out profiles that, in our opinion, do not meet the ethical standards of our site. Do exercise due-diligence before entering into a relationship. You are solely responsible for your decisions. Our services are provided "As Is" without any warranty or guarantee of any kind.

Privacy Policy

Information Collected: We require your name and e-mail address to be submitted while registering and may be published with your listing on our site so that people interested in your profile can contact you. We may communicate with you occasionally in connection with the services provided by us.
Sharing Information: We do not share information with third parties. Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our website.
Business Transition: In the event Shubh.org goes through a business transition, such as a merger, being acquired by another company, or selling a portion of its assets, users' personal information will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred.
Notification of Changes: If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post the changes here so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we disclose it.

Support

Do contact us if you have further questions or require any assistance.

Our Best Wishes and Good Luck!