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Registration - Questions
- Access Codes - Content
Registration
Q : This used to be
free. Why is it now subscription based ?
A : It is the
sad reality with Internet that so many good things that used to be freely
available are now either subscription based or gone. Except some implied
costs, such as hosting and web design, the author needs some contributions
to do his research, ie buy books, subscribe to other online resources etc.
Your free contribution helps us maintain “A Classification of American
Wealth” and “Encyclopedia of American Wealth” available and improve it. The
restriction of certain parts to subscribers also ensures better
functionality and avoids our server to be overloaded with database requests.
Q : I
registered and supplied all necessary personal information in your form,
then I was directed to 2CO.com and had to give this
information again ? Why is this ? What if that does not tally, should I
correct the information in your form ?
A :
Registration and purchase are two separate steps. The first is on our website
and the information you supply is for us to be able to send your access
codes. The second form is requested
by 2CO.com when you pay with your credit card. Discrepancies between the two
sets of information will not disable the automatic password generation, but
in case of fraud or charge-back, the access codes will be disabled.
Q : I would
like to subscribe but I could not process the payment with my credit card
on the 2CO.com website ? What should I do ?
A : 2CO.com
has quite high standards as to the security of credit card transactions and
therefore requests you certain information, such as your address and CVV
security code (on the back side of your credit card), which they use to
ascertain that the transactions are legitimate. If a transaction fails
because of missing information, you get a corresponding error message on
their web site. If you do not have a CVV security code on your credit card
and do not want to request one, you may enter “000” in that field. If your
transactions still fail, please use the 2CO.com knowledge base for more
information.
Q : I have no
credit card. Is there another way to pay ? NEW
A : Yes. If
you have a US bank account, you now have the option to pay with a digital
check.
You will automatically find this option at the 2CO.com web site, after
registering through our web site. Please note that in case of check
purchases the release of access codes is delayed until the check clears.
Check clearance takes 3-4 days.
Q : I
subscribed but did not find the information I was looking for. Can I get
refunded ?
A : No. The
terms of use are clear. Your subscription is a non-refundable free
contribution to the author’s and publishers’ efforts to set up and maintain
the web site. There is no guarantee to find a specific information on the
web site, nor that a specific topic will be covered during a subscription
period. The web site is intended for people generally interested in the
history and genealogy of the wealthy families of America, not for the search
of very specific information. It is not finished and will not be for quite
some time. The sitemap and the introduction part of the Encyclopedia section
give a good picture of what is presently available.
Q : How is my
subscription renewed ? Is this automatic ?
Will my credit card be automatically
charged ?
A : No. Your
payment is a one time non-recurring payment. A renewal is technically a new
subscription and needs a new registration and payment. You will receive an
invitation to renew, that is to make a new subscription, once the validity
of your subscription expires. At present you will get the opportunity to
renew with a $5 discount. If you do not get a renewal notice with a link to
the discounted subscription, please send an e-mail to
services@raken.com
or contact us through the live chat function on
www.raken.com
Note : We will need the e-mail address you used in your initial registration
Questions
Q : If I have a
question about “A Classification of American Wealth,whom should I contact ?
A : If the
question is administrative ie regarding your subscription, access codes etc,
please contact RAKEN Services at
services@raken.com If your question
is about the content of the web site, please address the author via
american.wealth@raken.com
Q : I asked a
question once and did not get an answer or it took a very long time. Why’s
this?
A :
Administrative questions are generally answered at once during business
hours by the RAKEN Services staff. Bear in mind that we are operating in the
Greenwich (London) time zone, hence questions coming in after 1 pm Eastern
time, will be answered on the next day. Content questions are relayed to the
author who is often busy and sometimes not available at once. He receives
hundreds of e-mails and attempts to answer as many as he can. Hence the
delays.
Q : Do members’
questions (ie those of people with a subscription) get priority from the
author, when he answers them ?
A : The author
is free to treat questions as it pleases him. Over time he has developed
some contacts with regular readers of “A Classification of American Wealth”
and we can imagine that these get their answers faster than others. However,
we cannot prescribe him to treat subscribers differently than other visitors
of the web site. The subscription is a free contribution to his work and
enables a reader to get access to the present content of the web site as
well as all improvements during the subscription period. This is not an
information service.
Access Codes
Q : I lost my access
codes, what should I do ?
A : Please send an e-mail to
services@raken.com
requesting your password. We will then transfer you the original e-mail with
your access codes. We need the original e-mail address you used when you
registered, as well as the approximate date of your registration.
Q : My access
codes do not work, what should I do ?
A : There are
two frequent reasons for this problem : misspelling of the login code or
password or a redirection failure to the page from where you tried to log.
In case of a misspelling of access codes, you get an error message and
request to re-enter the codes. The redirection failure would typically take
you to a blank page or in some cases close the navigator window.
Q : How to
avoid misspelling of access codes :
A : Your login
code is always the e-mail address you used to register your subscription.
The password is an automatically generated string of
3figures+2letters+4figures. The easiest way to avoid misspelling of login and
password information is to copy and paste them into the fields. Otherwise
please make sure you did not mistake a figure for a letter (eg “Zero” with
the letter “O” etc). We recommend you to ask your computer to store the
password information (ie say “Yes” to the automatic Windows prompt) for
easier access at a later stage and to write down your access codes or store
the e-mail with this information carefully.
Q : How to
logon in case of a redirection failure.
A : For
maximum convenience to AW users, our programmers have developed an automatic
redirection module, which allows you to login on any public page and be
redirected straight to this same page in the members area. This was done to
allow our members a direct access to the relevant results of Internet search
queries or links from other resources. Unfortunately, this redirection fails
under certain configurations (browser, operating system, security settings,
etc).
In such case, please use the “Login” links in the top section of each AW
page or in the theme site box of the RAKEN homepage
www.raken.com
to login. You may then use the sitemap to find the requested page or browse
through the index of the Encyclopedia section to find a specific list or
profile.
Q : How do I
recognize that I am successfully logged ?
A : Once you
are successfully logged, the “Login” link in the top section of each AW page
changes to “Logout” and you have full access to all pages. You should not
click on the “Logout” link again until you end your session on the website.
Once you disconnect, you will be automatically logged out and need to login
again for further research.
Q : I did not
receive the e-mail with my access codes, why is that and what should I do ?
A : There are
unfortunately plenty of uncontrollable reasons why e-mails are not
successfully delivered these days. Most frequently this is due to exceeded
mailbox capacity or set spam filters. That’s one of the reasons we set up an
automatic password generator, releasing the access codes right after the
payment of your subscription. If you received your password Online, you should
write it down at once and use this information to access later. Otherwise
please send an e-mail to
services@raken.com We will resend
your access codes and as a response to your e-mail, this should pass the
filters you (or your e-mail provider) may have set.
Q : I did not
get my access codes, neither online nor by e-mail, after I paid
for my subscription. Why is that and what should
I do ?
A : After the
introduction of the automatic password generator, together with retailing
our subscriptions through 2CO.com, this case has become exceptional. It may happen
though, if you made a double payment (ie you made two registrations and then
failed to remove one from the 2CO purchase form, which essentially works
like a shopping cart) or in the very seldom case of a simultaneous
registration of two users (ie within a time frame of 30 seconds). Our access
codes generation module cannot handle these cases.
We do notice them though and immediately make a manual release of your
access codes, which will be sent you by e-mail. You may contact us by e-mail
to
services@raken.com in order to assure and accelerate this
process.
Please note that if you paid for your subscription using a digital check,
your access codes will be released only once the check has cleared. Check
clearance takes 3-4 days.
Content
Q : From what I see,
the text part and the encyclopedia section are far from complete ?
Is there some hidden content or when will
this be finished ?
A : As
indicated in the Information page, “A Classification of American Wealth” and
“Encyclopedia of American Wealth” are indeed very much works in progress.
Part of the content is reserved to members (ie subscribers) but there is no
actual “hidden” content, in as much as all presently available text is
indexed in the site map and the encyclopedia section contains a listing of
all available lists and profiles. The author regularly updates the content,
both by adding to the text sections and by extending/completing the
Encyclopedia. The updates consist both in new chapters or extensions of
existing chapters in the text part, as well as new lists and profiles and
updates of existing content in the Encyclopedia.
Q : To what
extent is the Encyclopedia section complete ?
A : This is
difficult to answer because it depends on the yardstick you set. By the
author’s own appraisal, the existing published lists contain between 50 to
70% of the people that should be covered, whereas specific profiles exist
for about 15-20% of the individuals and families. To have an idea of the
author’s measure, you should consider that the most comprehensive list of
American millionaires of the Gilded Age, published by the New York Tribune
in 1892, contains 4’058 names and that he believes they (and their
descendents) should all be covered. On our request, the author has committed
to give priority to the completion of the published lists on a top down
basis (regarding individual and family wealth), so that at least the
wealthiest Americans in each period be included, regardless on the
advancement of the thematic (text) section.
Q : When will
the third part “America in the Twentieth Century” and newer lists be added ?
A :
The priority has been set to the Gilded Age period now, so the remaining
chapters in Part II will be published before Part III. A first chapter in
Part III, concerning the large fortunes derived from the automobile industry
during the 1900’s and 1910’s has been anticipated though, to complete the
picture of the wealthy families in America at the end of the Gilded Age,
which the author situates at the stock market crash of 1929. Consequently
the newer lists (1950, 1975 and 2000) will also come later. In this matter
the author thinks that there are plenty of good lists published yearly by
Forbes and Fortune magazines that document the end of the Twentieth Century.
His own lists will add value only by bridging the older lists with the new
and thereby uncovering the hidden influence or wealth of family fortunes,
which may not be all that publicized otherwise. But as private wealth grew
almost exponentially along with the American economy, such analysis will
take quite a lot of time.
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