Frequently Asked Questions

What is FlipShelf?

FlipShelf is a social media platform that blends the power of social networking with a quick and easy media cataloging interface. Users at FlipShelf catalog and create personal libraries of their books, DVDs, video games and comics. Communities at FlipShelf represent physical entities like schools, colleges, businesses and neighborhoods. When users join a community their libraries merge to create community library. Members of a community can search, borrow, sell, buy and exchange items with other members of the community.

Are you associated with Amazon.com?

We are an Amazon associate but we are not associated with Amazon.com in any other way. As an associate we give our users easy access to relevant items from Amazon.com’s rich catalogue of items. Besides this we also show advertisements from Amazon.com.

Is FlipShelf promoting piracy?

FlipShelf does not provide, share or promote illegal sharing and copying of copyrighted materials. It is just an automation and facilitation of age old process of physically lending, borrowing and bartering of legitimate physical media.

How do you earn?

We are member of referral programs offered by various online stores and we display their links and advertisements. We get paid when our users click on those advertisements and make purchases. Please note, it in any case does not increase the cost price for the user.

Do you have any plans of charging a membership fees for your services?

No, all the services provided by FlipShelf would always be free. But if you like our service and would like to make a cash contribution you can do so :-). Please contact us for details.

Can I borrow something even when I have not lent anything?

Yes of course, Lending and borrowing are totally by consent between the lender and the borrower. If the lender finds no problems in lending you an item from his library you can get it. However, having a lending history and/or good track record as a borrower would always help lender in making a positive decision. Remember its collaborative, if nobody lends then nobody borrows.

Can I borrow something even when I have nothing to lend?

Yes, again its all between you and the lender. However having a few shared items in your library would always help attract lenders that can become future borrowers or borrowers that can become future lenders.

What communities should I join?

Communities that you are associated to in real life. For example your school, college or the company you work for, locality that you live in etc. The idea is that you should be able to share items with the members of the community and that can only happen when the members are in proximity.

I am a huge fan of 'Horror Movies' can I create a community for this?

There would be horror movie fans across the world who would like to join your community. However they cannot share their library items with each other. So an Interest Group would be more suitable for this purpose. Interest groups/Fan clubs are something we are working on to bring them to you as soon as possible.

Could I report a bug or request a feature?

Of course, in-fact we would be grateful if you do so. Please use the Public Forum for this.

How frequently do you plan to bring in the new features?

As long as the site is in Beta stage we would update the application pretty frequently. This would allow for quicker delivery of bug fixes and new features to our users.

Can I use my OpenID userid/password?

Not yet, but we are working on it.