"Sharing" is the way that Cellar! users can share information with each other via the Cellar! database on our website.

While we know that there is a great deal of information that we provide with Cellar!, we fully realize that there is lot more to be gained. Even though we include over 12,000 wineries in the Address Book, we know there are a lot more out there. The same goes for Tasting Notes. So, we created the sharing features of Cellar! so that users can share their communal wine knowledge with one another.

When a user in Greece adds a new winery there, and "shares" that information, the new winery information will be available to other Cellar! users worldwide.

The same is true of tasting notes. When you enter a tasting note on a wine that you have just tasted, you can instantly make that information available to all other Cellar! users.

Sharing your information in entirely optional, but we encourage you to participate!

Updated: January 5, 2003

First and foremost, we totally respect the privacy of all of our users as stated in our Privacy Statement.

Here is the ONLY information that is sent to the Cellar! server:

1. When you purchase the program, all information from that purchase is NOT shared with anyone!


2. (Optional) The Username and User E-mail address that you set in preferences is shared with your contributions so that people can see who has contributed information and so that they can contact you.
   


3. (Optional) The Winery information of new wineries that you add to the address book (except the user-defined "Other" field).
   


4. (Optional) Tasting notes that you add.
   


5. (Optional) The total number of bottles that you are managing with Cellar!. This is really something we hope everyone will participate in. We will show on the total number of bottles that all Cellar! users, world wide, are managing with Cellar! on the homepage of the Cellar! website.

NO OTHER INFORMATION IS SHARED!

Updated: January 5, 2003

This is a note about how the actual "sharing" process works.

1. All uploaded information (both new and updates) for wineries, tasting notes, and WebLinks are held in a "to be approved" queue on our server.

2. The three of us then carve out time to check the information and approve it for distribution.

3. Once we mark the information as approved it is available to all Cellar! users for download.

You can see the number of wineries and tasting notes that have been contributed by viewing he Cellar! website's homepage.

Sounds neat, right!? There are just a few things to note:

1. As we have stated many times, the three of us all have full-time jobs and we created Cellar! out of the joy that we find in wine.

2. Because of our time constraints, the approval process could take a couple of days depending on our availability to do approvals. This delay does not impact your using the data on your own system, it only delays when it will be visible to the rest of the Cellar! community.

3. We ARE NOT saying that we are "the experts" on wine. We check for basic information only and gross errors. We do not check for exact detail.

We are looking for things like someone adding:

Ch. LePhew from Kitty Litter, Iowa

but we are NOT checking to see if the zip code for a new winery that someone has added is correct. (We would be glad to do this kind of checking if our users don't mind paying $499.99 per copy so that we can all quit our day jobs! :-)

That being said, the really great thing about this "sharing" amongst our user community is that if you do find that Ch. XXX was entered as being in France/Bordeaux but it really is in Burgundy, you can make the change in the addressbook of your copy and the next time you "share" the information this correction will be shared with all other users.

In this manner, we have 1000's of "experts" out there looking at the data and helping each other to make it as correct as possible.

Updated: January 5, 2003

This is correct. To ensure that the data on our shared database remains clean, we do not allow demo users to upload data. However, you can download data that users have added so that you can see how this feature works.

Updated: January 5, 2003

No. However, you can't use the sharing features if you're not online.

Updated: January 5, 2003

First, make sure that you can reach our website, www.cellarwinesoftware.com using your web browser.

If you have any firewall software installed, disable it and then try the C! Online features again.

In particular, we know that the Norton Firewall product causes this problem. To fix the issues in Norton Firewall, go to the Norton configuration settings that control access to the Internet by program. Giving Cellar unlimited access to the Internet should fix the problem.

Updated: January 5, 2005