Frequently Asked Questions
General Questions
RPLS.com is an online resource for land surveyors and geomatics professionals, offering community forums, private messaging, live chat, job listings, and advertising opportunities. It has been serving the surveying community since 1996.
RPLS.com provides:
- Community Forums: A platform for discussions, questions, and knowledge sharing among land surveyors.
- Private Messaging: Direct communication with other members.
- Live Chat: Real-time interaction with online community members.
- Job Listings: A space to post and find surveying-related job opportunities.
- Advertising: Options for businesses to promote through dedicated forums and ads.
Visit the community forums to participate. Guests can publicly view some of the forums. A Free membership grants access and allows participation in most forums.
To access and participate in our P&R forum, you’ll need to register for a supplemental P&R membership and agree to additional terms of service. Please visit your Membership Dashboard for details.
P&R stands for: Politics & Religion. These topics have often proven to be volatile, so we’ve now restricted our P&R forum to only those who specifically request access and agree to additional terms of use.
Please visit our Contact Us page for details.
Monetary Support
We appreciate your support! Whether you are a current member of RPLS.com or not, you can make a donation via our Donation Only membership level.
If you do not already have an RPLS.com membership, submitting your donation will allow you the same benefits as a Free Membership. Alternately, you could sign-up for a Supporter Plan (one-time payment) or Sustainer Plan (ongoing monthly subscription) to enjoy the benefits of those plans.
If you are already a member of RPLS.com, you can still use the link above to make a donation. Your current membership level(s) will not change.
If you prefer to send a check, please make it payable to Five Point Web Solutions and send to:
RPLS.com c/o Five Point Web Solutions
200 N. Highbrook Way
Suite 106, PMB 127
Star, Idaho 83669
Be sure to write “RPLS.com support” in the memo section of your check so we can direct the funds appropriately.
Monies received from donations, advertising programs, and other sources go right back into the support, maintenance and ongoing management of RPLS.com.
The most important aspect of keeping RPLS.com up and running are its hard costs, so that is the first place funds are directed. Hard costs include: server expenses, security fees, software purchases and renewals, domain name registration and renewal, email delivery fees, legal expenses, and other miscellaneous expenses that are both critical and unavoidable.
After that, funds go toward the time it takes to manage the server, security, software installation and configuration, site moderation, member support, and marketing.
If, after all the above are accounted for and there are little or no remaining funds, we donate our own time and money to manage and maintain the website.
If that happens, we have to decide if we want to weather the storm and fund it out of our own pockets — in hopes that it will somehow get back on its feet. This has actually happened several times in the past, with moments where we considered shutting it down completely.
Advertising doesn’t bring in the revenue it once did, for various reasons. We do occasionally offer other ways to help financially — keep an eye on the forums and/or our blog for more information.
Additionally, if you are using an ad blocker, you can help us by simply disabling it while visiting RPLS.com.
Website Services
We understand what it’s like to build and grow a small business. It’s an expensive venture and takes a lot of your time to keep things running smoothly.
With our subscription model, you are essentially paying the website fee over time. This is why we require a 24-month commitment. After you’ve completed the contract, your account automatically becomes month-to-month.
Our subscription fees also include the cost of ongoing hosting, maintenance and content updates.
There’s something to be said about predictable income. Your first monthly payment may not cover our development time, but we do eventually get caught up. Those regular monthly payments help us to better budget our resources and time.
Our subscriptions require an initial 24-month commitment in order to cover the cost of your website build. After that, your account is automatically converted to monthly payments with no commitment.
Optionally, you can renew your subscription to a new 24-month commitment; in return, we’ll provide you with a free redesign or refresh of your website. This is a great way to keep your website fresh, modern and keeping up with the latest in web design standards.
Yes! Once you are on an RPLS Website Plan, your website will stay updated. If you renew your subscription after the 24-month term for another 24-month term, we’ll redesign or refresh your website again.
Stick with us and you can have a newly-redesigned website every two years! No more starting over, hunting for someone to redesign it and wasting all that valuable time.
Wix, Weebly, SquareSpace and other DIY website-in-a-box services require you to learn their platform and keep it up to date. They also tend to make regular changes to their systems, which can disrupt your processes.
DIY services can be great, but it takes your focus away from building and growing your business.
With an RPLS Website Plan, you get a done-for-you (DFY) website built by professionals with decades of experience. There’s simply no comparison to the DIY services.
Yes, you can upgrade your plan at any time. You will simply restart your 24-month commitment at the new monthly rate.
Downgrades are allowed anytime as well, but we would need to have a brief consultation with you regarding the remaining commitment, payment terms, and the possible loss of content (due to less pages, features, etc.).
Yes, it’s true! But we do ask that you please be reasonable and considerate when requesting content updates.
Membership Plans
For Free, Supporter or Sustainer plans, visit the membership page.
For Vendor Memberships, visit the Grow Your Business page.
Yes, our Free Membership plan allows you to access and participate in members-only forums, private messaging, live chat, and job postings. You also get a Member badge associated with your profile and forum posts.
Please note that new members will need to have their first few submissions reviewed and approved before being allowed to post and reply freely.
Free Members can access and participate in members-only forums, private messaging, live chat, and job postings. You also get a Member badge associated with your profile and forum posts.
Supporter memberships include all the features of the Free plan, plus a Supporter profile badge, 6 months of Supporter status, and the satisfaction of knowing you are helping keep RPLS.com online.
Supporter memberships are one-time payments with a 6-month term of membership.
Sustainer memberships include all the features of the Free plan, plus a Sustainer profile badge, continuous Sustainer status as long as you remain subscribed, and the satisfaction of knowing you are helping keep RPLS.com online.
Sustainer memberships are monthly payments that retain ongoing membership as long as you remain subscribed.
Yes! If you want to be a Supporter and a Sustainer simultaneously, you can do both. You can also be a Vendor Member at the same time.
Once you sign-up for one of the membership plans, you can then return to the Join page to sign-up for another. You can be on multiple plans all at the same time.
Vendor Memberships
Vendor Memberships allow you to advertise your products and services directly to surveying and geomatics professionals.
Vendor members enjoy a dedicated forum for their business, special posting privileges, and a free Footer Logo ad with detailed ad statistics.
There are multiple Vendor Membership Plans available to add various types of banner ads throughout the RPLS.com website. Learn more
Yes. The base Vendor Membership includes a Footer Logo. Other plans are available that offer access to other banner ad zones, such as Medium Rectangle, Leaderboard and Large Leaderboard.
For more information, visit our Advertise page.
We get a lot of traffic from many sources. Most of our visitors are referred by Google search results, which means they are finding the answers to their surveying-related questions right here at RPLS.com.
Get more details about our statistics
Troubleshooting
The first step would be to clear your browser’s cache and delete any cookies associated with rpls.com. You can perform both of these tasks in your browser settings.
If you’d like to automatically delete your associated cookies (just for this website) and try logging in again, try this link: https://rpls.com/?delete_cookies=1 NOTE: This will clear any cookies associated with your rpls.com account and return you to the homepage, and you’ll need to login again.
If you still have problems, please contact us.
If the overall layout looks strange and things aren’t displaying or acting normally, the first thing you should do is clear your browser’s cache. This is the solution 95% of the time when the website doesn’t display properly.
If you still have problems, please contact us.
Job Listings
Currently, you will need to submit your job listings via email to [email protected]. Please be sure to include the following information at minimum:
- Position title
- Description
- Type (full-time, part-time, temp, intern)
- Employer
- Contact information
- Location (city/state)
- Salary
- Closing date (if applicable)
- How to apply (email, online link, etc.)
In the future, we plan to add self-management tools for job listings. Stay tuned!
Please send an email to [email protected] with information about which job listing needs to be removed and/or archived.
In the future, we plan to add self-management tools for job listings. Stay tuned!