How everything works

It depends on what you're posting. An advert is for one thing you're selling and runs for a week. A business listing is for work you do, and stays up.

It's a place for Manor Gardens and the suburbs around it. Things you're selling, local businesses worth knowing about, lost pets, and guides to what lives around us.

It isn't a replacement for the WhatsApp group. The group is still where people chat. The site is where things go so they don't disappear up the screen by lunchtime.

No. Everything on the site is free to use and free to list on.

No, and there isn't one to make. Instead we email you to check the address is really yours, and you tap a button in that email. That's the whole thing.

Everything is in the menu at the top. Local holds the area pages: wildlife, public holidays, lost pets, this help page and what's new.

At the bottom of the longer pages there's also a row of buttons to the other main sections, so you don't have to scroll back up.

Yes. Open the site in your phone's browser, then choose Add to Home Screen from the menu. It then opens like any other app, and the list of local businesses still works when your signal drops.

It lists every South African public holiday, when each falls this year, and what the day is for. The next one coming up sits at the top, already open.

It also sorts out the rule people get wrong: a holiday on a Sunday gives you the Monday off as well, but one on a Saturday doesn't.

To add them to your own calendar, open the holidays page, tap the green button near the top and pick a year. Your phone does the rest.

If someone here could realistically use you, yes. Neighbouring Durban suburbs are welcome. The test is whether a Manor Gardens resident would actually call you.

Go to Sell something, choose what kind of thing it is, describe it, add a price and a picture or two, and put in your email and phone number.

We'll email you. Tap the button in that email and your advert appears. Do it within a day. That first email works for 24 hours, and if nothing is confirmed within two days the advert is thrown away.

A week, counted from when you tap the button in the email. Then it comes down by itself, which is what stops the page filling up with things that sold months ago.

Open your advert and look for Sold it, or need this removed early? near the bottom. Put in the email address you used and we'll send you a button to confirm. That's so nobody else can pull your advert down.

Not yet, sorry. That's coming. For now, take it down using the steps above and put it up again with the changes.

Five in any seven days, per email address. It's there to keep the page feeling like neighbours rather than a shop. If you're clearing out a house and need more, just ask.

Go to List your service, pick the kind of work you do, describe it, and add your number and pictures.

We email you to check the address. Tapping the button in that email is what puts you on the site. There's nobody to wait for. You then get a second email with your own private button for changing things later. Keep that one.

The first email works for two days. If it's never tapped, the listing is removed after three days.

Open the second email (the one that said your listing was live) and tap the button inside. You can change your words, your number, your pictures and your main picture. It appears on the site straight away.

Lost that email? Go to manorgardens.co.za/services/edit/, put in the address you listed with, and we'll send it again. It only ever goes to that address, so nobody else can ask for it.

There's a separate place for it, labelled Your logo or main picture, above the rest. Whatever you put there shows first.

A logo works best. It's shown whole rather than trimmed to fit, so your business name stays readable. Your other pictures sit behind it and people swipe through them.

Yes: when you sign up, or later using your private button. Paste whatever's easiest: the whole web address, whatever the app gives you when you tap share, or just your name on there. The little icons then appear on your listing.

Because the button in the first email hasn't been tapped yet. Your listing still shows, but with a warning on it, and it's removed after three days if nothing happens. Check your spam folder. That's nearly always where it is.

Yes, and it's welcome. Choose the option that says a neighbour is suggesting them, and use their email address, not yours. The email asking them to confirm goes to them, not to you. Worth telling them to look out for it.

Tell us and we'll add one. It takes about a minute. Most of the categories on the site exist because somebody asked.

There's a Recommend button on their listing. Put in your email, tap the button in the email we send, and a note appears on their listing saying a neighbour recommends them.

Please only do it for people you've actually used. It's the nearest thing the site has to a reference, and it's only worth anything if it's honest.

Deliberately. In a neighbourhood this size, one bad review from one bad day can take someone's living away, and there's no way to appeal it fairly. A simple count of neighbours who'd recommend somebody says enough without doing that damage.

Go to Report a lost pet. Add their name, what they look like, where they were last seen, and up to five pictures. Confirm by email and it goes up straight away.

Two weeks from when you confirm. If they're found before that, please take it down. There's a panel on the listing to do it.

Three of them, all started by questions in the group: garden birds, owls and birds of prey, and snakes, including how to tell them apart and who to call.

Report a sighting: pick what you saw from the list, add when you saw it, and up to five pictures. More than one picture genuinely helps when nobody can agree what it was.

Not sure what it was? Choose Something else at the top of the list and describe it in your own words. That's just as useful. It also tells us which animals the guides are missing.

Sightings stay on the site permanently, because together they build a record of what actually lives here. Your name is never shown.

A business listing takes up to ten. An advert, a lost pet or a sighting takes up to five. Each one can be up to 8MB, and they need to be ordinary phone pictures: JPG, PNG or WebP.

Tap the × in the corner of it. That works both when you're choosing pictures and, on a business listing, for ones already on the site.

Ten large pictures over mobile data is a lot to send at once. If it stalls, try fewer at a time, or wait until you're on wifi. Nothing is lost. You can add the rest afterwards using your private button.

Check your spam or junk folder first. That's where it is nine times out of ten. Marking it as "not spam" helps the next one arrive properly.

Still nothing after a few minutes? Check you typed the address correctly, then try again. If it still doesn't come, tell us on the contact page.

Usually it's an old email. Only the most recent one works, so check whether a newer one arrived.

For a business listing you can ask for a fresh one at any time at manorgardens.co.za/services/edit/. For an advert, put it up again.

Only ones about the thing you just did. One to check your address, one to say your listing is live, and for adverts one asking whether it's still available before it comes down.

There's no newsletter and no marketing. We don't pass your address to anyone.

Tell us on the contact page. There's no moderation team. A quiet word from a neighbour is genuinely how most things get noticed. The listing rules explain what isn't allowed.

Adverts come down after a week and lost pets after two, so that may simply be it. A business listing is removed after three days if the email was never confirmed. If none of those fit, ask us and we'll look.

Just ask on the contact page and we'll remove it. No reason needed.

Your phone number shows on your own listing, because that's the point of it. Your email is used to check the address is yours and to send you the emails above. It's shown on business listings as a way to reach you, but never on adverts. The privacy policy has the full detail.