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Posted 12/19/2024.
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I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?
So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.
But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.
Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.
I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.
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Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.
And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
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Responding to email notices you receive.
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In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.
Diving with whale sharks
- Thread starter Mech
- Start date
So it’s vacation time
.
We are in Cancun.
We know some locals so this trip cost $70 each and had to spend a little over $70 for the taxi and ferry for the 2 of us.
Really liked it.
We swam with 7-8 of these wonderful creatures.
Loving the “you know what” of this adventure.
As fun as this was, swimming in the cenotes was better.
All the best.
Andy
.We are in Cancun.
We know some locals so this trip cost $70 each and had to spend a little over $70 for the taxi and ferry for the 2 of us.
Really liked it.
We swam with 7-8 of these wonderful creatures.
Loving the “you know what” of this adventure.
As fun as this was, swimming in the cenotes was better.
All the best.
Andy
Robert Walker
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Very cool Andy - lucky man.
That is amazing! Did they react to your group at all or just go about their business?
Awesome. I've seen some videos of divers swimming with sharks on tv, not sure what species the sharks were. Some of the sharks really got into the divers giving them belly rubs, which I thought was hysterical.
So to be honest, I hated it at first
.
We have a family member...a sister from another mister that goes back 35 years and more.
First and foremost I am an an animal lover and an avocate.
The first encounter was ugly.
Down right shameful.
There were 15 boats with 8 divers each circling one shark that was hit by a prop.
They were corralling this poor creature.
I just couldn’t do it or have any part of it.
We then moved about an hour away and saw a large group.
They were beautiful.
There was even a baby about 12 feet long.
Hardly any boats there.
So the wife and I swam with this group.
We could swim along side of them for about 5 minutes and then give others a chance.
To me this was really friendly and I was now ok with it.
There were 7 beautiful creatures there and in my opinion not harassed.
If we never got to the second group I would have been totally embarrassed and never made this post.
Thank you.
Andy.
.We have a family member...a sister from another mister that goes back 35 years and more.
First and foremost I am an an animal lover and an avocate.
The first encounter was ugly.
Down right shameful
.There were 15 boats with 8 divers each circling one shark that was hit by a prop.
They were corralling this poor creature.
I just couldn’t do it or have any part of it.
We then moved about an hour away and saw a large group.
They were beautiful.
There was even a baby about 12 feet long.
Hardly any boats there.
So the wife and I swam with this group.
We could swim along side of them for about 5 minutes and then give others a chance.
To me this was really friendly and I was now ok with it.
There were 7 beautiful creatures there and in my opinion not harassed.
If we never got to the second group I would have been totally embarrassed and never made this post.
Thank you.
Andy.
So to answer your question April,
The second group actually went about their business and ignored us completely.
They were just feeding on plankton.
We did our best to stay 3 meters away but actually got closer on accident.
Once the deck hand pushed me in and I was up and close to a very large mouth.
I have to give credit to our group for standing fast and refusing to participate in the ugliness of the first encounter.
Seriously props to them.
I think and believe it we refuse bad situations less will occur.
Thanks again.
Andy
The second group actually went about their business and ignored us completely.
They were just feeding on plankton.
We did our best to stay 3 meters away but actually got closer on accident.
Once the deck hand pushed me in and I was up and close to a very large mouth.
I have to give credit to our group for standing fast and refusing to participate in the ugliness of the first encounter.
Seriously props to them
.I think and believe it we refuse bad situations less will occur.
Thanks again.
Andy
Very interesting, I also would have found that first group very distasteful and not participated. Sounds like those tour guides have no respect for wildlife. I'm glad your group was able to find the pod and enjoy it without being overly disruptive to their natural behaviours. Thank you for sharing!
Robert Walker
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I've seen this happen both with stingrays in the Grand Cayman and nurse sharks in Belize. The guides are too worried about fulfilling the dreams of 'us' tourist that they do whatever it takes, even at the expense of the animals.
Stingrays were a disaster, nurse sharks turned out great.