• Posted 12/19/2024.
    =====================

    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.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    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.

Allowing scammers and thieves to stay on Fauna!

rodneynboalich said:
so i can us pissing as much as i want and if its not why did you us pi$$ing
Click to expand...

I wasn't able to get online yesterday, due to other responsibilities, but I wanted to take a moment to answer this, since it was about me.
The answer is quite simple. When posting online, I try to be mindful of the breadth of the membership and the varying degrees of tolerances they might have. The fact that I might think nothing of dropping an f-bomb in casual conversation with friends does't mean I would include one in my post ANYWHERE online...and people that have been around for a while can attest to the fact that it is rare for me to curse even in ***HELL***, where it is allowed (heck, it's practically expected there).
So, getting back to your question, I type pi$$ing because I am not inclined to use that word in a general admission online forum. Ultimately, our language reflects who we are, and how we want to be perceived. I know the arguments about "being real", and being the same online as in person; but I look at it differently. By posting online, I am putting myself on display. I choose not to display myself in a negative manner, so I am mindful of my word selection....just as I would be if I was giving a lecture to my peers, or doing a fun presentation to a group of kids. Should I, therefore, choose a different phrase and eliminate the issue? Perhaps....but a pi$$ing contest is a pi$$ing contest - probably the clearest possible term, and there isn't a good, easy substitute.
 
Vootie!

Banning scammers in practice wouldnt do much. The ones who would do the most damage would already have planned ahead and have accounts already, maybe even use them sporadically. Like gun control laws. The people who they are designed to stop dont work because those who are dead set on something will always find a way.

Also while buyers should be informed ignorance is not justification for them to be ripped off. If I leave my keys in the car thats not smart, if someone steals the car he is just as bad as someone who broke in and hot wired it. While ignorance can make it easier to deceive someone it does not mitigate the crime at all.

As a side note Harald, I understand what you mean but if you have to $$ instead of SS it means not entirely comfortable with it. if the word is allowed then let your P flag fly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
To the people who say we should ban bad sellers to protect the newbies who do not know to check the BOI....

I banned a bad seller. You are a newbie who bought from the seller at a completely different website. How did I protect you?



To the people saying we should NOT ban bad people. We should keep them here so we can forever chastise them and they can't creat a new account from which to cheat people from.

Think about this. You do not need to be banned in order to creat a new account.
 
Rodney, you are suggesting that the site do investigations?
You want the site to verify everyone's identity and verify that they have all the animals they are selling? You want the site to be judge Jury and executioner?

Not a problem.

$75,000 a year with 2 weeks of vacation a year with paid holidays. With 10 days of sick time and insurance for my whole family. I want liability releases from EVERYONE. No one gets to sue me both criminally or civilly <--is civilly a word.

By the way. There are Threads: 160,161, Posts: 1,028,587, Members: 55,381
427 posts in the last 24 hours, 13,777 in the last 30 days.

Oh I am going to need a team. A team of a minimum of 25 people. And if I am going to head this team and take care of scheduling conflicts and other HR issues, I am actually going to have to get a raise.


Wait a second. Do you know how expensive all the aforementioned is going to cost? We are going to have to make some cuts to save money. We need to whittle down the database and the bandwidth usage. We gotta trim the fat to afford all the aforementioned. I guess the first people to get cut will have to be the free members. I guess that would be YOU
 
HerpVenue said:
To the people saying we should NOT ban bad people. We should keep them here so we can forever chastise them and they can't creat a new account from which to cheat people from.

Think about this. You do not need to be banned in order to creat a new account.
Click to expand...

I don't think anyone said that. I do think that if you banned ten scammers and let another ten stay, you would see more of the banned members return under a new account. To rob and cheat people on the internet leads me to believe two things anyway, 1) the account is probably already fake and 2) the person already doesn't care about their name anyway. I believe you would see more people create new accounts to bypass the ban rather than to find a new route to scam somebody. Come on, how many times have you seen somebody with a handful of bad guy threads still pull sales?

I understand your point though, there are con's on both sides.
 
Focal X said:
I don't think anyone said that. I do think that if you banned ten scammers and let another ten stay, you would see more of the banned members return under a new account. To rob and cheat people on the internet leads me to believe two things anyway, 1) the account is probably already fake and 2) the person already doesn't care about their name anyway. I believe you would see more people create new accounts to bypass the ban rather than to find a new route to scam somebody. Come on, how many times have you seen somebody with a handful of bad guy threads still pull sales?

I understand your point though, there are con's on both sides.
Click to expand...

Which is exactly why I have it a REQUIREMENT of registration on this site that a member use a REAL full name and a REAL address in their profile info. Yes, people can put false info in there and it will pass during review of new registrations. But if YOU are going to send your hard earned money or your merchandise to someone, and they tell you to send payment or make delivery to a different name and/or different location, I think it would behoove you to consider this as a BIG RED FLAG and act accordingly. And yeah, they will probably come up with all sorts of good sounding reasons for that, but fact of the matter is, someone who will LIE to you will also quite likely STEAL from you. And if they lie once, they will lie twice. If they are not using their TRUE name or their TRUE location here, then quite frankly, they are LYING to everyone who reads that info. YOU need to decide whether or not YOU want to do business with that person based on THAT evidence that we are trying to help provide for you by our registration requirements.

I reject several new registrations out of between 40 to 50 new applications every day for the simple (and often obvious) reason that the registration info is incomplete or appears to be bogus in some way. The moderators here go through GREAT pains trying to match up registrations that get by me with previously banned, or otherwise already registered, members. It often amazes me the evidence they will accumulate to prove their case before banning such bogus registrations. Sherlock Holmes doesn't have ANYTHING over these guys, believe me. Yes, it's a pain in the ass to do, but we feel that it HELPS everyone by being strict in this regard. If everyone feels it is wasted effort, then by all means please let us know and we'll spend our time on other things much more fun to do.
 
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