• 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.

    =====================
    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.

Can we please get a separate category for hognose snakes.

NWfancyscales

NWfancyscales

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I am always looking specifically for garter snakes on this thread, and I want to browse everything without possibly missing something from the search option.
This category is so over flooded with western hognose posts that finding anything garter snake related is like finding a needle in a hay stack.
I hope I am not the only person who feels this frustration.
Please feel free to add replies if you feel the same, hopefully creating some momentum in getting this change implemented.

Thanks for your time!

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 
I think this is a reasonable request, I've noticed this too. Free bump to the top for attention.
 
Thread moved to Feedback forum.
 
Well, let's look at some details concerning that Hognose, Garter, Water & Ribbon Snakes classifieds section.

I counted 18 ads there that were NOT hognose related over 5 pages dating back to 08-03-2019. If the hognose snake ads were removed, that would leave those 18 ads remaining which would not even fill the first page of ads from over the past 17 days.

Seriously? Would that be a logical and reasonable move on my part to gut that forum of the ads that are primarily responsible for nearly all of the traffic there? And then leave another forum that would be, for all intents and purposes, pretty much dead?

In my opinion, the "Garter, Water & Ribbon Snakes" component of that section just does not warrant having their own separate forum based on the quantity (or lack thereof) of ads for those groups of animals. Matter of fact, quite likely they did have their own separate section years ago, but were combined with the hognose section simply for the fact that the quantity of ads just did not support the notion of their having their own separate section. In the past I have often combined slower traffic classified sections into a combination grouping for this very same reason.

The goal (at least from my perspective) is to have the separate forums active enough such that potential advertisers will see the traffic as being active enough such that they feel paying for their own sponsorship there, which helps to support this site financially, would be a reasonable plan for them. Sure, I could have a separate section for every species, if I were so inclined, but personally I don't think that would be a very smart nor reasonable move on my part. All it would do would be to increase the complexity of the site in general without any return on the effort of maintaining a much more complex arrangement. Would 500 classified forums with nearly no traffic to them individually be a better arrangement than having 29 classified forums with even some modest traffic associated with them? Honestly, some of those classified forums could be reduced even further, based on the lack of traffic they attract. That is just the nature of the beast these days.

So as it now stands, obviously the "Hognose, Garter, Water & Ribbon Snakes" classifieds section doesn't have the traffic there that warrants more than one person having the inclination of being a sponsor there. So why in the world would I want to break that up into two sections that would have even less traffic, one of which would be pretty much dead right from the start?

Sure, I understand that someone LOOKING for something like an amelanistic garter snake would like nothing better than to just have a separate section dedicated to nothing more than what THEY are looking for. But there is a bigger picture here, I am afraid. One which I really have to keep in mind at all times.

So, if you look at the BIG picture here, is my logic faulty?
 
WebSlave said:
Well, let's look at some details concerning that Hognose, Garter, Water & Ribbon Snakes classifieds section.

I counted 18 ads there that were NOT hognose related over 5 pages dating back to 08-03-2019. If the hognose snake ads were removed, that would leave those 18 ads remaining which would not even fill the first page of ads from over the past 17 days.

Seriously? Would that be a logical and reasonable move on my part to gut that forum of the ads that are primarily responsible for nearly all of the traffic there? And then leave another forum that would be, for all intents and purposes, pretty much dead?

In my opinion, the "Garter, Water & Ribbon Snakes" component of that section just does not warrant having their own separate forum based on the quantity (or lack thereof) of ads for those groups of animals. Matter of fact, quite likely they did have their own separate section years ago, but were combined with the hognose section simply for the fact that the quantity of ads just did not support the notion of their having their own separate section. In the past I have often combined slower traffic classified sections into a combination grouping for this very same reason.

The goal (at least from my perspective) is to have the separate forums active enough such that potential advertisers will see the traffic as being active enough such that they feel paying for their own sponsorship there, which helps to support this site financially, would be a reasonable plan for them. Sure, I could have a separate section for every species, if I were so inclined, but personally I don't think that would be a very smart nor reasonable move on my part. All it would do would be to increase the complexity of the site in general without any return on the effort of maintaining a much more complex arrangement. Would 500 classified forums with nearly no traffic to them individually be a better arrangement than having 29 classified forums with even some modest traffic associated with them? Honestly, some of those classified forums could be reduced even further, based on the lack of traffic they attract. That is just the nature of the beast these days.

So as it now stands, obviously the "Hognose, Garter, Water & Ribbon Snakes" classifieds section doesn't have the traffic there that warrants more than one person having the inclination of being a sponsor there. So why in the world would I want to break that up into two sections that would have even less traffic, one of which would be pretty much dead right from the start?

Sure, I understand that someone LOOKING for something like an amelanistic garter snake would like nothing better than to just have a separate section dedicated to nothing more than what THEY are looking for. But there is a bigger picture here, I am afraid. One which I really have to keep in mind at all times.

So, if you look at the BIG picture here, is my logic faulty?
Click to expand...
As a general user I dont have the power to look into logistics and the data of traffic to each individual thread. That being said, this wasnt an attack against the site by any means. It was a suggestion based off of a frustration, I, as the user have. It does make some sense but my reasoning is more based on the rising popularity of hognose snakes. Would you put a category listing Ball pythons and Woma pythons? Sure it's not as big as ball pythons but it is seemingly flooded with a high ratio of hognose posts.
My further suggestion would be that garter, ribbon and water snakes be merged with Gopher and Bull snakes.
Sadly all above categories are not as popular as they should be since they are arguably some of the coolest colubrid species let alone herps.
I have also noticed that among enthusiasts there is a common denominator with bull, gopher, garter, ribbon and water snakes.

Only trying to give feedback to potentially optimize the flow of the forum. Remember us little guys with the off species enthusiasts still matter and I wanted to be a voice for said community. I would absolutely love to see the number of garter snake keepers grow and hopefully other herp enthusiasts see how awesome they are.

I'm definitely not expecting a change over night, but perhaps something to consider.

Thanks for your prompt reply and hope everyone has a swell day.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 
Certainly if the class of Garter, Water & Ribbon Snakes were to increase concerning classified ads, it would make perfect sense to provide them with their own space here. But best as I can tell, we aren't there yet. And to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure at this late date whether there is even a chance that will ever happen considering the general traffic trends here lately.

And since you brought this to my intention, then yes, perhaps the Hognose snake classified ads do qualify for having their own separate forum. But all that would mean is that I would have to move the Garter, Water & Ribbon Snakes somewhere else, which I can certainly consider. It may well be that I can take one or more sections and just roll them all together into the "Other Snakes" category if they are not pulling their weight in the amount of interest they are generating with the membership. Any classified forum not getting enough classified ads to fill the front page in a single day will certainly be under the microscope for such a change.

Along those same lines, I am seriously just taking all the discussion forums and simply consolidation them into "General Snake Discussions", "General Lizard Discussions", etc... None of them are getting enough interest and traffic to warrant them remaining here as standalones, so why not? I certainly don't break down the other animal groups (mammals, birds, insects, etc.) into that sort of level of detail, so perhaps even consolidation to the level of "General Reptile Discussions", might be a change worth considering. Maybe when the BOI goes away I will plan on doing some hopefully rational such changes throughout the site, since I will be whacking with the machete anyway.

BTW, sorry if it appeared I considered your suggestion an attack. Couldn't be further from the truth. My fault, as I just do not tend to have a very gentle "bedside manner". :eek:
 
I sympathize with the OP's request, and I support (and fully expected) Rich's response.

I used the search feature to look for garters in that forum, and did pretty well. It missed one recent one I think because the search feature didn't look for "garters" when I searched for "garter".

When I look in the geckos forum for AFTs, or the amphibians forum for dart frogs, I use the search feature and it works fine; these situations are similar to that in the hognose forum, I think.
 
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