• 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.

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

Hurricane Harvey

There is sunshine outside :D
Thank you everyone for listening as I went through all this. I've had so much nice help from different people. Yesterday an acquaintance came by in a kayak, he retrieved my trash can which had floated a block away. My deep freeze was making strange noises after sitting in the water, he pulled the plug because I had been apprehensive about standing in water and grabbing a plug.

I'm spending the day going through all the soaked boxes and throwing away stuff that was ruined.
I am so thankful that I am OK, my family in Houston is OK, and the critters are OK. So many people have lost everything- lives, houses, cars.

I will be moving away from the coast in a few weeks and pray never to have to deal with another hurricane, although there are those who say that climate change will spawn more frequent adverse weather events in general.
 
Glad to hear you are OK, Lucille. Did you get any rain out that way? :duck01:
 
My sons came over today. We spent a solid 7 hours bagging up ruined soaked stuff for trash pickup.
There are people driving around checking out people's trash for items they might want or might could sell. I don't mind as long as they don't leave a mess.
But I decided to cut the cords off of the numerous electric things I threw away- a mini fridge, pressure washer, heaters, lamps, my beautiful Kitchen Aid mixer :( etc. so that an innocent person doesn't get sold something from one of the trash harvesters that might cause harm from an electric malfunction.

Im thinking that used car lots and Ebay will have a lot of flood damaged merchandise soon, with the sellers not necessarily communicating that the item was under water for two days.
 
Glad to hear your fine Lucille!
 
Hey, Lucille, I'm so glad you're all okay! (Mixmaster...darn)
I hope you can recoup some things. Are the insurance adjusters being helpful?
 
Thank you for your kind thoughts, everyone.
DLenaRuth999s said:
Are the insurance adjusters being helpful?
Click to expand...
No insurance. :(
Only one neighbor had flood insurance, it has not flooded here for a very long time even during past hurricanes so most people did not bother with it.
When I'm all moved and settled at my new place, I'm going to look into a new Kitchenaid. I probably shouldn't make it any easier to bake all sorts of fattening cookies and cakes, but already my grand daughter looks around when she gets here because she knows Grandma has made a little home made treat for her.
Dad keeps an eagle eye out that the treat is small and eats a few morsels himself, so everyone is happy.
Unlike the olden days they even sell them in colors, I'm going to get one in aqua sky, so it is more like a home decorating expense, right? :D
 
I'm going to get one in aqua sky, so it is more like a home decorating expense

Lucille, that's definitely the way to look at things. Since you don't have insurance for floods, are any government monies available because you're in a disaster zone?
 
I suspect the gummint is not going to buy me an aqua Kitchen Aid mixer :D
Seriously, I still have half of my stuff and I'm alive. While I might put myself on a FEMA list I don't expect anything more than the income tax disaster deduction, I might look at that next year at tax time.
Today I donated some items to a lady who is helping a bunch of pets whose owners had their homes destroyed in the flood. The flooding is gone but there is still a lot of misery out there.
 
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