• 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.

Internet dating 101

moving to whatsapp is a common tactic romance scammers use, esp overseas scammers, so it's just a known thing to try to keep communication on the dating platform. I can't say specifically why but it's just a known thing that dating scammers do. Also know that scammers can and will keep convos going for months before they start asking for anything. I'm sure you know a lot of that already but just be careful is all. Also worry a lot about someone just looking for a green card. One of my good friends is encouraging me to try overseas dating (specifically because there is another country I'm very interested in moving to) but I'm unsure, it seems any dating app I look at is just scammer stuff and I don't know what I would trust lol plus the majority seem to be targeted for "passport bros" aka men looking for foreign women :/
 
Well, everything seems to be a gamble. I have been contacted from a number of women claiming to be in New York, Ontario, or Los Angeles that are very personable, very intelligent, and downright fascinating in their online personality. Most will immediately contact me via video chat, invariably showing an oriental woman, quite attractive, sitting behind a desk with a shelf of expensive looking knick-knacks behind them. Obviously real from hand motions and every other tell you would use. Usually keeps the conversation brief, so obviously just to establish credibility. Time span from this video chat to the sales pitch of investing in gold or cryptocurrencies can vary from a couple of days to a couple of weeks. All the while holding up her end in very intelligent and interesting topics.

Another method the above begins is with an apparent wrong number. This invariably leads her to act interested in me, apologizing for the wrong number but claiming what a lucky coincidence that we should meet like this. Now when it happens I just play with them a bit, pretending I am actually the person they are claiming to be trying to reach. Of course they immediately know the jig is up and will leave. But some still persist and I have to play dumb and tell them how lucky I am to have finally met someone real this way and not the usual oriental beauty trying to get me to invest with her. That usually kicks them to the curb.

No as for this girl in Thailand, yes, I suppose there could be a possibility she just wants a ticket to the USA. But I can't figure out what sort of angle it would be. I have had many video chats with her, translator in hand, and either she is genuine or a damned good actress. She is VERY animated and acts more like a teenager with a brand new boyfriend than anything else I can think of. She sends me spontaneous selfies, something NO scammer has ever done, simply because they cannot without a lot of effort and planning. We started chatting on AsianDating.com, then moved to WhatsApp, then when we connected profiles on FaceBook, we do nearly all of our chatting through there. She will use WhatsApp to video chat me, however.

Heck, I dunno. Maybe I am just chasing rainbows. Or else hoping a rainbow will touch down in my own front yard. The love of my life has died. Maybe I am just looking for something I will never find again. But if I don't look, I will never find.
 
AbsoluteApril said:
I hope she is your new pot of gold :)
Click to expand...
Time will tell, I suppose. Might be good for me to get away for a while. A bunch of notable dates coming up over the next few months that I am not keen on spending alone. Thailand might be a nice place to visit with someone there to show me around. If that woman wants to follow me back home, heck, why not?
 
Well.....

I had a really wonderful time in Thailand for 3 weeks. I spent every moment there with the woman I went there to meet. Her name is Pim. Met most of her family and friends. Everyone treated me like royalty. Pim treated me like someone she had been waiting for her whole life. Everything she told me while we were communicating online proved to be true. Everything she did put me first and foremost. And yes, she came back with me to the USA and is staying with me for 3 months. Then she will be going back to Thailand for 2 months to do what she calls "missions", and then coming back to me for at least 6 months.

When I first started looking into the online dating stuff, nearly all my friends said I was wasting my time and would come away disappointed and disillusioned. And honestly, for the most part that was proving to be true. But I stuck it out. My argument was that I was real and looking online, so certainly there HAS to be a woman I would find somewhere that was at least acceptable. I knew there had to be a light at the end of that tunnel, albeit quite distant and faint. But this Pim is turning out to be much better that I had ever hoped for. Honestly, had I sat down and jotted notes on the perfect woman I would hope to find, she would check off nearly all of the options. I would be hard pressed to design such a woman for myself.

So I guess all I can say about internet dating is that although it is chock full of trials and tribulations, scattered with mines and bear traps, perseverance is the key. There is a really good chance that there IS someone out there for you. You just have to look hard enough and long enough. Pim says she was looking for me for 7 years. It only took me 6 months or so to find her. So I am lucky. But had I known it would take 7 years to find her, I would have stayed the course and kept on plugging away.

Am I jumping the gun and jumping to premature conclusions? Possibly. But if she is acting, she deserves every academy award ever presented to an actress. Maybe I am just naive, but NO ONE can be THAT good at play acting.

I found an incredible woman. I found what I am looking for. Quite honestly, if this turns out badly, I will give up and choose to live the rest of my life alone. As it will be incredibly obvious that I am incapable of seeing through such a play act and will not ever choose to possibly make that mistake again.
 

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