• 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.

Question regarding new site

Donald C

Donald C

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I appreciate the upgrades, but have a few questions regarding some of the messages that have appeared at the top of the page. Two specifically have a generic "hello {username}" and reference verifying my account through an email that has yet to materialize. Are these messages something generic that appears to everyone, but only require action for new accounts, or do we have to re-verify existing accounts with the site?
 

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I am trying to gain my bearings as well. My intuition says that some things like that are just kinks to be worked out. I do not think, based on our (your and my) ability to log in normally, that re-verification will be needed for existing accounts.
 
I can't seem to post my existing active treads in the classifieds I had on the old site. How do I activate them?
and will we be able to bump the classified post.
 
I think there are still some bugs to work out.

Also I can't see the Moderator-specific forums @WebSlave
 
Please bear in mind that this is new to me too. I have a LOT to learn about it. I want to get rid of those announcements that are showing up at the top of each page. And I am sure LOTS of things are going to need to be tweaked. And I don't have the experience with this platform to know exactly how to do most things needed. Trust me, if this wasn't necessary I would have NEVER thrown myself into something like this.
 
Thanks, Nick and Rich. I was fairly certain of the answer, but felt it was something appropriate to ask, in case it was something behaving errantly. You all are doing great, and I appreciate what you all are doin in making the migration flow.
 
There is a LOT in the admin section here that is completely new to me. Unfortunately nearly nothing has any sort of explanation on what the options will do. And there was no manual that came with this new platform. Yeah, I could probably learn a lot by hanging out in the xenForo forums, but seriously, I just don't have time to do that. I can barely hold things together as it is since Connie passed away.
 
I have been wading through the admin panel here to see what options are available. There is a LOT more here than what was in vBulletin. And much of the stuff I don't have a clue about what it does. So please bear with me as I trial and error some things just to see what happens. I am trying to figure out how to get the paid memberships and sponsorships working. The Google Adsense ads got enabled as have some of the FaunaAds advertising. Bear in mind, though, that there is a good chance that FaunaAds is going to go away completely. It too is very old code, and not sure I will be able to find anyone to update it for me.

LOL!! Well looking up above I can see that my setting up the membership level banners didn't work as well as I had hoped. But not going to jump back into that right now. I am tired and will likely just make matters worse.
 

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Well I am playing around with some of the functions here. Particularly the subsystem that I think I can use to replace that older FaunaAds advertising front end I have been using for years. This would make everything internet to the site without having that external interface. But honestly, this system here is VERY complex. Lots of power if I can take the reins of it, but really going to be a learning curve involved. So please bear with me when you see very odd things going on.

Oh for the record, this new platform seems to interface well with Google Adsense as that revenue has increased quite a bit. I know there are some burdensome ads on here now, and I hope to be able to take a look at them sometime soon to figure out which ones might be more of a burden than they are worth. But that is time I just don't have available right now. So please bear with me. I have to say I am feeling more optimistic about this site being able to be here for the long haul now, instead of thinking I was just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Of course, I have no idea of the stats of how many members might have jumped ship from the new platform. I have gotten compliments from a few who said they felt the site felt much more modern to them because it is much more similar to the operation of many of the social media platforms. So I guess that could be a big plus.

Oh yeah, I need to take a look at those membership level banners to see what I did wrong with them. The way I have it now just looks silly underneath my name. o_O
 
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