• 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.

Sneak attack tropical storm

WebSlave

WebSlave

Maybe seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.
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Well this sure snuck up on us! We have the center of a tropical storm that just blew up quickly and is passing right over us. Raining like hell (we got 1.75" on Wednesday) and the wind is whipping around like crazy. Hearing all kinds of branches being knocked out of the trees by the wind and bouncing on our brand new roof.

Glad this didn't spring up further south while fully over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico or we would likely be having a full blown hurricane suddenly looming over us.

Power is flickering, so I might get to bed early tonight if the power goes out.
 
I see that that named that tropical storm that snuck up on us as "Mindy".

Power went out last night at 03:45am after giving me some warning flickers, and was out for 45 minutes. I was playing on the desk top computer, so while the UPS boxes were keeping everything running, I shut down the NAS boxes and pretty much everything else, figuring I might as well go to bed. The NAS systems get cranky if they don't get an orderly shutdown.

Didn't find any downed trees from the winds, but quite a few branches laying about. This morning I heard branches or something hitting the roof, but didn't see any wind. Turned out to be a squirrel up in a pine tree just trying to pluck at my nerves by dropping stuff onto the house roof, so I sent him on to the happy hunting grounds for his troubles with my Savage A17.
 
I was at work and seen that. They showed a map and I said, Hey that's by Rich. Glad you made out OK.
 
Yeah, the way this one blew up so quickly, it would have likely been a real bear of a storm had it started developing rotation further out in the Gulf. I check the Ventusky site fairly often, and I didn't see any hint of this coming.

Looks like we had one tree get snapped off at the top near the driveway, and another small berry tree that shattered at the base. Plenty of small branches laying around that will need to be picked up. When the power went out, I really thought that the dead pine tree next to the driveway had blown down across the power line that runs along our driveway.

I guess I am missing something, but wouldn't the power companies save OODLES of downtime and money if they just ran the lines underground instead of up in those poles? At least in areas with lots of trees, anyway. :shrug01:
 
JColt said:
Here is one power companies take on that. I am sure if unlimited tax payer monies were available they would consider it!

https://www.starenergypartners.com/blog/electricity-company/why-dont-we-bury-power-lines-underground/
Click to expand...

Hmm, well, when I was living in Baltimore and worked for a company doing field service repairs to computer equipment, this very same discussion came up with one of the managers of the data center at Baltimore Gas & Electric, which was one of my accounts. He just smiled and said, "Who do you think are the biggest and most numerous stock holders in the companies that make those power poles? Nearly everyone working at the power company."

:rolleyes:
 
Yeah, I can see that also.
 
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