• 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.

Thread for posting friendly requests for future site tweaks

S

Socratic Monologue

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The new site is bright and shiny! Thanks, Rich -- this will be much more usable, I'm certain. :)

I'd like to suggest this thread as one master thread for requests for small site changes. If requests are all (or mostly) in one thread, others can indicate their agreement with a request by 'liking' a post, and this might keep things a little more orderly. (Does this band even take requests? I don't know.)

Here's my requests:

Could there be a page break of some sort (blank space; a bold line; row of dancing bears) inserted underneath the sticky threads and above the regular threads in each subforum? It is not easy to tell what is a sticky and what is the latest content when looking at the thread listing page on a subforum.

Can we get some cool icons/symbols/something to indicate paid member status? The coins were cool, and a lot more noticeable.

Could we get the ability to have a custom user title, at least on paid member accounts?

Thanks!
 
Also, there seems not to be a marker for which users are moderators. Probably a good idea to make those accounts visible.
 
It might be a good idea to remove the 'profile posts' feed from the 'new posts' page. Folks here seem to use profile posts like PMs (which is kind of weird, and always has been), and so not exactly intended for visibility to everyone who looks for new content. Also, the new format has a 'comment' box, which encourages randos to get involved in a profile post as if it were just another public discussion. I can imagine that spiraling into chaos pretty readily.
 
Sorry, but I am dancing as fast as I can with this new platform. I can't even answer questions about what is possible, much less have any idea how they could be implemented. Remember that the old system was a product of many years of custom programming and me figuring out how to use the native features in ways they weren't designed to be used. Going to take a good bit of time before I can get to that point here.
 
Heck, to be honest, I only just found THIS thread a few minutes ago!!
 
I guess I'm friendly as I like the site."Generally". Or at least I have. I do not like the new setup. The pages are too short. They need to be at least twice as long. The search function has never seemed to go where I can get what I'm looking for even when I try different wording:hair_on_fire:. I am curious why there are rarely many new postings as before the change? Seems others don't like the new set up either. Heres to hope the new set up will be re ordered to be more useable for us all:)
 
Well I increased the number of threads as suggested. As for search function failures, haven't figured that out yet. It just may be that it is "AS IS" and perhaps even a learning curve issue.

So some people not like this new platform? Probably. Have I EVER made a change that 100% of the members like? NEVER! And in this case, I am not crazy about throwing this very steep learning curve at my feet at this time of my life neither. But it was either this or one day we all try to come to this site and it would have been gone. PERMANENTLY. If that is what all of you would rather have, I sure do wish you had told me BEFORE I took on this headache.
 
Potawatomi13 said:
The search function has never seemed to go where I can get what I'm looking for even when I try different wording.
Click to expand...
This is a common problem on many forums. One workaround is to use Google's "site" keyword instead of the web site's search function. For instance, you would search on:
"ball python" site:faunclassieds.com

1722944113883.png
 
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