• 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.

Weekend pics - Western Painted Turtles, etc.

P

PaulSage

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Here's a few pics I took this weekend up at our cabin. I know they're not herps, but every year the Loons up there have babies, and this is the closest I've ever gotten to them.

Once the fireworks started, I think the only animals that hadn't gone into hiding were the mosquitos. :>poke2<:
 

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Jan Orcutt said:
Very nice, Paul! Are there a lot of western paints up there?
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, there are a TON of them up there. I was really amazed that we only saw a couple. Normally those same "basking spots" would have nearly a dozen of them lined up. I was surprised we didn't see any hatchlings too. I don't know if it's too early or not, but normally if we went into the backwaters and bogs, you could see dozens of babies within 30 minutes. I have a feeling the increased traffic on the lake for the weekend may have had them hiding.
The ecology has changed quite a bit up there in the past 10 years. There used to be the occasional snappers floating around, and there were tons of bullheads and large perch too. I haven't seen any of those since they introduced walleye and tiger muskies though.
I just think that there isn't as much 'catch and release' going on, and I hope that the turtles aren't being collected, but you never know.
 
Great pics Paul. The background is always as beautiful as the herps are in my opinion. Looks like your cabin is in just the right area.
 
My favorite is the first one, I especially love the background! Such Beautiful pics, Keep up the good work! =D
 
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