• 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.

YouTube no longer allowing anonymous viewing?

WebSlave

WebSlave

I believe I have made it safely ashore.
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I always seem to be logged onto YouTube via my Google registration, so when I got this notice when I clicked on a YouTube video link from another website, I found it puzzling.

YouTube Privacy Warning

YouTube (owned by Google) does not let you watch videos anonymously. As such, watching YouTube videos here will be tracked by YouTube/Google.
Click to expand...

I can't say I have ever TRIED to log out of YouTube to see if the above is true or not. But it is interesting that Google wants to track whatever videos people are watching on YouTube. I guess they feel that they own my eyeballs or something.

But thinking about it, I know Connie and I have watched YouTube videos on our home entertainment system about a year or two ago, which I am pretty sure was done anonymously. So either the above is just false, or else a recent change in YouTube's (Google's) policy. :shrug01: Well I guess access from my home entertainment receiver could be tracked via IP address as I am pretty certain the same IP would be used no matter what device is being used from the Comcast account I am using.

Maybe I need to be using that VPN service I purchased a while back. But even then, my real IP would still be tracked at the ISP level, even though, if I understand it correctly, the CONTENT of the connection is encrypted between my local PC and the server the VPN connects to. So, push come to shove, I doubt even that would be able to block Google from getting what it wants from us. Heck, they likely OWN every VPN service anyway. They certainly can afford to do so.

Big Brother is watching. And taking notes.
 
Do you use DuckDuckGo? I know that will pop up on it. I watch youtube without logging in at work at lunch break and never gotten that before with chrome or explorer or Edge. I always figured that if you go on youtube logged in or not that google servers would log IP address anyhow.
 
Yeah, I do use DuckDuckGo every now and again.

I would imagine it is probably VERY difficult to remain truly anonymous on the internet. Heck, sometimes I find that if I even think about something I may want to buy, I will have an ad pop up somewhere offering it for sale. Google is watching. :ack2:
 
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