I know this topic has come up many times over the past, whether it be in response to a thread, or a private message or email directly to me, but I think this needs to be formalized as a policy in such a way that those people who may not be aware of their own personal responsibilities when posting and/or responding to classified ads here can be made aware of this site wide policy.

Specifically, the staff, administrator, owner, programmer, consultants, server technical staff, nor anyone else in a management or supporting function for this site will NOT be held responsible for your poor decisions concerning who you do business with.

No one here in a management or support position audits the classified ads or advertisers for accuracy, legitimacy, trustworthiness, legality, nor past evidence of anyone engaging in actions contrary to the above. We are only providing a medium and service for anyone with a desire to post classified ads for public viewing to be able to do so. This is also for people interesting in such ads to reply to them and make their own private arrangements, if they so desire, to engage in a transaction with one or more parties in that pursuit. We will not, and cannot, advise, nor imply advise or guidance, as to whether your purchase, sale, trade, or any other relationship or contact with another party is in your best interests, legal in your area, or without potential risk of loss. Just because a classified ad is on this site does not imply that such ad or advertiser is something or someone that has been vetted and approved to guarantee that you can trust the information or the poster of such information. The risk of any potential losses of any kind falls squarely and solely upon your own shoulders, as you are expected to do whatever diligent research you consider prudent concerning whatever actions you are considering engaging in with another party. It is your money, so do whatever you deem prudent to guarantee to yourself that you are spending it wisely. We cannot help you before nor after the fact if things don't turn out as you had hoped for. Ads will not be deleted on your request. Advertisers will not be banned on your request. We will not act as judge or jury in any such disputes.

As such, your contacting any staff about your personal issues with another member in any manner will be a fruitless effort on your part. Any information you impart will merely be hearsay to us. We cannot act on any such correspondence in any manner. If you wish to blow off some steam, then sure, fire away. But understand that our taking your word on anything and acting on that information puts us in legal jeopardy. Your rendition of the story might not be factual or truthful. We have no way of knowing. And we just do not have the resources available to try to get to whatever is the actual truth.

=====================
ADDENDUM ADDED 02-22-2021 in reference to BOI style posts mentioned in the paragraph following this addendum:

Effective immediately, replies made to classified ads that are of a BOI style nature will be solely under the control of the original author of a classified ad thread. But that sole remedy will be to delete the ad in order to be able to delete the replies. An exception to this general rule will be in any case that it appears obvious that the poster of such replies is causing widespread abuse across various classified ads, and his or her intent is obviously of ill intent. Things such as hounding someone because the viewer does not like the price being offered or OUR OPINION of frivolous nitpicking will be looked at closely as possible abuse. This will be at the discretion of the moderators, and does not imply that any and all claims by the original author of such classified ads will result in any action by the staff here. Just because YOU may have an unhappy customer of yours hounding you about their dissatisfaction with YOU, is not cause for staff to act in your behalf. YOU have the power to do something about it, even though you may consider that power to being somewhat drastic. Regardless, that will be your responsibility and your ONLY recourse.

Accordingly with the above in mind, BOI style posts are ONLY going to be allowed when they are posted as REPLIES to existing classified ad threads that have been created by the target of such replies. Starting a new thread anywhere on this site, including within the classifieds section with the goal of referring to anyone as a "good guy" or a "bad guy" in any way, shape or form, is not allowed on this site and will result in an infraction and the thread being deleted. As I have mentioned before, this Board Of Inquiry style posting will only be acceptable as an internal function solely with the goal of helping to inhibit "bad actors" from advertising on this site. What happens elsewhere is no longer permitted to be aired here. If you make a deal on any other site or though any other function other than directly through the classified ads here, that is no longer any of this site's concern. Nor will this site be used to air any such incidents.

And as such, I strongly urge all advertisers to limit correspondence with potential buyers and sellers ONLY via the private messaging function of this site. This forces contacts to register on the site in order to contact you, and therefore gives the staff here some power over helping to keep "bad actors" that register using false ID information from being able to access YOU in order to try to snare you in fraudulent offers. But that is up to you. And YOU need to report such incidents. Staff will not be aware of it unless YOU make that effort. Of course, if you provide your phone number, email address, or whatever alternate contact method you choose, and someone contacts you and defrauds you in that manner, again, that is not any of our concern. That will be considered as taking place EXTERNALLY to this website.

In consideration of the above, the staff here will only have a single recourse of looking into any accused "bad actor" and determine if they have used false information to register an account on this site. You will need to provide evidence of such a claim. And if such registration info is determined to be false, the account accordingly will be banned or deleted. Sorry, but that is the sole remedy available to us as an official recourse.

This change in policy and method is all being designed to try to help YOU when you try to do business here, and otherwise engage with others with trades, or other exchanges of merchandise and money. If you fail to take the necessary steps to protect yourself in reasonable and suggested manners, then when you get scammed, you know who to look to for your failure to protect yourself. You and YOU alone. Scammers are out there, and they are looking for YOU to scam. We will try to help all we can to prevent that from happening, but ultimately YOU make the decision of who to do business with. YOU have to understand that no blocks or attempted protections will ever be completely foolproof. So plan accordingly.

Please reference the following thread if you have questions or need any clarification about this policy change.

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=750570


=====================

+++++++++++++++++++++
In reference to the above addendum, the below paragraph is no longer valid:

With the removal of the Board of Inquiry forums on 02-02-2020, any and all postings about any party, whether a member or not, whether positive or negative, will not be allowed anywhere on this site. This includes posting experiences about them, their policies, their personality, how they talked to you on the phone, or anything else concerning recommendations for or against doing business with them. This specifically includes replies in the classifieds sections to any ads they place on this site. Those sorts of postings simply will not be tolerated nor permitted to remain. Doing so will simply result in such postings being removed and the poster incurring infractions for violating the rules of the site. Such postings being removed and the imposition of infractions are not to be construed as any actual nor implied advocacy for or against either side of any such arguments, it is merely and solely the objective enforcement of the rule against posting any such information on this site.
++++++++++++++++++++++

Concerning legality of animals or items being offered for sale, I am sorry, but we cannot do the investigative research necessary to determine what is legal or illegal in every jurisdiction across this planet. You are expected to know the laws that pertain to you and any party you are considering engaging in a business transaction with. If in doubt, either do the research necessary to determine your legal liability, or simply decline to participate in the transaction if you have any doubts.

This site is here to offer interested members the ability to buy, sell, and trade animals and merchandise they are interesting in and willing to deal with. We provide the medium for this service, and except for enforcing violations of the site's rules, that is the sole extent of our involvement in this pursuit that you, the membership, engages in. You are responsible for your own decisions, no one else. So please choose wisely concerning what you buy, sell, or trade, and who it is you choose to do business with.

FaunaClassifieds has been running on this old vBulletin software for a very long time. Well, the server guys told me that sometime this month the modules needed to run this old vBulletin software on my current server will no longer be supported. So if an issue crops up that would require a patch, well, SOL for me. So I had a gun to my head, it seems.

So I contacted a developer specializing in a new platform and he has been working on a conversion for this site as well as my others. It is supposed to be ready SHORTLY. Maybe this week (week beginning 06/10/2024).

If you want to take a peek at what the new system will look like, please go to my https://www.cornsnakes.com site to see how things look there. I had that converted first to see if this was even viable. There WAS a chance that everything would just have to go down the tubes if that didn't work out.

I am also moving everything to a new server as well, so things might be hairy for a while. There will be little if any notice when I have to shut down the site to capture the current data for a final update in the new software platform. And it will have to be shut down for the duration while the switch is taking place and all the pointers are directing traffic to the new site on the new server. This is a LARGE system, so it will take some time. How much? Beats me. This is new to me too.

Is if going to be different? Yes! Absolutely! Will everyone like the change> NO! Absolutely! But it is a necessity and there is no going back to the old version. Some may like it more. Some may not notice much difference. Certainly some will hate it and go elsewhere. Just the way it is.

Yes, there may be bugs. Some may be just that it is different in how it works in the new code. You will have to notify me about them, if it is a bonafide bug. And hopefully they can be fixed or some workaround developed. It may be a case of just the way it is done now. Some features here now are going to go away simply because they have not gotten enough use to warrant being converted in the new system. Not worth the time, energy, and expense if they just have not been popular with you all.

Probably your first and only sign that the conversion is taking place will be when you come to this site and only get a notice that it is down for the duration of the conversion. As soon as the conversion is complete, the next time you visit, you should be able to access the new site. Yes, it is going to look different, so take your time to check it out thoroughly before yelping about the change and asking me how you do the things you used to do. Honestly this will be as new to you as it will be to me too, so don't expect a lot of help out of me. I have just had too many other things on my plate lately to have had much incentive to play with this stuff.

Anyway, please have patience with the new system and just try it for a while to see if it grows on you. Heck, you may even like it better after you become familiar with it.

If something does not work correctly, or perhaps something has changed here that you are not aware of, PLEASE check the Feedback Forum in the Admin Area of this site. That is where I will be posting information that might have a bearing on what you are experiencing. Changes can happen here as needed, when needed, and there is just no way I can contact everyone before hand to let them know of the pending changes. I'm sorry, but I just cannot take the time to respond to maybe hundreds of emails from people perplexed and wanting me to personally relate to them why they can no longer do something that they used to be able to do. So, quite frankly, I will just have to ignore those emails and not reply. Or, at best I may just request that you check the Feedback Forum for an answer to your question.

https://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=44

This is just FYI to let you know that there IS a place on this site where such information is posted, or if you can't find the answer, then you can ask it there to get an answer to help you.