About the Facebook auctions....

We understand that auctions are growing in popularity, and that our format is not conducive to selling in that manner (since registered members are unable to post bids in the ads); however, we have chosen to disallow the use of the classifieds to promote offsite auctions.
This is not a "new" decision, but it hasn't been posted here before because the number of auctions posted was relatively small...so we just addressed it privately with the individuals. Since the practice seems to be becoming more popular, and we have obviously been missing some of them, I decided to post this for your information.

Here is Rich's response to the question, posted in the Moderator Forum Nov '11:

Originally Posted by WebSlave

My gut feeling is that if people want to use the classifieds section here use it to ADVERTISE the animals and merchandise they have to offer. If they want to use it merely to promote their own website, or a page on another site, well there are other avenues more appropriate for that sort of activity.

Obviously there could be overlap with both scenarios. But I think sticking to the classical definition of "classified ads" in the classified ads sections here should be the guiding rule about what is acceptable and what is not. In other words, if the classified sections states "Ball Pythons For Sale" then direct ads for those animals are appropriate. Ads for a site or page as a secondary step to view such ads via redirection of the viewers is not.

The purpose of offering such services as *free* classifieds ads here is to try to attract members and viewers to this site. I offer it for free with that hope and goal in mind. If people wish to try to circumvent this "tit for tat" arrangement, then I don't believe I should be willing to offer them the opportunity to TAKE from this site without GIVING something in return. And that "something" is to give viewers a reason to come HERE. That is the cost they must bear for their free ads.

Thank you, in advance for your cooperation.

Fair Enough,a rarity here but still fair enough.

Still a relative rarity, yes....but becoming more common. It probably seems more uncommon because we generally remove them as we see them.
The only reason I posted is that it became apparent that some were slipping through, and that causes confusion (Why was my auction removed when ____'s wasn't?; I've done other auctions, and had no problems - why is it an issue now; etc). Rather than continue dealing with it privately, I brought it into the open (and created more issues - sorry, again, Rich)

Crimes are never the issue,getting caught is the point

I am actually looking at the possibility of incorporating an auction script on this site, but a lot depends on what my programmer thinks about it. Complicated scripts can introduce vulnerabilities to hackers that he isn't real keen on exposing this site to. So we'll see....

Now, that maybe very fun to participate in.

What if we just require a link to fauna on our FB auction pages. I know a lot of fauna users would like know about auctions, or maybe just an auction announcement page.

Sorry, but I just have not been able to get any feedback from ANY users of the auction script I have been looking at. My programmer warns me that any complicated script like that will be a security risk. So obviously I am reluctant to jeopardize the site unless I can get some sort of feedback from people actually using that script.

In any event, I've noted another reported post of a facebook auction link as an advertisement here in the classifieds. I went ahead and set up a new infraction for it labelled "Indirect Advertisement", since what I want here are only DIRECT advertising. In other words, the classifieds are to be used to DIRECTLY ADVERTISE animals, services, merchandise, etc. and not merely used to link to another site somewhere for that purpose.

So just to be clear, we can't have an auction advertised for facebook or any other place on Fauna because it is taking the gaze away from this site and focusing it elsewhere. Plain and simple.

Are auctions that take place inside Fauna okay? I have seen plenty of those around.

I guess I'm just trying to find out if it's the auctions you are trying to get rid of, or just the ones advertising an auction on another site?

In a nutshell, you can sell here, and you can certainly sell elsewhere. Just don't sell elsewhere and simply use this site to point to your other advertising vehicle. This site is FaunaClassifieds, not FaunaLinksToClassifieds.

Sales ads placed here in the classifieds sections are fine. Auctions will be kind of difficult, as currently only paying members can reply to the ads, which means an auction will only have paying members participating. I doubt that will be very satisfactory to most members, but please correct me if I am wrong about that.

If people hadn't just gotten so carried away with the ad bumping abuse, then the replies wouldn't have had to have been terminated. But on the other hand, if people will be willing to accept that if I re-enable replies (which will enable auctions in regular classifieds) and staff will simply ignore any complaints about ad bumping, then yes I will consider that. I am looking for simple solutions to problems here and am just not willing to make up complicated rules that the staff will need to enforce, and implement complex custom coding just to try to deal with this kind of stuff. Obviously NO solution will satisfy everyone.

Please note that I am still looking for a feasible method of offering auctions here on this site with a script that will interface well with the current member base.