Status check on health of this site.

Originally Posted by jsrocket

Just an afterthought. You use Frank Zappa in your sig. Did it ever occur to you that Frarnk Zappa would regard you as a POS?

Bye bye

*sigh* I guess I need to re-address this issue of dealing with rampant off topic posting in threads. I really hate to have to implement rules that have so much gray area associated with it, but it's pretty damned obvious that it is needed around here.

Does anyone here ever go back and read what they wrote a few days ago and feel embarrassed by the way they have acted? I read stuff like this wayward thread and just shake my head at what this place has become. But thank you (most of you, anyway), for answering my original question. Even if it wasn't your intention.

Rich, no matter if you choose to keep the fee for the classifieds or not, you will still get emails like the one you posted in your first post in this thread. If it’s not the classifieds it will be something else someone will state why they are not visiting the site. I understand that it is important to find ways to improve things. With every change some agree and some don’t. Some of the don’ts get upset and leave. When the changes don’t work or you want to try something new, some of the people that liked the changes get upset that they went along or agreed with the changes that or being rolled back and they leave. You can’t win.

My opinion is the classifieds are worth the fee. Too many people feel they are entitled to everything.
The classifieds could be the most popular classifieds on the net and still people would be up in arms if one day they were free and the next they weren’t. If you concede on the classifieds it might make it a lot harder to charge a fee in the future. You’re building on those members that have paid to use the classifieds. Not the members that are use to receiving and want to continue using a free classified system. There are more people willing to use anything free. If contributors sell animals and are successful, I would think they would continue to up their memberships. In return, I do believe people will continue to sign-up for the classifieds as long as they see or hear others sold their animals on this site.

But, that’s just me looking at it from a tiny perspective and not knowing the big picture. I don’t know how much the posts lost from the site change other important factors such as other advertisement, rankings stats, etc. and what detriments they can bring. I will not pretend to understand just offer what I can from my perspective.

Originally Posted by Jim O

Dennis,

The mods have been trying to lock the old ads but some slip through. If you see one, or a spam ad, use the little caution triangle to the left and that will allow you to report it to the appropriate mod(s) so the thread can be locked or deleted as appropriate.

With the current topic is this something we want to continue to do? Or is it a detriment?

Originally Posted by Jim O

Dennis,

The mods have been trying to lock the old ads but some slip through. If you see one, or a spam ad, use the little caution triangle to the left and that will allow you to report it to the appropriate mod(s) so the thread can be locked or deleted as appropriate.

O.K. lemme see if i can write this without my meaning getting lost or it taken as an attack on the mods which i can assure you in advance is not the case
Just about every classified section has outdated adds,Some of which i'm sure the mods know about because they posted on them letting others who resurected them know they were old adds
Wouldn't it be alot easier for the mods of those outdated classifieds to police them or is that not part of their job description?
What i'm trying to say is some may feel turned off by the clutter and old adds and go somewhere else

Well lets see, almost 24 hours since my first post. Anyone care to review the number of off topic and personal attack posts in just this thread, in that time. And whats even more embarrassing is how many of the off topic come from our wonderful Warning System Mods.

God I am almost embarrassed for you.



Thanks everyone way to prove a point!!!!

I have been looking around more and more here.

I have seen some threads that have been great and helping the new guy or even helping the breeders. Then I see some where a person may post I fed this to my snake. They are just punched in the face. Now we have a person that did something wrong and instead of the members helping the attack. this alone would make that person not read the important info. And continue doing wrong.

But I still do not see that as the only reason for the slow down. I think it is just everywhere.

Maybe really look at things and do a clean up of slower forums?

Originally Posted by Gary O

I have been looking around more and more here.

I have seen some threads that have been great and helping the new guy or even helping the breeders. Then I see some where a person may post I fed this to my snake. They are just punched in the face. Now we have a person that did something wrong and instead of the members helping the attack. this alone would make that person not read the important info. And continue doing wrong.

I agree with Gary. There is freedom on this site to be quite harsh; and, at times, on the BOI, that may be needed in the interests of outing scammers, so that the rest of the community does not get wronged.

But for many of the other forums, a helpful and supportive mode would be better to attract and keep those people both new and experienced who come here for reptile information.

Originally Posted by llort

O.K. lemme see if i can write this without my meaning getting lost or it taken as an attack on the mods which i can assure you in advance is not the case
Just about every classified section has outdated adds,Some of which i'm sure the mods know about because they posted on them letting others who resurected them know they were old adds
Wouldn't it be alot easier for the mods of those outdated classifieds to police them or is that not part of their job description?
What i'm trying to say is some may feel turned off by the clutter and old adds and go somewhere else

Just to make clear what is being done, which may not live up to what some people want done with the old classified ads. We are locking ads that are a year (or more) old. Yes, that is a long time - but this was discussed as a group (amongst the moderators & Rich), and that was the outcome. We can only go by the date of the last post, which means that ads that have gotten dredged up will escape unnoticed until they are resurrected again, or until they year goes by. Not all moderators are taking part in this effort, and we (except for the site mods & Rich) do not have the capabilities of locking any thread in any classifieds group. That means that if I see an old ad in, say, the Bearded Dragon classifieds, I cannot lock it (My action would be to notify the moderator that is working with that particular section). Obviously, this is an ongoing effort, with ads meeting the cutoff (in many cases) every day. Yes, we do police them, but we have plenty of other things to do here...not to mention jobs, animals to take care of, and, in many cases, family and a life. The frequency with which the ads are checked will vary according to the moderator, and the time available to be spent in mind numbing activity.

Originally Posted by Gary O

I have been looking around more and more here.

I have seen some threads that have been great and helping the new guy or even helping the breeders. Then I see some where a person may post I fed this to my snake. They are just punched in the face. Now we have a person that did something wrong and instead of the members helping the attack. this alone would make that person not read the important info. And continue doing wrong.

Gary, in many cases, if you look back far enough, you will see where attempts at education were made long before those members got "punched in the face". The "punches", while perhaps over the edge at times, are often the equivalent of banging our heads against the wall & smacking the person upside the head. The question frequently coming to mind being Is this person really that stupid, or are they just trolling? Granted, the extreme response doesn't help either situation (DON'T FEED THE TROLLS!!!! vs don't yell at the dumbass), but they are a natural response from people that care to people that refuse to accept & heed the advice they sought.