The BOI will be coming to an end on 02-02-2020

Originally Posted by ChondroPy

I was just pointing out that it's important that we find some resolution to keeping the BOI alive in some fashion. Who knows ... maybe I'm surrounded by people who don't want it to be around.... people make mistakes and yes stuff happens... They get a chance to explain it on the BOI...

Chuckie

Sorry, but I opened this thread up to the public on 01-21-2019. Been way more than enough time for me to see any potentially forthcoming evidence that my decision was ill conceived and worth reconsidering. There has been none. Well, at least none beyond some people stating that they wish I wouldn't close it down, of course. All of the statistics I am able to review has not shown me even one little bit of evidence that most of the people in this industry/hobby really give a damn one way or the other. So I am just flat out of damns myself.

Sure, the BOI has apparently been helpful to some people. But apparently not for most of the 145,866 people who have registered here over the years. Heck, from what I have seen, many people have come here with a problem, gotten it resolved in their favor BECAUSE of the BOI, and then never been back. So in effect, they came here, tossed a potential grenade in my lap with me thinking "gee, I hope this one doesn't explode on me", got what they wanted, and then *poof* off to elsewhere with their participation and support. So gee, thanks for that....

I created and offered the BOI to everyone to try to help them with their dealings with others, and I don't think I ever really demanded much (anything?) in return. Certainly I have asked people for help over the years, when I could see this writing we are now reading on the wall, but we can see how much impression that made.

So it is what it is. In less than 2 months, the Board of Inquiry will be gone. I feel (hope?) I did my best, but obviously it just wasn't good enough to convince enough people to help share the load with me. So I am just done carrying this burden any longer.

Will others try to pick up the slack and create their own BOI like section on their own website? Certainly. I'm sure some people are thinking right now that this is the perfect opportunity to try to funnel more traffic to their websites with this hole that is being created. And sure, it just might do that. But good luck with those grenades. Sooner or later one might go off on you, and I hope that new traffic you got pays the attorney fees. As one attorney once told me to bring be back down to Earth, "Rich, will it really be worth $50,000+ to you to prove you are right?"

I've been lucky. Even if it might have perhaps been dumb luck.

Rich...

Its a shame it has come to this but I do understand. Thanks for all your
hard work. Fauna has come a long way since the newspapers we
used to receive.

I will continue to support Fauna in the future.

Best regards and Happy Holidays,

Charles Ball

Originally Posted by ChondroPy

Rich...

Its a shame it has come to this but I do understand. Thanks for all your
hard work. Fauna has come a long way since the newspapers we
used to receive.

I will continue to support Fauna in the future.

Best regards and Happy Holidays,

Charles Ball

Thanks, but the paper newsletter was actually published by Bill Gillingham, not me. When I considered using the name for this website, I checked first with Bill to make certain it would be OK with him, and he graciously gave me his blessing for the site.

Just for the record.

Only one month remaining for the Board of Inquiry. The relevant forums are open to everyone for viewing right now, so if there is any information that anyone wants to save before it vanishes, please do so before 02-02-2020.

Sorry, but I will not entertain any requests from anyone to do any research for information they are seeking that might be contained there.

Please excuse me if this has been suggested in this thread already (I don't know that I've read every post), or if this exists somewhere here and I'm simply overlooking it.

I think there would be a lot of value, expecially in the absence of the BOI, to have a stickied thread/post with a list of the most common sorts of scams -- not names of people, but a list and description of techniques. There are a number of common ones that experienced buyers are familiar with, but new buyers apparently are not.

The big ones are:

Scammers replying to phone numbers/email addresses left on public posts by potential buyers, with a fraudulent claim to be the seller;

Scammers insisting on payment without buyer protection (there are a handful of good, respected sellers out there who only accept non-protected funds, and I have purchased from them, but it takes a bit of sleuthing to be a buyer in such a situation; explaining when it is safe to deal with such a seller might be valuable to novice buyers);

There are some tips that could be offered for new sellers, too, such as the red flag of a mismatch between the name on the Fauna account and the name on the PayPal account. There are a couple of...uh...people here who are operating under multiple aliases, and I'd like to see them...uh...thwarted. For a start.

And then there is the classic, tried and true, "please respond with the final asking price" cashier's check scam.

I guess a person could just start such a thread here somewhere appropriate, but I'd be afraid that in fine-tuning it, too much good info would become too hard to find in scores of pages of posts. Is there a mod who could/would be willing to condense a thread of suggestions from posters to that thread, and put them all in an easy-to-navigate format? I know this is a first class request and I'm sitting in coach, but this is a first class website so I'm hopeful.

I guess anyone can start a thread of this nature in the General Business Discussions Forum (http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...splay.php?f=15) as long as no specific names are mentioned. But speaking frankly, I doubt any of the mods here will be willing to put a lot of (any?) effort into it. Sorry, but I know I won't. With the abandonment of the BOI by this industry at large, a WHOLE lot of incentive here went down the tubes along with it to engage in this sort of effort any longer.

Originally Posted by Socratic Monologue

I guess a person could just start such a thread here somewhere appropriate

What you suggest could both be built here and in doing so, honor Fauna. If Good Guy sellers were to take such a thread and post it on their site, shoppers would have the opportunity of reading it and in doing so be educated and protected. As it is refined here, newer thread versions could replace the old on seller's websites, but each time attribution to this site could be posted.

Last call on you all capturing whatever info you may want off of the Board of Inquiry. It will be gone in 3 days.

Thank you for all the time, work and effort in keeping this going as long as you did.
I surely appreciated it!
Cindy

Bye bye, BOI.