Vote***financing Fauna***vote

Voters: 115. You have already voted on this poll

I voted for 2 things and posted my opinions and ideas for other ways.

I just thought of another one, evry member go out and buy 10 mega milions (or what ever your local lottery is) and send them to rich, 16,000 members x 10 tickets each = 160,000 chances for Rich to be a instant
millionaire.

Rich would then have all the time and money to make this the best site on the web. That is if he didnt move to the carribean and live out his life sipping pina coladas and dreaming of the old days on fauna.

I thought Id bring this here ..seeing as there are 2 post on the same subject..............Look for what its worth, if there is a yearly fee of the 35$ with full access to all on this site. selling ads, the boi, all this site has to offer .Just tell me where to send the money.the way I see it "THIS SITE" has saved me a alot more money then the $35 and maybe by this fee you may lose people IMHO so what. Some of the people here are great some should wither away ..This site is like a favorite radio station I have it tuned in all the time and if it cost me a couple of bucks a year to keep it so be it....in the long run I'll be saving. there is no such thing as free anymore in the long run you have to anty up. I may be 1 out of 16,000 but it has to start some where thank for time and Rich what ever you decide I'll stand up and be counted

Everyone who either buys and sells on a regular basis as an individual or business is going to save money over time using Fauna. The person who is not going to save money is the hobbiest, or pet keeper who only owns less than a handfull of animals. What percent of Fauna users do you think buy more than 2 animals online every year? I have made very few online purchases, and the one where Fauna came in handy in getting a refund is the one where I donated the refund to Fauna. I still lost the money, but at least by donating it was my choice to lose it.
I don't think that the average person relys as heavily on BOI threads as we think. I mean all of the bad guys that have been tarred and feathered are still making more money than the good guys. In the end, the bad guys are going to be the only ones who can afford to use Fauna.
If you count up all of the Contributor Icons, I am guessing that is as close to an accurate estimate of how many people who will pay for Fauna usage as you can get. Is there a way to find the number of contributors on the site?
I bet it is a lot less than half of the members, and I bet even less than half of those who have contributed even got close to the $35 dollar mark with their donation.
$35 bucks sounds like a fair price when you are talking about a site with 15,000 members to interact with, but is it going to be worth it next year when there are only 7,000? What about the next year when it divides in half again because the only people seeing the posts are other businesses because all of the hobbiests are gone? Over 3 years you could pay 100 bucks, which isn't a lot, but its something if the site you threw the money at isn't there.

Like a lot of people have all ready said, I would pay to be a member now. But, I wouldn't have paid that to begin with. Anyway, I think I'm a typical user here, I look a lot, but don't post too much. Here are a few of my thoughts:

1. Nobody likes to beg for money, but I think a Sticky (colored and flashing if possible) with instructions on how to donate and maybe something about how much has been donated and what the goal is should be posted in every forum except maybe the classifieds. Also, we have a tendency to think someone else is "taking care" of this, so I don't need to donate today. If we go the donation route, it's important to tell people what the goal is, it spurs us on to give an extra $5 here and there.

2. All of us geeks are suckers for pretty emblems, like the membership level ideas.

3. The Fauna Fund is a great idea and I think it just needs a little more time to catch on and grow.

4. If the classifieds remain free, the sellers should be donating a certain percentage to the site for "items" over a certain amount of $. And this should be stated in the ad. This is of course one of those honor code kind of things, and may not work here.

5. If bandwidth is a problem, then I think the image hosting should go or be reduced. Sure, I like to host my avatar image here, but there are plenty of image hosting sites available.

6. Maybe a pay per post for non-members in the BOI. I just think that most people won't even pay $10 to post their experience, especially if it's just to say SoandSo is a good guy/gal. If somebody doesn't want to join up right away, they can pay $.50 or something to post a message. I've been on one site that won't even let you search the forums unless you're a member. Also, (I'm sure this isn't feasible, but thought I would throw it out there) those background check sites let you search for free, but you gotta pay to see the results.

7. And of course, periodic Telethons! Lucille's doing a great job!

I love this site and have learned a lot here, and also get a laugh everyday. Thanks to everyone who spends part of their day here!

Oops! Forgot my name!

Melissa Harkness

I do understand what your saying Dave but it wasnt from a sell point, it was from a knowledge point. This site has shown me where to send my money to get a good thing in return.... as to hey "Joe Q Public has this outragous Boa for sale I think I'll send him my money and get burned and to me that is worth the $35 a year .....Im just starting my business and if it wasnt for this site it would of folded within a couple of months The way I see it what has the most value to the public ..... and if this site isn't here in a couple of years somebody who care as Rich does will try to be the "Phoenix rising out of the ashes" and a site will be reborn...

Originally Posted by Peacemaker

Hi All:
I don't post a lot on here, but when I need to find out about something or someone this is where I come, and when I have something for sale I want to use the Fauna Classifieds so in light of this and being a reasonable person I think it should be left up to the individual as to what they want to spend to have what they need from the site. My idea of this would be to offer a group of plans to choose from.

Bronze Plan= $10.00 yearly for Bio's only!
Silver Plan= $25.00 yearly for Classifieds only!
Gold Plan = $35.00 yearly for Bio's and Classifieds combo!
Platinum Plan= $45.00 yearly for total Fauna use!

These are just my opinions and thoughts! Feel free to add to or take away from as you desire. I will be on Fauna reguardless!

I like this idea also

I think this site is a great site... I for one do not have the money for a high cost fee for advertising... maybe a low fee... I have thought of being a contributing member sence I am on the site almost all day... but due to expansion and the starting of a better snake collection I believe that I can afford contributing to the site in 1-2 weeks... I believe that fauna is being greatly supported by many of its members already selling their products and reptiles ect... on the Fauna Fund board... to kill space delete some of the lesser used forums and generalize them to take on one whole meaning....

If you are gonna make contrib. members pay more as in $50 a year (4.17) pleaz do it monthly payments.... that way it would be at most a cost of a pack of Ciggs from Michigan or even higher in Washington


Just my 2 cents

Originally Posted by DaveyFig

Everyone who either buys and sells on a regular basis as an individual or business is going to save money over time using Fauna. The person who is not going to save money is the hobbiest, or pet keeper who only owns less than a handfull of animals. What percent of Fauna users do you think buy more than 2 animals online every year?

Dave I missed this earlier and I have to some what disagree ....We all started out as hobbiest or pet owners and got a couple of good animals and bred them..on purpose or by accident and thought at least for a brief moment What if I could turn this in to a Business and you start buying up more stock and next thing you know your in business ..........Ok now comes Who to buy from Thats where this site comes in JMHO

Davey's point... is that someone who buys two animals a year would have no reason to pay thirty five dollars to report something when it goes wrong OR right. They would also probably not be inclined to pay that much up front to check and see if the dealer for their twenty dollar cal king is reputable.

But without the contributions of members who are not "regulars" and do not engage in transactions often enough to warrant the cost... the board is largely useless. People generally do not rip off Bob Clark or NERD because they KNOW it will kill their reputation. Same can now be said for many of fauna's more prominent members and businesses BECAUSE crooks know there will be reprecussions. They rip off the two animal a year hobbiests because they think it's safe to do so. And if it costs thirty five bucks... or ten bucks... or ONE buck for that two animal a year guy to come here and post... It WILL be safe to scam.