About the BOI and it's future here...

Originally Posted by DAND

Rich's above post may imply that, or at least imply consideration there of.

Well Rich, inquiring minds (and mine as well) would like to know. Has a decision been made yet? And I agree the "ferret" would be great to have back.

Quite honestly I would really like to keep the BOI going, for a number of reasons, but unfortunately the world doesn't revolve around what I want to do. Paid memberships aren't really even close to what I had hoped they would be, but there are still a couple of months left on my stated deadline for this decision.

Quite honestly, advertising is down too lately. Not too long ago the text box ads used to number around 13 and now there are only 7, 3 of which are my own.

I am in the process of getting a new server because the number of classified ads has increased dramatically, and most of them are associated with attachments that eat up disk space. The current server is running at around 87 percent capacity, and climbing. Bandwidth on this site has more than doubled just since February this year. The total bandwidth for my two servers last month (September, 2009) was 632 gigabytes! Fortunately hard drives have been increasing in size and dropping in price, otherwise things would be much more problematical to deal with. Hopefully if the requirements for the server I need increases in equal proportion to the drops in associated costs, then I can still keep my head above water with this website stuff. But still, I have to tighten the belt by consolidation my two servers into this single new one and hope the total number of concurrent connections doesn't slow everything down to a snail's pace. If that happens, I may have to drop the FaunaTopSites site as well as the GGC certificates, simply because they would be having too much of an impact in hogging up bandwidth and simultaneous connections on the server. Otherwise if things don't go well after the server move, I have to consider whether getting a separate server for those particular functions will be worth the $$ I have to dig up to pay for it every month.

Obviously if server demands and costs increase while revenue decreases, that could definitely indicate an insurmountable problem in the future. But heck, no one can drive past strip malls these days without noticing all the businesses that have already gone under because of the economy. Certainly they faced the same challenges that I am seeing right here, so this is nothing new. And they weren't even facing the special concerns of something like the BOI in relation to associated potential financial liabilities....

As always, Rich, I'll support whatever decision(s) you end up making with regard to the BOI and the site in general. Even if it all goes away, we all did have it for a while, and I'm grateful for it.

I would buy some ad space if I actually had some snakes to sell! I'm hoping to produce my first clutch this coming breeding season, though, and once that happens, you bet I'll be buying some ad space!

as far as server space is concerned you could implement a time frame for which ads could be presented. i dont know how often im looking at an ad that was 3 or 4 years old that someone dug up and posted to. just getting rid of old ads would free up a ton of space if stored on the same server.
the one thing i actually like about the old ads is being able to go back and look at prices back then...its funny actually
adam jeffery

Originally Posted by farfrumugen

as far as server space is concerned you could implement a time frame for which ads could be presented. i dont know how often im looking at an ad that was 3 or 4 years old that someone dug up and posted to. just getting rid of old ads would free up a ton of space if stored on the same server.
the one thing i actually like about the old ads is being able to go back and look at prices back then...its funny actually
adam jeffery

As I have stated before, the old ads are actually quite beneficial for this site in general. They help quite a bit in relation to search engine ratings. And even an old ad bringing someone new to this site certainly helps, as more than likely they will register after checking out all the more recent classified ads. So all the current advertisers will find some benefit from those old ads bringing new people to look at their currently running ads.

At one time a bunch of members were going through the old ads and locking them as well as deleting any attachments. But I believe the workload burned out everyone and that effort has ceased. I seriously doubt anyone will volunteer for that job again.

Could you prune the old classified ads? Maybe like once every three months or something prune the threads that are more than 30, 60, 90 days old or whatever?

Originally Posted by WebSlave

As I have stated before, the old ads are actually quite beneficial for this site in general. They help quite a bit in relation to search engine ratings. And even an old ad bringing someone new to this site certainly helps, as more than likely they will register after checking out all the more recent classified ads. So all the current advertisers will find some benefit from those old ads bringing new people to look at their currently running ads.

At one time a bunch of members were going through the old ads and locking them as well as deleting any attachments. But I believe the workload burned out everyone and that effort has ceased. I seriously doubt anyone will volunteer for that job again.

Oh sorry, I was idle for awhile and made my post before I saw yours.

I have not read all the posts, I came in reading this just now.

As you know Rich I have helped in several ways so far, donation to keep this forum alive and paid this membership thing, silver coin for a few years, not bragging just pointing out that those of us who have helped don't want to see it die or money lost plus those who would like to help may not because in the end you still may pull the plug. (Why throw money away?)

My only comments are, if your heart is not in it or it's more trouble than it's worth to you I think you should let it go. Go enjoy your retirement man, that's what it's for. Saying that, I think you should allow someone else to keep this site alive if you choose to go that route and at least let us know you will let someone take it over if your own personal goal is not met. (This may have been bought up, but...)

I'm sure this you will have to fork out money each year towards this, are we going to have to worry that you might shut it down each year? If it's a financial burden to you, again sell the site to someone and go enjoy your retirement! People coming here shouldn't have to worry about if Rich is going to shut it down or not each year. I understand it is a concern and you need help and some of us will help where we can and have.

My question is, how long do you want to keep doing this? Do you have Bret Favre syndrome? I think we all know you have a love for this but even if you keep it alive today, this year or next will you walk away shortly after? Is this what you want to do or do you want to travel and do the things retirement brings and not worry about it?

I ask because you have put doubt in my mind and maybe even others here.

If this has been brought up I apologize and really no answer is needed, just let us know and please understand that even tho you may be done, many of us really enjoy this site. Your name and site can live on here.

Either way, Thank you for this site, all you have done to make this community better and all your hard work. I know I am not much of a Corn snake guy, I do know you have been a leader and great person in this community.

Thank you , now go enjoy your retirement man, you earned it!

Originally Posted by WebSlave

At one time a bunch of members were going through the old ads and locking them as well as deleting any attachments. But I believe the workload burned out everyone and that effort has ceased. I seriously doubt anyone will volunteer for that job again.

You never know. Since the colder weather is coming I will be forced to be indoors a lot more which will leave me with some extra time on my hands. When you get a chance shoot me a pm and let me know if I can be of any help in this matter. I'd be glad to help out and don't get burned out all that easily being as stubborn as I am.

So, are there any updates/news regarding this matter?

I just read this thread...I guess the highlighted red banner wasn't enough to catch my attention. I don't normally post, as a matter of fact this is probably my first post of any forum that I'm a member of.

I'm not a dealer/breeder of any kind, more of a fancier who checks this board along with others hoping to find specific animals at a price I can afford...so hence, I don't do alot of buying, much less selling. Although I did recently purchase 3 animals from a buyer based on the information I found on the BOI.

I've learned alot based on the threads that I've read on the BOI. And I feel it's a great benefit to the reptile community as a whole...I wish other forums had similiar venues to vent about deals gone bad. I hate to see this resource go away, yet I understand the desire to retire and move on with life.

Although, I've never become a contributing member of this board, I will gladly do so to see it stay alive. But, in all honesty, I can't justify spending the $100 to be contributor for something that may only be around for another 5-6weeks.

Lydia Cost