• Posted 12/19/2024.
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    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

Amazon purchase

Lucille

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I'm not sure this rates as an actual Sound Off but it was pretty odd. I ordered some Finish Powerball dishwasher detergent packets, supposed to be 76 in the bag. They arrived today and the bag seemed a little light for 76 packets. I counted them and there were only 46. Amazon made it right, gave me a refund and told me to keep the 46. But the bag the packets came in was completely sealed. How could this happen? I assume that filling the bags at the factory is all mechanical? I came up with two ideas: either a mechanical glitch, or maybe Amazon is being supplied with a product from a fraudulent seller that is shorting everyone. It looks like the regular packets, hope it washed dishes properly- it seems like it would be too much trouble to manufacture fake dishwasher powder. Caveat Emptor.
 
Are you sure the bag was factory sealed? I've gotten some items from Amazon that were clearly fraudulent returns that weren't checked before being reshelved; maybe someone skimmed some pods and returned it.

This is a pair of shorts Amazon sent me once. No joke.
 

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I think this pretty much points to that the whole world has pretty much gone to crap these days. Or at least as much of the world around me that directly affects my life. And apparently others, like yourself. Of course, maybe it is only little local pockets of crap that I happen to be in the middle of. :shrug01:

We get home delivery from Publix (Instacart) for most of our groceries lately, and specifically comment in the instructions to PLEASE check the eggs for damage. Connie gets text messages from the person doing the grocery collection and delivery, and repeats the request about checking the eggs. I can't remember the last time we have gotten eggs that didn't have at least 4 of them broken or cracked when they get here. So did those people actually check the eggs like we asked, or did the eggs just get rough housed between the time they were picked and they got to our carport? Lord knows we have picked up our own eggs in the past and never had that sort of a problem.

So I have to file a claim about it. On the neutral side, we wind up getting the remaining good eggs for free, but it is still a bother and aggravation I could do without.
 
Are you sure the bag was factory sealed?
Yes, it has one of those tops you have to tear across before getting to the recloseable part, so it was just as you would see it in the store.

Those are some rough looking shorts, how on earth did they ship out something like that?
 
I think this pretty much points to that the whole world has pretty much gone to crap these days.
I do see hardworking responsible people, but I also see people who don't give a hoot and who do as little as possible. I think that it is sad but true, that some people don't have pride in their work, whatever it might be.
 
The shorts were pretty neatly folded in the bag; I suspect someone returned them as wrong size or something.

I'm sympathetic to the 'ubiquitous crap' hypothesis, but it may be that our routine interactions with the world are getting more multilayered (usually with added services -- I have to use a computer through my ISP to contact eBay and pay with my CC through PayPal so some arbitrage seller in China can drop ship something from Amazon that gets sent through UPS and then the last leg via USPS) and so there's just more opportunities for crap to find us. So it isn't so much that there is more crap, but that we each have more opportunities for crap to cross our path. Sounds like a George Carlin routine.
 
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