• 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.
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    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.

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WebSlave

The world looks differently to me now.
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Seems that every so often, I get emails and pms about photo techniques and the types of equipment I use for my own photos and videos, so after getting several members asking for a forum of this nature, I decided to give it a whirl.

Everyone wants to take "good" photos and videos, and as well hopes to take "great" photos and videos from their efforts. Honestly, with the state of technology today with the digital cameras and camcorders available, nearly anyone can take shots that 10 years ago nearly everyone would consider as "great" without a huge cash outlay for the equipment that would have been necessary back then to do so.

But it takes practice, and sometimes a helping hand might be beneficial to cut down the learning curve somewhat. The main benefit of digital media is that you can practice until you are blue in the face, and it doesn't cost you an arm and a leg to have film processed, as it used to do back in the days of film that had to be processed to develope. Plus you can get INSTANT feedback from your efforts, instead of waiting for the processed film to come back and hoping you remember what the heck you actually did on each frame or clip.

There really is no reason at all why everyone can't become a really good photographer or videographer, and more people can become actually great at it. The tools are easily and readily available without a huge financial outlay, and with just a bit of help and some experience, anyone can create photos and videos that will just take other's breath away.

So this section is here for you to talk about your techniques, or problems, or what equipment has proven to be best for what you want to do. It is also here for you to show off those shots or clips that you think are great, or maybe not so great and you want to have them critiqued so you can try to figure out how to make them better.

The thing is, don't be afraid to experiment. And also bear in mind that very often, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Often the only criteria for judgment of the greatness of your own handiwork is whether it pleases YOU or not.
 
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