• 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.

MM Misleading Customers on Captive Born Green Pythons

T

thamnophis123

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MorphMarket has decided to allow Reptile Pets Direct (Texas) to label their adult, imported GTPs as captive born. Most of the other sellers who are offering adult imports are properly labeling their animals as wild caught. However at least one other seller has jumped on board and is now selling imported adults as captive born too. Just a heads up in case anyone doesn't know the origin of these imports. They will have tapeworms, round worms and other issues typical of wild caught, imported snakes. There are buyers who do not, for personal ethical reasons (as well as survival rates and vet bills), do not buy wild caught snakes. So MorphMarket undermines these buyer's personal ethical guidelines.
 

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Curious if you've been in contact with MM about this, and what was discussed. I've interacted with their support staff numerous times, so I understand the general program but wonder what they said in this particular case.
 
Yes, Ive reported these sales ads on a number of occasions, and also mentioned it on FB Feedback sites. My reports to MM are completely ignored. My FB posts of course illicit the uninformed fandom class.

Socratic Monologue said:
Curious if you've been in contact with MM about this, and what was discussed. I've interacted with their support staff numerous times, so I understand the general program but wonder what they said in this particular case.
Click to expand...
 
When I report things like this to MM, I tend to dump a load of conclusive evidence on them to make the case as strong as possible. While I understand that these snakes aren't CB, unfortunately most import records have them listed as CB. For better or worse, MM tends to require solid documentation of issues like this. I see you pointed this problem out on the forums there and got an unhelpful non-answer.

The strongest evidence I could find to support the case are reliable published statements that 80% of so-called CB Morelia viridis exported from Indonesia are illegally laundered WC.

An assessment of the impact of the pet trade on five CITES-Appendix II case studies - <i>Boa constrictor imperator</i>

TRAFFIC Briefing Paper: Captive breeding and ranching: The case for a new CITES mechanism for reviewing trade

That's enough evidence for me, but MM historically has required something close to certainty on these issues.

I'm glad you're spreading the word, of course. It takes a lot of responsibility on the part of buyers to navigate this sort of fraud, and unfortunately buyers are not always up to the task.
 
The crux of it will be compelling evidence. Not experiential say-so. I can tell from a glance that a great many of the "captive bred" tortoises on MM are WC (and relatively freshly at that; not even farmed or pseudo-"farmed" or what have you), but without anything to deliver that shows a person who would not know the difference, it is largely for nothing because it equates to "Trust me, bro."

The self-produced tag/label might be an even more abused tag than the captive-bred tag, although the consequences are less dire for a neophyte keeper in general with respect to the former (while the latter will often lead to an unfortunate outcome for both keeper and kept).
 
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