• 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.

Oh, deer...

Socratic Monologue

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The self-preservation instincts of whitetailed deer are hard to figure. If a person sits 25 feet up in a tree in full camouflage, a deer will smell the laundry detergent the camo was washed in three months prior and not come within a quarter mile. On the other hand, put a bunch of lights on a noisy 3,500 lb chunk of steel and pilot it at 55 mph down a rural highway and every deer in the area will plot an intercept course with the accuracy of an Apollo moon mission.
 

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I feel your pain. I hit one with my Suburban about 15 years ago. $800 to fix just the damage that would make it road-worthy again. The cosmetic parts still aren't fixed.

Between me and the hubby we've nailed eight of them but only the Suburban took damage that one time.
 
This is only my second deer strike ever, but my wife has hit three in the last five or so years.

I'm happy the car is still driveable (the body shop is scheduling a month out), but there's over 5k worth of damage there. That would have financed a really nice deer hunting trip for someone to harvest a few deer (we get 3 tags on a regular archery license, and can buy additional tags for like ten dollars).
 
I am surprised we haven't smacked a deer around here. Connie is scared to death to drive at night because of all the deer we can see lurking alongside the roadways. Sometimes it can be downright spooky seeing all those eyes reflecting back at us from the headlights. All it takes is for one of them to make a bad judgement call and we have one coming in through the windshield at high speed. Having a mortally wounded deer thrashing around in our laps while we are still traveling at high speed probably wouldn't end well for us.

One of the more noteworthy road hazards, I guess.
 
Sorry to hear this. I travel daily through about 15 mile of cornfield and 15 mile of mostly barren suburbs. Deer galore at 4:30am. So far been lucky (33 years traveling this road) I did run over a dead one in middle of road one time and other than smelling steak at every stop no damage. I hit a frozen racoon one time and lost a tire and rim. I ran over a snapping turtle and darn near flipped my truck once and hit a huge possum that cracked my spoiler. Hope insurance company takes care of you!
 
Like an obstacle course, it sounds like.

Yes, insurance is covering things. And no humans were hurt, and that's what really counts. I do feel bad for animals when I hit them, worst when it looks like something got injured but runs off. The county sheriff came out and dispatched the deer I hit, which was down for good but not quite dead.
 
John I am so glad you were not hurt. I could see that a deer in the road could be a real danger for a young new inexperienced driver, or one of the many who text while they drive so their attention is not on the road.
 
Thanks, Lucille. It was me and our daughter in the car, so I am glad it wasn't worse, too.

I do have hardwired the appropriate response to any animal in the road, which is to brake as hard as is safe but continue to travel in a straight line. That keeps the car out of the ditch, and away from trees, and keeps it from rolling. It doesn't necessarily eliminate damage to the car, but does minimize it and that's easily repairable anyway.
 
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