• 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.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Time to evaluate the issue of replies in the classified ad sections.

Has the "no reply" policy in classified ads helped or hindered?

  • Yes. Re-enable all replies to the classifieds sections.

    Votes: 178 50.3%

  • No. Keep it as it is with replies to the classifieds disabled for non-paying members.

    Votes: 127 35.9%

  • Didn't go far enough. Disable replies in the classifieds sections to ALL members.

    Votes: 36 10.2%

  • What? I wondered why I couldn't reply to classified ads!

    Votes: 10 2.8%

  • There are classified ads here?

    Votes: 3 0.8%
  • Total voters
    354
As far as I know, pruning in vBulletin is a fully manual process, not something that can be set to run automatically.

But even if it were an option, I would not use it. I think I've said it quite a few times that even old ads are beneficial as fodder to the search engines to bring new members here. My opinion has not changed on that.

So, let's see.. As best I can remember, anyone posting an ad in the classifieds section could always delete said ad up till 259200 minutes (180 days) after it was originally posted. So if within nearly 6 months someone doesn't want their ad to remain here, whose responsibility should it be to manage that function? And after that 6 months? Well, sorry, I don't want management to have to micromanage the classifieds in that manner. If someone leaves an old ad on here, then why should management here be concerned that someone might be pissed that a member has responded to it at such a late date? Everyone has been given the tools to effectively manage their own ads, and we pretty much expect everyone to do that themselves.

So then you have ads that are very old and they get responded to. Is that really such a big deal? Apparently the responder did not notice the date of that ad. Again, whose fault is that? Should we make it an infractionable offense to do that? Heck, should we make it an infraction for people to leave old ads here?

Well, sorry, but no. I think we have enough rules here without looking to put more in that I'm sure many would think are just downright frivolous. The ability for any registered member on this site to post ads in the classified sections is completely free. I am sorry that some may think they are getting a return of less than they are paying for this service, but quite honestly, I am just not all that inclined to play mother hen for every aspect of what members do on this site. And I certainly do not expect my moderators to do that neither.
 
I thought it was decided that there wasn't going to be comments/replies allowed on for sale posts :/ that's very unfortunate they are allowed as I can only see negativity coming from this change. I was about to renew my sponsorship on here , but I think i'd rather just stop using FC for posting ads altogether. This change IMO is to warrant more drama which this forum thrives off of. Facebook really slowed the traffic on here down as far as sales and I have to say although I truly appreciate the BOI if it wasn't for the BOI this forum probably wouldn't be much used. I truly appreciate the forum and it's wealth of knowledge in the BOI and hope someday it'll go back to no comments/replies on the for sale ads.
 
312Herps said:
I thought it was decided that there wasn't going to be comments/replies allowed on for sale posts :/ that's very unfortunate they are allowed as I can only see negativity coming from this change. I was about to renew my sponsorship on here , but I think i'd rather just stop using FC for posting ads altogether. This change IMO is to warrant more drama which this forum thrives off of. Facebook really slowed the traffic on here down as far as sales and I have to say although I truly appreciate the BOI if it wasn't for the BOI this forum probably wouldn't be much used. I truly appreciate the forum and it's wealth of knowledge in the BOI and hope someday it'll go back to no comments/replies on the for sale ads.
Click to expand...

It's been proven time and time again that I can't please everyone. So apparently this time YOU drew the short straw.

Good luck on your move to someplace else more to your liking.
 
WebSlave said:
It's been proven time and time again that I can't please everyone. So apparently this time YOU drew the short straw.

Good luck on your move to someplace else more to your liking.
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Thanks Rich, You do a great job on here and Thanks for even having this forum up it serves a great purpose. I will definitely continue to use it as a reference to look up breeders as it's always been pretty accurate, thanks for the work you've done for the reptile community !
 
You DO know that you can lock your own ads to block replies, don't you?
 
312Herps said:
Yes but then you can't erase them later which I like to do. if that was possible that'd be great. Thanks though.
Click to expand...

What do you mean that you can't erase them? Do you mean delete the ad? If so, then yes you can actually through the classifieds control panel under "UserCP". If you mean erase parts of the ad, you can do this to by making it unlocked, doing your editing and then re-locking it.

Kyle
 
scaledverts said:
What do you mean that you can't erase them? Do you mean delete the ad? If so, then yes you can actually through the classifieds control panel under "UserCP". If you mean erase parts of the ad, you can do this to by making it unlocked, doing your editing and then re-locking it.

Kyle
Click to expand...

Oh thanks I didn't know that. :thumbsup:
 
I don't believe you have to "unlock" your ad to edit or delete; but I'll check to confirm when I'm done checking New Posts (if I log out to access mydummyacct, all that stuff is reset)

**Edit**
I was mistaken - Kyle was correct - you will have to unlock the ad to edit. (I guess that one of the perks of being a moderator is that there's always a working edit button, lol)
 
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Has the desired outcome (reversal of site traffic decline) between institution of this change been achieved? Prior to the Facebook page creation, I mean, since that would be a confounding factor that could independently improve traffic statistics.
 
nickolasanastasiou said:
Has the desired outcome (reversal of site traffic decline) between institution of this change been achieved? Prior to the Facebook page creation, I mean, since that would be a confounding factor that could independently improve traffic statistics.
Click to expand...

In my opinion, no. Or at least only in a negligible sense. Traffic here was the highest when replies were allowed to the classifieds, dropped down drastically when I restricted such replies, and hasn't really rebounded back much, if any, when I reopened the replies. So perhaps my closing replies to the classifieds will prove to have been a fatal mistake. That policy change being coincident with the growing popularity of FaceBorg (including the trademark infringing copycat pages and groups, ie: Board of Inquiry and BOI) might have made an irreversible turn for the worse here. :shrug01:

Of course, an unanswerable question would have to be, "Would things be even worse had I not re-enabled replies?" Again, :shrug01:

Oh well......

BTW, the site is STILL operating in the black, so as long as that holds true, I have no pressing reason to deep six this site in the foreseeable future. But I will say that paid memberships, banner advertising, and Google ad income have all taken a dive over the last couple of years. So what is true today isn't necessarily going to be true next year.
 
Thank you. I do appreciate having that information.

I am ignorant of the banner and Google Ad matters, but I do have some connections to various paying members. While I (and others, I think) have made experimental attempts to co-promote membership purchases/donations in combination with product sales, I have seen (some valuable) people electing to downgrade levels for varying reasons.

If you do not mind sharing this, what is the rough proportion of cost coverage that is derived from the paid membership levels? I ask about that because it is the source with which I am most familiar. While I would certainly not ignore any particular income streams, I would likely be inclined to direct energies towards preserving that which is (or those which are) primary.
 
By the way, regarding it being a fatal mistake, maybe and maybe not. It could be parallel and not conjoined. Not enough bridging information to be sure, I would think.
 
nickolasanastasiou said:
If you do not mind sharing this, what is the rough proportion of cost coverage that is derived from the paid membership levels? I ask about that because it is the source with which I am most familiar. While I would certainly not ignore any particular income streams, I would likely be inclined to direct energies towards preserving that which is (or those which are) primary.
Click to expand...

To be honest, I really just do not know. I run several sites and actually run two servers. Everything is pretty much intertwined concerning expenses that there is no feasible way to itemize expenses and comparable income streams. Let's just say that I just look at this as a "whole ball of wax" sort of business. If the time comes that I find myself having to rape the retirement funds in order to pay the bills for this internet venture, then the whole ball of wax will just have to go bye-bye. I'm hoping that won't happen, but quite honestly I just did not really expect the downturn that is taking place now to happen right now as it is.

Beyond that sort of vague analysis, I really don't discuss details of my income with anyone. It's much like discussing paychecks with fellow employees. No good can come of it.

But I will say that I will be turning 65 years old in July of this year. I am going to be applying for Medicare soon, am collecting some retirement from my state job, and am holding out applying for Social Security until I can get the most out of that benefit. So that will be sometime between my being 66 and 70 years old. As long as the income from this internet stuff can hold up till then, I guess I can't really hope for more than that. And, of course, I do have assets that I have accumulated over the years that I could always liquidate if need be. I did sell off most of my gun collection a few years back, but used that money to buy into a new interest, which I think will be just as liquifiable if push comes to shove.

Ah well, I never really cared to be wealthy, and I certainly don't want to live forever. So just one day at a time.... The nice thing about being retired is being able to take time now to smell the citrus flowers. Literally...


tangerine_blooms_2015_01.jpg
 
I can appreciate that (all of that). As to the discussion of financial details being a private matter, I agree, and that is why I asked about proportion rather than absolute figures, as that 1) helps for prioritization/re-prioritization and emphasis whther $10 or $10 million and 2) is plainly more polite of me.

I never thought I would say it when I left it, but I miss FL in my own way and actually hope to return someday.

Thanks.
 
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