• Posted 12/19/2024.
    =====================

    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.

New web site

The issue is that the old site was no longer viable. It was running old software that was going to be dropped support from the server side operating system sometime this month. Which meant that if the site got hacked into, the server techs would have had to pull the plug on my server in order to protect the rest of their data center's network. So it was either this, or just wait for that day to happen and find one day that this site was gone. Permanently. In my shoes, what would you have done?
 
kglreptiles said:
I agree. Can't even send private messages to someone who posts an ad. The old format worked great.
Click to expand...
Yes you can, if you hover over the username you'll get several options that pop up.

Choose 'Start a conversation' and it'll open a new message for you
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WebSlave said:
The issue is that the old site was no longer viable. It was running old software that was going to be dropped support from the server side operating system sometime this month. Which meant that if the site got hacked into, the server techs would have had to pull the plug on my server in order to protect the rest of their data center's network. So it was either this, or just wait for that day to happen and find one day that this site was gone. Permanently. In my shoes, what would you have done?
Click to expand...
Just to reiterate what I mentioned above, here is an email I got yesterday from my server folks.

Support Department

Staff - 07/01/2024 5:19 PM


Dear Rich,

We are writing to inform you of a critical security issue regarding the current operating system installed on your server with us, CentOS 7.

As of July 1, 2024, CentOS 7 has officially reached its End of Life (EOL). This means the operating system on your server will no longer receive support or updates from the vendor, leaving your system vulnerable to future security exploits and malicious threats.

As there will be no further updates provided by the vendor, your level of support from ******.com will also be significantly impacted. Whilst we will continue to provide support for your current configuration, any new security vulnerabilities discovered after the EOL date may result in your server’s security being compromised. This may lead to potential compromises, corruption or loss of data on your server. We will continue to offer data recovery support to the best of our ability, however please be aware that the potential nature of these exploits may limit the level of support we can offer if such a scenario were to arise.

To ensure the continued security and stability of your server, we strongly urge you to respond to our support team immediately so that our team can review your options for upgrading to a newer operating system that will continue to receive essential security patches and updates.

We strongly recommend that you do not delay in addressing this matter. Your prompt action is required in order to protect your data and maintain the integrity of your server.
Please note that if your server has cPanel installed, they will begin charging an additional $5 per month for Extended Lifecycle Support (ELS) starting in August 2024. This new additional fee will provide security patches to cPanel’s core system, however it may still leave the core operating system vulnerable. Once you upgrade your operating system to a more recent, supported operating system, this fee will no longer apply to your server.

Thank you for your immediate attention to this important issue.
Click to expand...
 
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