• 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....

About the BOI and it's future here...

Frank, the statement you referred to was not made by Rich.
I finally took the time to go back and look for Rich's post on the matter (thanks for providing the incentive, lol), and my statement in post #83 was accurate...note that bolded portions below.
As for the poll, something needs to be made clear. Option three will only be temporary. If the number of paid memberships still does not support the financial liabilities of the BOI, the BOI will remain open ONLY to paid memberships for one year when I implement that change. I would be assuming that there will not be any flurry of new paid memberships at that time, of course. My guess is most people would think they were throwing good money after bad if the BOI was going to go away anyway. But in any event, that 1 year grace period will be to sort of pay back those members who are donating to keep the BOI open. At that time I will try to make it clear that the BOI is effectively dead and will be permanently closed one year after that date.
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I don't get it - the contributions are to fund lawsuit defenses. If Rich doesn't get sued, yet theoretically accrues enough funds for a deemable legal defence, why do we need to continue contributing if he has not yet exhausted those contributions yet?
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Why should he have to CONSTANTLY defend himself and the right for all of us to complain? Websites and legal fees are free.

It depends. Did you do it under subscriptions in your user CP? If you used a echeck with PayPal it takes longer to clear.
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Honestly, I'm not sure how I did it! LOL I think I just clicked the "Donate Now" button at the top of the page. :)
 
Hahaha. "Are free" should read "aren't free". Sorry. That's the lack of caffeine speaking.
 
leezard said:
Honestly, I'm not sure how I did it! LOL I think I just clicked the "Donate Now" button at the top of the page. :)
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OK, that explains it. That is a straight donation button. Rich will be able to fix that for you. The way to subscribe with the coins and all is in your User CP.

Once you are in your User CP go down the left column to paid subscriptions and click on it. You will see options for memberships and forum sponsorships.
 
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OH whoops. My bad. :) I'll send Rich a PM. Thanks for pointing out the obvious to the oblivious. :ack2:
 
spawn said:
Members will need to maintain the Contributions every year for the site to remain. It's not a once and done deal.

I don't get it - the contributions are to fund lawsuit defenses. If Rich doesn't get sued, yet theoretically accrues enough funds for a deemable legal defence, why do we need to continue contributing if he has not yet exhausted those contributions yet?
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Well, if you would like, contact your local friendly attorney and see how much a lawsuit will cost to defend in court. Use worst case scenarios, please, because that is how I need to look at it. And while you are at it, figure out how many hours of MY time would be spent conferring with attorneys and in the courtroom and put a reasonable figure on what my time would be worth to me doing something I would rather not be spending it on.

When you come up with that figure, then divide that by $25 and tell me what you come up with.

Yes, I do have money set aside to fight a lawsuit, but how much will be enough? What happens if it ISN'T enough? Suppose the choice is then to default on the lawsuit because of lack of funds, or dig into my retirement savings to be able to keep on fighting?

Quite frankly, I have no intention of being placed in that position. If the income from this site cannot cover the potential expenses I may have to incur for my efforts of giving you all the ability to post your experiences and opinions about someone else in their business dealings, then tell me, just WHY should I pay for it out of my own pocket when it becomes painfully obvious that it is not worth it to even a reasonably sized MINORITY of the members who use the BOI?

Would YOU do it?

And no, I hope to not get sued, and in some manner I can make a modest income off of this site instead of spending it with attorneys. This hope is no different from anyone else who hopes to make some compensation for their time, efforts, and expended funds to establish a business. I'm sure most people here are breeding animals with the hopes of selling the offspring, and hope to recoup some of their expenses, and in a best case scenario, even make a profit from their endeavors. Sorry if it shocks people to learn that I also have such hopes about my own endeavors.

So yes, I am looking at this from a practical viewpoint as being a business decision. If this site provides a positive cash flow for me in respect to realistic potential liabilities, then I have no problem whatsoever to keep on putting the time and effort (and expenses) into keeping it functioning for everyone to use. However, if that appears to not be the case, then the logical thing to do with any business is to determine where the liabilities lie that can negatively impact the financial viability of the enterprise, and if possible, remove it from the equation. And that is EXACTLY what I am doing here, right now.
 
I'll try to do it today I'm going to send in money to someone who is selling me a Bearded dragon and will at that the same time pay the sum. I believe it is a great hand in your business dealings and I have learned how to figure out what is a scam and what isn't by asking similar quesitons I have seen on there. Without it we would all be disconnected and unable to keep our industry fair and business-like. I have to give it to Webslave he has done a great job and I'm sure those law suits can be a pain in the butt. Thanks for caring about us. I am a little confused and sorry about this but I have been trying to follow it but 11 pages a lot to follow. Are you going to be coming back after you retire? If not I have an idea for you guys if you want to try it out.
 
Wow. Just...wow. Some of the responses/questions here are making me want to crawl under my desk and weep for the future of humanity.

Frankly, I'm impressed that Rich and the mods have held on this long. It's a sign of how much they want the BOI (and Fauna in general) to live on as an aid to those in this hobby. I would've thrown in my hat in frustration long ago.
 
birdman123 said:
If you close it down will the posts still be up I think they wouldn't be but just wondering. This is for Rich.
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Rich has addressed this in another thread already. He has said that if it goes, it all goes. Reason being, that if he leaves up the old threads, that still leaves him open to potential litigation. I think that thread is in the feedback forum, if you wanted to go and check it out.

Hope that helps!

Wayne
 
Figured a brief status report is in order....

Been looking over the stats for paid subscriptions (which is the system used for paid contributor memberships). I believe I started this paid membership plan sometime in 2005, but from whenever it was, just looking at the Contributor level memberships (which is the one most people use BY FAR), we have had a total of 1,325 paid memberships to date. Of those 1,325 paid members, 957 have chosen to NOT renew. So the number of active paid Contributor memberships to date, is only 368.

Personally, it just feels disheartening that 957 members here have decided that this site is no longer worth supporting. Yeah, I'm sure there are all kinds of reasons for this, not related directly to the abandonment of their support for the BOI and/or FaunaClassifieds, but does anyone seriously think this doesn't indicate something significant to me about this site I am running?

But on a more positive note, traffic is up substantially on this site as a whole, and the classified sections seem to be really jumping. With the current trend, if the majority of the members here decide that the BOI can go, I doubt it will severely affect the overall health of this site in general. Yeah, it will take a hit, but we've had enough of those for one reason or another in the past, and are still here to tell about it.

Of course, there is a downside to this, as the /home volume on my server has been flagging warnings of being 85% full lately. So it looks like either a server move in my future (again!) or perhaps I can skate by with just a hard drive upgrade. So it does appear that nearly every silver lining can actually have a cloud around it.

As for my own projected timeline for retiring my reptile breeding business, I have already sold off all the 2009 and 2008 animals, and am working on listing the adults and subadults. From the number of inquiries I have gotten about when I am going to get this done, I suspect that many of the 1300+ corns I have will move out fairly quickly. So I guess maybe my wording about when the fate of the BOI will be decided needs to be revised to state that it will be NO LATER THAN January 1, 2010, but perhaps sooner. Maybe even MUCH sooner. After all, once my business has been liquidated, it will be on THAT date that my retirement really starts.
 
To add another disappointing note - it appears that there is still a fairly significant group of members that isn't aware that this is happening (based on the responses I have gotten when I referenced the situation)
 
WebSlave said:
Been looking over the stats for paid subscriptions (which is the system used for paid contributor memberships). I believe I started this paid membership plan sometime in 2005, but from whenever it was, just looking at the Contributor level memberships (which is the one most people use BY FAR), we have had a total of 1,325 paid memberships to date. Of those 1,325 paid members, 957 have chosen to NOT renew. So the number of active paid Contributor memberships to date, is only 368.

Personally, it just feels disheartening that 957 members here have decided that this site is no longer worth supporting. Yeah, I'm sure there are all kinds of reasons for this, not related directly to the abandonment of their support for the BOI and/or FaunaClassifieds, but does anyone seriously think this doesn't indicate something significant to me about this site I am running?
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Question, of those 957 members, is there a way to see how many were paying to post on the BOI when it was initially started or how many paid to post classifieds when it was pay to post? It may not be those people have decided this site is no longer worth supporting, it may just be the options those people were paying for then are now free.

hhmoore said:
To add another disappointing note - it appears that there is still a fairly significant group of members that isn't aware that this is happening (based on the responses I have gotten when I referenced the situation)
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I didn't see if the following was answered so I will put it out there again.

WebSlave said:
Actually I don't believe this system has the capability of a mass PM. Even if it did, most people have their user cp set to send them an email notice upon receipt of a PM, so I would STILL get flooded with those bounce back emails.
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DAND said:
Could you utilize the member list and then the last visit option? That way you could go back a month or two and those people would be the folks that have used the site and may actually want to do something about it. :shrug01: Chances are you'd have much less bounced back e-mails too.
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DAND said:
Or could you use the "What's happening today?" list? Those 1500 plus people that were online yesterday would be a good start.

Or better yet, could there be a page made that would have to be viewed prior to viewing the BOI? Instead of a sticky the page would pop up and at the bottom of that page you would have the link to the BOI?
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hhmoore said:
To add another disappointing note - it appears that there is still a fairly significant group of members that isn't aware that this is happening (based on the responses I have gotten when I referenced the situation)
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Email and/or mass PM to let them know so those people have a chance to step up was suggested a couple weeks ago, wasn't it?
 
WebSlave said:
So the number of active paid Contributor memberships to date, is only 368.
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Which equates to roughly $10,000 on memberships alone. Not too bad looking at it from the cup is half full perspective.
 
shrap said:
Which equates to roughly $10,000 on memberships alone. Not too bad looking at it from the cup is half full perspective.
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Which certainly would be true if expenses and overhead were completely ignored and this was all just pure profit. Even ignoring the entire reason this came up in the first place....
 
WebSlave said:
Which certainly would be true if expenses and overhead were completely ignored and this was all just pure profit. Even ignoring the entire reason this came up in the first place....
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Sure. I think we all understand that. Just saying, almost 400 paid members, that is no easy feat for any website.
 
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