Vote***financing Fauna***vote

I voted for higher advertising costs and higher fines (I would bet that a lot of people who get fined don't pay anyway).

My idea is this: $1 to $2 for each classified ad you post. Run it on an E-bay like pricing system (where highlight is an $1, bold is another $1, double the length of the add for $1, ect.) Basically extra features cost extra money.

I would guess that this would bring in a steady flow (I image that a few hundred dollars a month at least). Viewing would still be free, the BOI would still be free, but listing a classified ad would cost an amount. Combined with increased advertising fees, that should help.

I think membership fees will just deter advertisers, viewers, posters, ect.

Originally Posted by Milwaukee Reptiles

I voted for higher advertising costs and higher fines (I would bet that a lot of people who get fined don't pay anyway).

I wish I were hearing this from people who were actually already running banner advertisements here. But I am not.

And no, most people fined do not pay the fines. It is far too easy to bypass it and re-register under a new name at no cost.

Originally Posted by Milwaukee Reptiles

My idea is this: $1 to $2 for each classified ad you post. Run it on an E-bay like pricing system (where highlight is an $1, bold is another $1, double the length of the add for $1, ect.) Basically extra features cost extra money.

I would guess that this would bring in a steady flow (I image that a few hundred dollars a month at least). Viewing would still be free, the BOI would still be free, but listing a classified ad would cost an amount. Combined with increased advertising fees, that should help.

Been there, done that. I started up the highlighted classified ads back around mid November of last year. To date, 124 ads have been paid for to highlight. Figuring on PayPal taking their cut out of each of those $1 transactions, I get 67 cents per highlight. So, to date, that program has netted me a grand total of $83.08. That is not even close to what it cose me to have my programmer implement this capability.

So what is this telling me?

Originally Posted by WebSlave

Oh and the point was brought up somewhere about kids not affording to pay this fee. Well, that certainly is a valid point, but personally, I don't believe anyone should be doing business with minors anyway. So they really have no business posting on the BOI or in the classifieds section trying to sell things.

My opinion, of course.

And that would have been me. Although some people say this site is a joke or for entertainment only I have it in much higher regards. During the years the site has taught me a lot. And it keeps teaching me every day. Just imagine what it can do for the next generation of herp enthusiasts? Furthermore I think we would be really surprised at the number of under aged people posting in here on a daily basis. Some pretty well centered and mature for their age. It would be a shame to leave them out of the “conversation” and lessons learned just because they are not supposed to buy or sell.

Regards

Originally Posted by alvaro

And that would have been me. Although some people say this site is a joke or for entertainment only I have it in much higher regards. During the years the site has taught me a lot. And it keeps teaching me every day. Just imagine what it can do for the next generation of herp enthusiasts? Furthermore I think we would be really surprised at the number of under aged people posting in here on a daily basis. Some pretty well centered and mature for their age. It would be a shame to leave them out of the “conversation” and lessons learned just because they are not supposed to buy or sell.

Regards

Well, I have a confession to make here. I did not set up this site with children in mind. Whew! Glad I have that off my chest now!

vBulletin has a COPPA compliant registration system in place that is used to deal with children under 13 years of age that want to frequent this site. It is a procedure that forces a child to get their parent's permission and they are supposed to fax me that permission in writing. Well, heck with that. Like I have time to deal with that sort of thing? I have this site set to just deny registration to any child 13 years old or younger. It has been that way for quite a long time, and I don't really see where it has had any negative impact on this site at all. Is it right to do? Beats me. I saw no reason to dwell on it very long. But it was the option with the lesser number of headaches attached to it, and that is what I chose to do.

The same sort of logic will be applying on what I decide to do with this site. In a lot of cases, the easiest route (for me) will be the one that is the most attractive. I have seen some complicated alternatives offered by people in the threads related to this membership fee proposal, and the thought going through my mind while reading some of them was "who the heck is going to program this stuff or pay some programmer to implement it?" The second thought was "ALL of this just to avoid paying a $10 fee?" I am supposed to bend over backwards to come up with some complicated alternative, make the efforts and expenses myself to save a few people from having to spend $10 to get what THEY want from this site? Excuse me if I find that an unreasonable position to support.

Granted, most people are not programmers, and likely don't have a clue what would be involved with implementing some of the things they come up with. But I would think that if you have trouble describing what you are talking about in 100 words or less and it SOUNDS complicated to you, it probably is a non-workable suggestion.

So yes, I did ask for alternatives. But they have to be realistic and able to be implemented with no substantial monetary outlay from me, and able to be managed with a very minimal amount of manual intervention on my part.

Actually I am not very comfortable with the membership fee virtually requiring that someone go through PayPal for payment. But this capability is native within this message board, and it is extremely easy to implement. This is a key criteria of my requirements. But that in itself may be a hurtle for some people, because certainly PayPal is big enough that they have most certainly pissed of a small percentage of people enough that they refuse to use it. Oh well. Nothing is perfect, I guess. But then again, I never claimed that it would be.

I like this site and use it and read it every day, often many times a day. Whatever happens(charging for the classifieds) please make it so that we can put up pics on all our adds instead of limiting us and having us link the pics from the photo gallery. I have so many pics in the forums that I can not get rid of that I can not post new pics for people to view my pics on the add. I feel it is hurting my slaes.
OR
Make it some way that forum threads are only up for 2-3 months. Like I stated I have asked several times for help in verifying a pic for me, well that thread really no longer needs to be there due to I got several replys but that is a notch in the # of pics I can post. Is there something can be done about that?
I also think the BOI needs to remain free and just to charge for the classifieds. Shanell

Originally Posted by The Reptile House

I like this site and use it and read it every day, often many times a day. Whatever happens(charging for the classifieds) please make it so that we can put up pics on all our adds instead of limiting us and having us link the pics from the photo gallery. I have so many pics in the forums that I can not get rid of that I can not post new pics for people to view my pics on the add. I feel it is hurting my slaes.
OR
Make it some way that forum threads are only up for 2-3 months. Like I stated I have asked several times for help in verifying a pic for me, well that thread really no longer needs to be there due to I got several replys but that is a notch in the # of pics I can post. Is there something can be done about that?
I also think the BOI needs to remain free and just to charge for the classifieds. Shanell

At one time, I did put in a cap for attachments (photos) within the forums on that site, but after some reflection, I decided it was not a good idea at all and removed the limits. You should be able to attach as many photos as you want within your messages and ads. There are caps in place, however, for photos posted within the photo gallery attached to this site.

There is no way to put in a time limit for ads posted in the classifieds forums without custom programming.

Leave the forums and BOI free, although donations are certainly acceptable. However in comparison to what other sites may charge to post ads 35 bucks a year is very reasonable, even cheap in my opinion. I also think the auctions to help Fauna out are good for everyone. The sellers get to promote themselves, buyers get healthy animals and Fauna gets a donation. Please leave the BOI free, it is the greatest site on the net to help people gain confidence in doing business other than face to face. Tom Stevens

PayPal:

Item/Product Name: Option B - FC Official Contributor Subscription

Alright lol I suppose I got my coin now

Although I'm not paying for server costs I researched how much it does cost and just about choked.... From what I saw its nearly 350 dollars... I don't know how much Rich pays but I remember owning a website and I didn't like it all to well when I got the bill...

Rich.... ever thought about buying a Server???? If we would all band together and help pay for the cost of one you wouldn't need to worry about the huge bill.... only from your high speed ISP

I have done alot of thinking and thought that 25 bucks is gonna come out anyways so I might as well pay it... Anything to help...

Just a Thought,
-Jacob

Rich, it seems you have already made up your mind regardless of what the majority has voted.
One thing you might want to look into is by closing the BOI to no longer a public forum.. it would be a paid for site is the legalities associated with it.
second, you are banking on the bad guys, because the bad guy threads get more views than the good guys and much more responce.... originally it was about the bad guys now it about expoloiting the bad guys to make some cash.
ok so lets say you put the paid BOI into working order... shoot you know people will be pass it and just use trader ratings or general business discussion area ect.
i would be willing to bet in a day your number of hits drop drastically
by closing the BOI (paid members only), this sites draw, you are going to kill the whole enchalada
some of other sites have a BOI and charging for yours will make people go to these othersites where they can post both good and bad experiences for free
you are about to shoot yourself in the foot and you dont even know it yet... aside from the numbers you will lose the thing that i wonder about more than anything is the legal implications
i would just like to know one thing... we have contributed monies for some time now
what are the cost to run this site? or have we in the past been helping you to perhaps fund your ongoging feud with jeff b.

but like i said you have already made up your mind and i think it was quite some time ago , when you implimented all the new fandangled bells and whistles
i wish you well but unfortunately i think your choice will be the undoing of this entire site... and i hate to see that because i have been coming to fauna for some time (since it's beginings) and i like this site... it has becoome my reptile "home"
anyways that is all i have to say i am sure it will fall on deaf ears.. i do not expect a reply or want to hear excuses or whatever these are just my thoughts and opinions

Robin, just because someone listens to what you say and evaluates your opinions without coming to the same conclusions as you do, does not mean it falls on deaf ears. What it means is that someone else, presented the same facts, or maybe others you are not considering, has come to a different conclusion.

Oh, and as I posted in another thread, I am quite prepared for this site to go down the tubes if the alternative is that I work myself to death for free to keep it alive. That is no longer an option.