• 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
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    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....

5000 views and counting...

R

Robert Walker

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I love visiting Fauna each day, it helps make a spread out community feel closer, so thanks a ton!:yesnod:

One frustrating thing are classified ads that are bumped by their user everyday (for what feels like the past year or two). Everyday I am almost guaranteed to see the same 10 ball python classifieds bumped to the top. These ads are divided by two individuals that come to mind. I realize you are allowed to bump your own ad once a day, but for 300, 400, 500 days straight is too much.

What if ads expired after 60 days or so?
This "might" at least force the user to put in some work/thought to update text, correct items, fix prices, update pictures, drop the animals sold and refresh with the new.

I realize this is 98% the user taking advantage of the system and bumping themselves everyday. Perhaps a little tweak on expiration dates might help a little.

Just a thought. Again, I love Fauna and use it everyday, it just gets real old seeing the same bumped ads by 2-3 users, who's views now pass the 5000 mark, even more than the sticky note thread.

If you would like names of who I referring to, I am happy to PM them directly.
Thanks guys and gals!!:thumbsup:
 
This basic concept has been addressed numerous times. The reason that old ads are not set to automatic (or manual) deletion is that they still get picked up by the search engines - increasing traffic to the site. I realize that isn't exactly what you asked...but it's pretty much the same thing, except for the fact you want to put a term limit on the ads being bumped. Why should we dictate how a person chooses to advertise? If somebody is content to post the same ad over and over, why should we step in to stop them? Because people are tired of looking at the ads? That's kind of funny - check any advertising venue, and you will see the same repetition. Don't get me wrong - the point about tired ads is not really arguable; and, when I was shopping, I would always pass right by the ones I knew I'd seen before (unless I had a specific reason for looking again). Look at it this way - at least when the ads aren't being modified, you can easily recognize them and pass them by...if they freshened them up, you'd end up looking at them over and over again (and probably getting irritated that you are still seeing the same thing over and over again)
 
"Why should we dictate how a person chooses to advertise? If somebody is content to post the same ad over and over, why should we step in to stop them? Because people are tired of looking at the ads?"

Harrold, you are correct bumping has been addressed in the past, and I understand that ads generate traffic to Fauna. You are correct, I know which ads to avoid now as they feel like spam ads at this point. I think my main sentiments and suggestion simply revolved around the below sticky note quote from Rich:

"I believe potential buyers WANT to see new ads as often as possible, displaying new stuff for sale that they didn't see yesterday when they browsed through those classified sections. Chances are, that if they weren't inclined to buy what they saw yesterday, they really aren't going to be suddenly inclined to buy it today when they see it again. There is also the problem that having the same ads bumped over and over again, makes the site appear stagnant,"

I understand both sides of the coin, but since this is a feed back section, this is my 2 cents worth of feedback. Again, I love the site, so even though I offer my 2 cents worth for my own personal benefit, I also so offer it up for overall health and longevity of the site too. Thanks Harrold!:thumbsup: - Robert
 
You get worse at spelling my name every time you type it...I'm starting to think it's intentional.
hhmoore said:
Don't get me wrong - the point about tired ads is not really arguable
Click to expand...
It is, unfortunately, a problem that plagues every advertising venue - recurrent ads become mind numbing. I don't disagree - but, heck, I've dragged up a few old ads with bumps because I didn't feel like rewriting them, so I'm somewhat guilty (except those ads hadn't been bumped in quite a while).
Here's the other side of the problem, though:
- This site is largely driven by the classifieds
- This site is - for all practical purposes - FREE

Rich isn't opposed to bettering the site...but he is leery of changes that will be harmful to it; and screwing with the classifieds is dangerous territory. So what do we do about the problem? (Serious question)
Setting an expiration period won't do a whole lot, IMO - registered members are just as guilty of reposting their ads frequently as paid members are of bumping them; and there are more of them that are willing to do so at least daily. Reposted ads would be unaffected by an expiration period, because they are new every time (unlike bumps). If we disallow reposts within certain time frames, the moderation team has to police that. People will still get upset that their ads drop down to page 3 within 24 hrs, so they will look for ways to bypass the repost rule.
If the issue is unchanging ads - there are a fair number of ads that don't require any form of adjustment. Sure a title change might liven up the look of the section as one scrolls through; but, if the product is the same, is there really a reason to force that?
 
So sorry man, I am a notoriously bad speller. I know your name has a spelling twist to it and I apologize Harald... I'm laughing out load to myself for always screwing it up, it is not intentional, I just suck at spelling. If Rich added it to the spell check, I would get it right more often.:D

I understand both sides of the coin on the bumping. I'll just enjoy the site and do my best to ignore the bumped ads. Thanks
 
Don't give up so easily - I agree that the repetitious ads are frustrating; there just doesn't seem to be a "simple" solution. That doesn't mean the discussion has to end, just that more ideas need to get tossed around.
 
hhmoore said:
You get worse at spelling my name every time you type it...I'm starting to think it's intentional.
QUOTE]

Everyone is out to spell your name wrong! We do it on purpose, Harrolled. :reddevil:

I like posting ads. Posting ads and stuff is cool. That is all.
Click to expand...
 
You wouldn't think it was so funny if I hit you with negative karma for that, now would you...
 
I would still think it was every bit as funny. Take a joke Harald... You don't have to be so uptight all of the time. Just because you are a mod doesn't mean that you can't have a sense of humor.
 
Understand that this is one of those situations whereby ANYTHING I would do would most probably piss off a subset of the membership. As well as NOT doing something will be pissing off a different subset. In such cases, what I have discovered is that it is much easier on me to choose to do nothing if I am going to catch flak either way. At least I won't be going through additional work and and the expense of custom programming for the same amount of grief no matter what I do or do not do. Not to mention the TONS of emails from people who won't read any of the announcements about such a change and then want to know what they did wrong to be "punished" by the restriction on their privileges.

I am STILL getting a bunch of emails from people who want to know why they can't reply to classified ad threads....... :rolleyes:
 
I understand what Rich is saying, either which way you turn, someone is going to be upset.

I am at a disadvantage in offering up any other realistic solutions/ideas for a win-win then. I don't have any historical track record for memberships (adding or losing), I don't know the cost vs. benefit ratio for behind the scenes programming, nor do I know actual traffic patterns, etc. So basically I can only offer up "surface" type suggestions and give my own experiences.

I own my own business, so I completely get it. For all the "already thought of it or tried that" suggestions I get, every so often someone will sneak in a "winner" of an idea.

If something else comes to mind, besides the "expiration" idea, I will be sure to bring it up. I feel vested in the success of this site (that is how successful sites make users feel), so when I offer up ideas, I do so with the best of intentions and never to point fingers or cut people down.

Again, great site, and I will see if my little brain can think of a cost effective happy medium solution.:D
 
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