• Posted 12/19/2024.
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    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.

Are you going to miss bananas?

There are much nicer banana varieties out there than the one most common in stores, and they are more disease resistant.
We have at least 3 here that I think are MUCH better than the standard banana. You haven't eaten a banana until you've had "Ladyfingers".
So don't despair - experiment!

https://homeguides.sfgate.com/lady-finger-banana-trees-44621.html
 
Connie and I have tried several times to grow bananas here, but have never been successful at it. They do great the first year, but never seem to recover from the Winter months when it kills them back.

Maybe with global warming, before we die we will be able to grow more of the really tropical stuff. I would love to grow coconut palms! Once when we were in Sanibel, we found some coconuts laying on the ground that were already sprouting plants from them. We brought a few back home, and tried to grow them, but it only took temps in the mid 30s to kill them. They don't like cold even a little bit.

But it isn't necessarily only the tropical stuff that I can't seem to grow. Watermelons have slapped me around every time I try to grow them. And I thought they would be easy. Plants do well, vines well leafed out, flowers look good, and small melons will form. I water them about once a week, give them fertilizer, and set up "bunny blasters" to keep the deer from grazing on them. Invariably, the melons will either split open on their own, or get a black spot on them that just spreads and destroys the melon. I have tried MANY different varieties, all with the same results. :bandhead0
 
Helenthereef said:
There are much nicer banana varieties out there than the one most common in stores, and they are more disease resistant.
We have at least 3 here that I think are MUCH better than the standard banana. You haven't eaten a banana until you've had "Ladyfingers".
So don't despair - experiment!

https://homeguides.sfgate.com/lady-finger-banana-trees-44621.html
Click to expand...

There are many different varieties of bananas out there but from what I understand very few are suitable for mass distribution like the Cavendish has been. They either don't grow in large enough quantities or they don't habdle the stresses of shipping as well (they ripen too quickly or they bruise easily among other things.) Perhaps its partly because since the Cavendish has been so successful no one has really tried any other ones. I'm too young (barely) to remember the Big Mikes which were the banana variety of the day until the mid 60's when they were pretty much wiped out by the same disease that is now threatening the cavendish. Supposedly it was much sweeter than what we are now accustomed to.

I just read that there are still Big Mikes being grown on small plots that have so far been disease resistant and that hybrid varieties of the Big Mike and Cavendish. You can order a 3-5 pound box of the Big Mikes for $67.00 from the Miami Fruit Company. I'll stick with my 49 cents a pound Kwik Trip bananas for now.

Some of the less common varieties are available in stores that specialize in such things but if the disease does eventually cause the Cavendish to go the way of the Big Mike we've probably seen the end of widely available cheap bananas
 
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