• 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.

Bogus PayPal claims

WebSlave

WebSlave

Maybe seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.
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So today I get another member claiming with PayPal that I have made an unauthorized charge to their PayPal account. Apparently some people forget that they set up an automated subscription payment plan with PayPal when they set up a paid membership or sponsorship within this site. Rather than contact me about it, they go ahead and file a claim with PayPal. Or perhaps it is just being done maliciously by someone who got a bug up their butt about this site over something.

But in any event, I'm tired of having to take my time to try to resolve someone else's mistake or rebut their malicious claim.

I'm not sure whether this puts black marks on my name with PayPal, but I am going to assume that it could be. Being the fair guy that I am, I guess it is fair play that I return the favor and post a BAD GUY thread about people engaging in this practice in the Board Of Inquiry. Oh, I will try to contact the "offender" first to see if this can be resolved reasonably, but if the past is going to be any guide, most won't have the balls to even reply to me. In which case, I feel that they fully deserve to be exposed for their attempts to defraud and libel me with their bogus claim to PayPal.
 
WebSlave said:
Apparently some people forget that they set up an automated subscription payment plan with PayPal when they set up a paid membership or sponsorship within this site...

...malicious claim.

...I guess it is fair play that I return the favor and post a BAD GUY thread about people engaging in this practice in the Board Of Inquiry.
Click to expand...
Never underestimate the degree to which a startling amount of people are absolutely flummoxed and mystified by the 'magic internet box' that they have sitting at their computer desk. Without knowing any details, it's entirely likely that the PP dispute is simply a product of total ignorance; while their subsequent silence is a product of the shame that should be felt when said ignorance is exposed. Frankly, I'm amazed that some people can even manage to turn their PC on. Of course, malice is just as likely. Being a firm believer in the idea that stupidity should be punished, I probably wouldn't argue against a BOI thread for the former as well as the latter. Some people just need the sense forcibly knocked into them.
 
If someone makes a mistake, all they need to do is to contact me directly. I'll take care of it. I CAN'T take money from anyone's PayPal account. The buyer HAS to set that up for automated subscriptions to take place. It's not like having someone's credit card info and just running a card without authorization. :rolleyes:

So when someone accuses me of an illegal act, yeah, it's not going to sit very well with me.

And PayPal is absolutely useless. Every time I contact them via email about this issue, they just send me a canned message. Just like when you start the "resolution" process where they say to continue on to the next page to provide more information to "Resolve claim now" for them so that they can investigate the claim, and your only choices are:

  1. Provide Shipping Information.
  2. I have not shipped the item and I will refund the payment.
  3. I have refunded the payment for this transaction.

Of course I can't provide a tracking number, since there is no such thing in this case, so the next options pretty much say I HAVE to admit guilt of an unauthorized transaction. Not going to happen. I'm not the bad guy in this.
 
Not that you have to nanny people, you don't, but how costly would it be to set up an automated reminder to people that the Paypal debit they arranged and agreed to is coming up? Like the reminder you send that our annual subscriptions are about to expire?
You might weigh the headaches of setting up such a system against the headaches of coping with these people that make the claims of unauthorized charge, and see which gives you less pain.
 
I suspect that some of the people don't even know that they are setting up a recurring subscription. When looking at the subsription page, the Contributing level membership is the second option listed....when clicking on price, one is presented two options: 1 yr $25 and 1 yr* $25. (attachment 1)
There is no obvious notation that the 1 yr* is a recurring subscription, unless/until one scrolls past the next 70 (or so) options; where, at the bottom of the page, it states: Validity periods marked * indicate that purchasing this subscription is recurring, this means after the period is complete it will automatically be renewed. (attachment 2) Relatively few people read the large bold print when it is put someplace obvious...I'd bet that hardly anybody scrolls past all the forum sponsorships to see that message.

It might be helpful to move that statement up to the top of the page, or to insert a step requiring them to agree to the recurrent subscription.

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Sorry, but I have no intention to make the effort of rubber baby buggy bumpering this site for people. Nor do I have any desire to try to reduce every function on this site to an extremely low common denominator. This is how vBulletin's developers wrote the code, and I presume they made allowances for some level of low common denominator in their design.

If someone doesn't understand something, ask. If there is a problem, ask.

But to automatically accuse me of illegal behavior? Seriously? Like I'm going to intentionally STEAL someone's money from them? I don't think they make an intellectual common denominator THAT low.
 
hhmoore said:
I suspect that some of the people don't even know that they are setting up a recurring subscription. When looking at the subsription page, the Contributing level membership is the second option listed....when clicking on price, one is presented two options: 1 yr $25 and 1 yr* $25. (attachment 1)
There is no obvious notation that the 1 yr* is a recurring subscription, unless/until one scrolls past the next 70 (or so) options; where, at the bottom of the page, it states: Validity periods marked * indicate that purchasing this subscription is recurring, this means after the period is complete it will automatically be renewed. (attachment 2) Relatively few people read the large bold print when it is put someplace obvious...I'd bet that hardly anybody scrolls past all the forum sponsorships to see that message.

It might be helpful to move that statement up to the top of the page, or to insert a step requiring them to agree to the recurrent subscription.

(images below enlarged for ease of viewing)
Click to expand...


Point taken.....

As such, I have removed ALL instances of recurring payments for all sponsorships and paid memberships. I had several people ask for this to take the burden off of them having to remember to renew, especially in the forums that have been typically sold out and they would run the risk of losing their slot merely by an oversight on their part. I guess they are just going to have to deal with it.

Of course, this does nothing about those people with currently existing automated subscriptions. But maybe PayPal has a way to globally delete ALL incoming subscriptions so I can just can all of them with one fell swoop.

Sorry, I think I've just had my fill of people lately............. :bandhead0
 
Webslave said:
rubber baby buggy bumpering
Click to expand...

This isn't exactly rocket surgery. Just a minimal amount of effort and attention to detail is all that's really required to understand and successfully navigate through the various options. As much as I generally agree with trying to make things as painless as possible; you gotta draw a line somewhere.

Maybe I'm just particularly intolerant at the moment, but I'm pretty well fed-up with those who clearly just don't care enough to try. My own frustrations come from a very small handful of people with whom I've associated (until very recently); I can't even begin to imagine how you deal with the near-constant barrage of idiocy that you must have to contend with in the running of a site that has thousands of members. There were times when I've taken exception to how you've chosen to handle some things...but right now, I get it.
 
I can understand your frustration, Rich - it doesn't matter how simple you try to make things, it's never simple enough. I don't remember when I finally figured out that the asterisk was for auto-renewal...but I know that the first couple of times I subscribed I clicked back and forth on the two options trying to figure out what the difference was. I don't think I figured it out until I was looking into a question somebody asked about their subscription renewal. That's why I suggested moving the explanation to the top, rather than the bottom.

Maybe I'm just particularly intolerant at the moment
Click to expand...
I've had a lot of that, recently, myself.
 
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