• 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

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    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....

BOI Button on User Posts

Here's the other reason why I suggested an automatic search button for the name in the profile rather then what DAND suggested...

How crappy would it be if someone posted a false Bad Guy thread about you and it was plastered all over every post you made on the forum? Pretty crappy, I think. Actually, I know I'd be down right POed about it.

The button I'm suggesting utilizes the existing search function on the forum. No opening of tabs, no specific thread...It runs a search (specific to the BOI) on the posters profile name (which is supposed to be real to post on the BOI or the Classifieds) and provides the results. Nothing shows up, post an Inquiry.
 
Here's the other reason why I suggested an automatic search button for the name in the profile rather then what DAND suggested...

How crappy would it be if someone posted a false Bad Guy thread about you and it was plastered all over every post you made on the forum? Pretty crappy, I think. Actually, I know I'd be down right POed about it.

I can see your point but that's why I said it would be better yet if they were clickable. Showing up on every post or on a search of your name it would be there nonetheless. I'd think that knowing it would be viewable by all may just keep some people in check. If not I see it lessening the number of people being taking by those who actually do have bad reps which is a goal I'm sure we are both looking to have happen.
 
I agree 100%, David. The end goal is to prevents rip offs and discourage the unsavory from using Fauna's classifieds.

Problem is...People are dumb. Some won't know that they're clickable...Some won't bother to click even if they know it's clickable...Same could be said for my suggested BOI thread search, but at least posters won't have false BOI threads plastered on their posts.

I have a bad guy thread from 2004ish that someone posted in retaliation to my bad guy thread about them. How fair would it be that it be plastered on every post I make? :ack2: It could tarnish my reputation and prevent sales.
 
I agree 100%, David. The end goal is to prevents rip offs and discourage the unsavory from using Fauna's classifieds.

Problem is...People are dumb. Some won't know that they're clickable...Some won't bother to click even if they know it's clickable...Same could be said for my suggested BOI thread search, but at least posters won't have false BOI threads plastered on their posts.

I have a bad guy thread from 2004ish that someone posted in retaliation to my bad guy thread about them. How fair would it be that it be plastered on every post I make? :ack2: It could tarnish my reputation and prevent sales.

Fair or not (that is life isn't it?) it is there and I believe that being up front and honest is the way to do things. (I am in no way implying that you would attempt to deceive anyone or are dishonest) On the other hand it is not fair that someone who has half a dozen bad guy threads gets the sale because they are selling the exact same animal as you are but for $5.00 dollars cheaper.
 
There IS occasionally some unfortunate fallout from the posting of BOI links in the classifieds; especially when things might not be quite as they are painted to appear, when doing so impacts a party that wasn't involved in the situation, when it is done spitefully, or to the point of harassment. It is difficult to address those situations without judging the merit of the claims, though; and we can't really allow some people to do it while restricting others.
I see both positive and negative aspects to a BOI button, but it sounds like a reasonable idea if it can be accomplished easily and be reasonably effective.

What of the cases in which a full name isn't utilized in the title of the thread? or even in the body? Many threads are posted under a business name, screen name, or partial name (for example, I think I have threads under KBI Herpetoculture, and hhmoore)...would those be picked up?
 
What of the cases in which a full name isn't utilized in the title of the thread? or even in the body? Many threads are posted under a business name, screen name, or partial name (for example, I think I have threads under KBI Herpetoculture, and hhmoore)...would those be picked up?

Well, per the rules, they're supposed to put the name in the title, but the button could search for username at the same time. For it to search for a business name their would have to be a field added to the profile for that.
 
There IS occasionally some unfortunate fallout from the posting of BOI links in the classifieds; especially when things might not be quite as they are painted to appear, when doing so impacts a party that wasn't involved in the situation, when it is done spitefully, or to the point of harassment. It is difficult to address those situations without judging the merit of the claims, though; and we can't really allow some people to do it while restricting others.
I see both positive and negative aspects to a BOI button, but it sounds like a reasonable idea if it can be accomplished easily and be reasonably effective.

What of the cases in which a full name isn't utilized in the title of the thread? or even in the body? Many threads are posted under a business name, screen name, or partial name (for example, I think I have threads under KBI Herpetoculture, and hhmoore)...would those be picked up?



Above all else I think that's where the biggest problem would be. There's at least 3 names per user id that would have to be searched.

However...this can be circumvented by requiring new users and current users to fill in kind of like a City, State, Us type of thing but instead displaying their full name and business name.
 
The more complicated and more burdensome this becomes on the server and/or the members, the less likely it is that it will be implemented.

Having a search button perform multiple searches on real name, user name and business name would not be practical. It doesn't sound like much for a single operation, but when you may have dozens of even hundreds of people clicking on that button at the same time, performance will definitely suffer. Everything the server is asked to do will impact throughput, which EVERYONE will feel. During the last server upgrade I did get a quite powerful system, but there will always be limits to hardware capabilities. This site is not pulling in the kind of money where I have unlimited funds to throw at hardware to try to fix problems that ambitious bells and whistle add-ons may cause. There are actually several load intensive operations I have enabled (similar threads being one of them) that I may have to disable in the future if loading becomes a severe issue. Searches are ALWAYS very server intensive operations. So I do need to be circumspect about anything I want to implement that could add to a loading problem and wind up pissing everyone off because then the site becomes too sluggish for them. There have been LOTS of things in the past that I wanted to implement that my programmer basically slapped me around telling me that it would KILL the server.

As for making additional requirements for posting on the BOI or adding another profile field that will be required, bear in mind that REQUIREMENTS mean someone has to enforce those requirements. Personally I believe this site is quite "requirement heavy" as it is. While I believe that because of the nature of the beast, certain things need to be requirements, I need to be careful that the site doesn't become oppressive and burdensome to the point that people just say to hell with all the requirements and just leave.
 
Rich, that is one of my concerns and is why I suggested only searching by the name listed in the profile. Bogging down the server with scripts is definitely a concern. My suggestion is far from a perfect solution, but I think it would be a step in the right direction.
 
Rich, that is one of my concerns and is why I suggested only searching by the name listed in the profile. Bogging down the server with scripts is definitely a concern. My suggestion is far from a perfect solution, but I think it would be a step in the right direction.


I like Stephanie's idea.... is it possible to just have it run your name as listed in the profile..... If we post on the BOI or classifieds... that name is supposed to be accurate and thus should be easy enough to search for.
 
We can't negg anymore so karma isn't as accurate, not that it always was anyway..

And trader rating are the forgotten step child here, lol.
 
We can't negg anymore so karma isn't as accurate, not that it always was anyway..

And trader rating are the forgotten step child here, lol.

Yeah.... another "bells and whistles" mod that is not really used enough to justify the effort implementing it. This sort of thing is exactly why I am reluctant to immediately jump to add-on requests, no matter how good they sound on paper.
 
Yeah.... another "bells and whistles" mod that is not really used enough to justify the effort implementing it. This sort of thing is exactly why I am reluctant to immediately jump to add-on requests, no matter how good they sound on paper.

Yet people keep asking you to implement a system that's just like it :rolleyes:

(not referring to the BOI button, which I've wished for myself)
 
I briefly read over this and its late. but maybe this doesnt have to be that hard.
One of the mods stated that it would be to much extra work to put everyones b.o.i. post with the name. I dont think all that really needs to be done. Why not some kinda link in the classified section, to send people to the b.o.i.. All were trying to do it alert new buyers of the b.o.i. So they dont end up buying from a bad seller.
 
That could be done...but people would still ignore it.
There are announcements regarding the full name and valid location policy in every section of the classifieds, and a surprising number of notices are sent out because people never look at them. There is also one about the Classifieds Control Panel, but only a fraction of the users realize they can manage their ads.

I'm amazed how how narrow some peoples' focus is...people that come to the site for the BOI, and have no idea there are discussion forums; people that use the classifieds, but have never heard of the BOI, etc.

I think it would be great to provide some easy method of accessing it...I'm just not confident it would be effective.
 
I'm confused.... If a BOI button would basically just use the existing search function, searching for a person's name, username, or business name would bring up any thread where their name, username, or business name is mentioned somewhere in the thread. It isn't limited to searching thread titles. So...why are thread titles an issue....? Did I miss something (entirely possible!)?
 
The concern was if the name that is listed in the profile isn't in the BOI thread. If say, only the username was listed.

Having it search for three different things (name + username + business name) would put stress on the server...That's why only one would be preferable (my vote is name).
 
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