• 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.....

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    Addendum: 01/10/2026
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    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....

Inquiry David Zeitz aka Chelonia Guy

C

chairman

Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2010
Messages
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Location
Oxford, MS, USA
An individual with user name Chelonia Guy, real name David Zeitz, responded to an ad I have in the Turtles/Tortoises classifieds. The user asked for communication to move to email, specifically [email protected]. I know this is a typical scam approach. Public records do indicate that there is a David Zeitz in Malabar, FL. There are a lot of DCReptiles, though none seem to match up with this user. The account is also odd since the account has been around since 2015 but they're a 'new member.'

Has anyone done business with this user?
 
chairman said:
The account is also odd since the account has been around since 2015 but they're a 'new member.'
Click to expand...
I would suspect that the forum software calculates this based on post count.

A little Googling suggests that the email address you mentioned is one that I personally would dump, given the risk of confusion with someone else using a name like that. Just an observation.

You can confirm the identity of an inquirer once you've gotten to the point of shipping details. If the name and location doesn't match what you expect, then you can back out at that point.

You don't have any obligation to use any method of communication other than the PM system here, keep in mind. Personally, if I say PM and someone doesn't PM, I'm not likely to be especially charitable. Folks who don't follow simple instructions don't usually follow more important instructions either, and that can sometimes turn into a problem.
 
Dave is a real person that been breeding tortoises for a very long time. Longer than 95% of the hobby.

Using email instead of this clunky messaging system is 100% not a red flag. Post count is what determines the title a user is given. Many, many users on this site have join dates in excess of 5 years but only have a few posts. If you just use the classifieds, and delete your adds after animals are sold, you will have a post count you can count on two hands, regardless of your join date.
 
Thanks for the reply Eric.

Posting your email address or phone number might not be a red flag but it is a very common way for scammers to operate or for scammers to locate targets. It was probably more dangerous for Dave to post his email than for me to respond to it.

I'm not looking to disparage Dave if he is a good guy but I'm also not looking to have to deal with a cashier's check for the wrong amount and shipping agent middle men nonsense.
 
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