Ophis
New member
Ophis said:
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Responding to email notices you receive.
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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.
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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....
Is this site selling Accepted Certification of Good Guy Staus????
- Thread starter Glenn Bartley
- Start date
I don't care for long posts, so here we go.
Being a "cert good guy" here lets thousands of people know about your business. If you are in business to make money, this is going to be an extremely good deal. Period. Any decent dealer will see that. And all you have to do to get it is not have a reputation for being dishonest or incompetent.
If you are just a hobbyist (like me), you benefit for FREE.
At this point in time, this is a great deal, and Fauna is still a true "forum" of members, not a big business that completely controls the content on the site. If Fauna becomes the latter, I will just go somewhere else, never having spent a penny!
IMO, anyone who would make a big deal about 25 a year to participate is probably someone who would be a pain in the a$$ to do business with anyway.
Being a "cert good guy" here lets thousands of people know about your business. If you are in business to make money, this is going to be an extremely good deal. Period. Any decent dealer will see that. And all you have to do to get it is not have a reputation for being dishonest or incompetent.
If you are just a hobbyist (like me), you benefit for FREE.
At this point in time, this is a great deal, and Fauna is still a true "forum" of members, not a big business that completely controls the content on the site. If Fauna becomes the latter, I will just go somewhere else, never having spent a penny!
IMO, anyone who would make a big deal about 25 a year to participate is probably someone who would be a pain in the a$$ to do business with anyway.
Rob Hill/Geckos Anonymous
Resident Pollmeister
Wow!!!
I haven't been a regular on this site in a very long time, and all of the changes when I just happened to bop over here today astound me. I happened to see a post regarding an inquiry on someone I have done business with a number of times and clicked reply so I could post my experiences. Imagine my surprise when I found out that I couldn't post an experience to the BOI with someone I have done business with because I haven't paid a $10 membership fee. And THEN, I saw the thing about the Certified Good Guy program, and it confused me a little.
While I am not really trying to jump into the poofest that seems to be going on between Rich and Glenn, I have to say that being able to pay $25 to get yourself into a program where you can be named a "Good Guy" really threw me off. Sure seemed to me at first glance that you could pay for recognition as a good guy regardless(I know it is NOT the case, but at first glance, it comes off that way). That, coupled with the fact that now you have to pay to participate in a large hunk of the forums here have really kind of turned me off.
In a way, I can understand Rich wanting to implement some kind of way to keep the members more policed and from adding tons of alias names to post under, but at the same time, there are those of us who have been members on this site for years that may not post that often anymore, but have never changed names or posted under aliases, etc. I guess the bad apples really do spoil the bunch.
Anyway, I think the site looks great, but to post good guy or bad guy posts, I don't think it's a privelege worth paying $10 for. And while I know now the intentions of the Certified Good Guy program and how it actually works, I don't see a problem with it, it's those first impressions of seeing something like that that could throw alot of people off and maybe get people seeing things like Glenn is trying to point out.
I haven't been a regular on this site in a very long time, and all of the changes when I just happened to bop over here today astound me. I happened to see a post regarding an inquiry on someone I have done business with a number of times and clicked reply so I could post my experiences. Imagine my surprise when I found out that I couldn't post an experience to the BOI with someone I have done business with because I haven't paid a $10 membership fee. And THEN, I saw the thing about the Certified Good Guy program, and it confused me a little.
While I am not really trying to jump into the poofest that seems to be going on between Rich and Glenn, I have to say that being able to pay $25 to get yourself into a program where you can be named a "Good Guy" really threw me off. Sure seemed to me at first glance that you could pay for recognition as a good guy regardless(I know it is NOT the case, but at first glance, it comes off that way). That, coupled with the fact that now you have to pay to participate in a large hunk of the forums here have really kind of turned me off.
In a way, I can understand Rich wanting to implement some kind of way to keep the members more policed and from adding tons of alias names to post under, but at the same time, there are those of us who have been members on this site for years that may not post that often anymore, but have never changed names or posted under aliases, etc. I guess the bad apples really do spoil the bunch.
Anyway, I think the site looks great, but to post good guy or bad guy posts, I don't think it's a privelege worth paying $10 for. And while I know now the intentions of the Certified Good Guy program and how it actually works, I don't see a problem with it, it's those first impressions of seeing something like that that could throw alot of people off and maybe get people seeing things like Glenn is trying to point out.
"Large hunk" of forums, Rob? Tell you what, please count up all of the forums you CAN post in and then count up all that you can't and give me a percentage. Let's see just how large that "hunk" is.
And yes, that is EXACTLY how I feel about it, concerning your quote about the bad apples. I have heard people say time and time again that the BOI was a joke, or worthless, or other similar deriding descriptors. And why was that? What was it about the BOI that would prompt some people to feel that way? And while thinking along those lines, what would be needed to turn that around? THAT is what I am doing. It is unfortunate that some people have taken this as a personal afront, but I am doing this as best I can. This was certainly a tough decision to make, and I was fully aware of the possible repercussions while considering it, but unfortunately, the choices boiled down to either allowing the BOI to continue on as a more tightly controlled version of the HELL forum, or take the steps necessary to get the credibility needed to pull the BOI up at of what it was spiraling downwards into.
Tell you what I am going to do. I am going to reopen the HELL forum to posting by just regular members and remove the restriction on posting ONLY via paid membership members. Let's watch what happens, shall we?
Oh, and as for the Certification Program I have started, perhaps it is somewhat misleading at first glance, but I have always tried to target my audience as being capable of reading comprehension skills and willing to actually read what this is all about, rather then jumping to conclusions first. Anyone taking the time out to read how it works will quickly see all the reasons for how it was set up like it is and likely understand the potential that it represents for this industry.
And yes, that is EXACTLY how I feel about it, concerning your quote about the bad apples. I have heard people say time and time again that the BOI was a joke, or worthless, or other similar deriding descriptors. And why was that? What was it about the BOI that would prompt some people to feel that way? And while thinking along those lines, what would be needed to turn that around? THAT is what I am doing. It is unfortunate that some people have taken this as a personal afront, but I am doing this as best I can. This was certainly a tough decision to make, and I was fully aware of the possible repercussions while considering it, but unfortunately, the choices boiled down to either allowing the BOI to continue on as a more tightly controlled version of the HELL forum, or take the steps necessary to get the credibility needed to pull the BOI up at of what it was spiraling downwards into.
Tell you what I am going to do. I am going to reopen the HELL forum to posting by just regular members and remove the restriction on posting ONLY via paid membership members. Let's watch what happens, shall we?
Oh, and as for the Certification Program I have started, perhaps it is somewhat misleading at first glance, but I have always tried to target my audience as being capable of reading comprehension skills and willing to actually read what this is all about, rather then jumping to conclusions first. Anyone taking the time out to read how it works will quickly see all the reasons for how it was set up like it is and likely understand the potential that it represents for this industry.
Rob Hill/Geckos Anonymous
Resident Pollmeister
Well, I guess "large hunk" was bad wording, since I had forgotten you have so many mammal, bird, fish, and plant forums as well(and now a DATING forum, oh my). However, I will say that many of the forums that I WOULD post in are now not available without a fee(BOI, Consumer Reports, Classifieds[though a fee for classifieds is not outrageous, afterall, kingsnake does it, why not you?]). So my apologies for bad word usage, Rich.
And as far as reading the info on the Good Guy program, come on Rich, no offense intended, but you should know better by now that many people are not reading very far into those posts about rules and updates(after all, isn't that why you are now charging and trying to keep up "credibility"). And like I said, AT FIRST GLANCE, yes, it did throw me off. However, you know as well as I do that not everyone is going to go deeper into it than that. Someone coming here for the first time or for the first time in a while might see that and get taken aback. They might think, "wait, if someone can buy good guy status, then what use is this BOI anyway?" Don't get me wrong, I realise that is not the case, but it sure comes off that way at a quick glance. And alot of times in the internet world, that quick glance is all you're gonna get.
As for the Hell forum, I kinda thought the idea of it at the beginning was that any registered idiot could get on there and people could flame each other all they want, just so long as it stayed in Hell and didn't flow back over into other forums. But hey, sometimes I don't understand too well.
Anyway, I'm just expressing my surprise at some of the changes, sorry to bother you with it.
And as far as reading the info on the Good Guy program, come on Rich, no offense intended, but you should know better by now that many people are not reading very far into those posts about rules and updates(after all, isn't that why you are now charging and trying to keep up "credibility"). And like I said, AT FIRST GLANCE, yes, it did throw me off. However, you know as well as I do that not everyone is going to go deeper into it than that. Someone coming here for the first time or for the first time in a while might see that and get taken aback. They might think, "wait, if someone can buy good guy status, then what use is this BOI anyway?" Don't get me wrong, I realise that is not the case, but it sure comes off that way at a quick glance. And alot of times in the internet world, that quick glance is all you're gonna get.
As for the Hell forum, I kinda thought the idea of it at the beginning was that any registered idiot could get on there and people could flame each other all they want, just so long as it stayed in Hell and didn't flow back over into other forums. But hey, sometimes I don't understand too well.
Anyway, I'm just expressing my surprise at some of the changes, sorry to bother you with it.
Rob Hill/Geckos Anonymous said:
Well I will simply take the defense that this site is not for the person who will simply fly in, take a quick glance, jump to ill conceived wrong impressions, and then leave. This site is for the people interested in the long haul for our industry. Those are the kind of people I want to stick around here. The people who will take the time to learn the value of what is being offered. instead of designing with the lowest common denominator in mind, I prefer to shoot a bit higher. I may not hit as many targets, but I think the shots will count a whole lot more.
Rob Hill/Geckos Anonymous said:
Yes, that is exactly what the HELL forum was set up for. But people got smart about the level of crap needed to be dumped into HELL and tried to keep just under the threshhold. The original reason I closed HELL to all but paid members was because I feared it would become the BOI in the raw. But heck, let's see what happens now that I have re-opened it. Maybe I was wrong......
dallas spergin
New member
imo i think scammers dont even like to pay a penny, if they had access to the same stuff payed members do their might be alot more ppl getting scammed due to high good guy ratings or the title of good guy.
i dont have a payed membership yet but wouldent mind paying the bill if it helped me out in sales or helped me in a scam situation.
i dont have a payed membership yet but wouldent mind paying the bill if it helped me out in sales or helped me in a scam situation.