IslandLizards
New member
When you use the section you are using, sometimes its not 100% up to date. Check you csf and see if that network is actually added in there.
-
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.
Lots of guests today...
- Thread starter WebSlave
- Start date
When you use the section you are using, sometimes its not 100% up to date. Check you csf and see if that network is actually added in there.
Well, this poses a question. Once I run this on my server, how long will it actually be up to date? Seems like ownership of blocks of IP addresses will change quite a bit over time. But I've never looked into how allocations are actually handled at the ISP level.
Personally, when blocking IP addresses, individually and by blocks, I would periodically wipe the slate clean every year or so and start anew. If I check IP addresses on someone who has registered here many moons ago, generally the location pointed to is rarely where their stated location is. Which makes trying to match someone with someone else pretty dicey, at best.
In any event, I just got another spammer get through with a Russian IP address.
I guess I'll just have to see how much the total number of spammers registering every day works out to be after implementing this change. If it reduces the total number quite a bit, and server loading is minimal, it will be worthwhile. But do I have to somehow refresh the IPs within csf every now and again?
Well, this just does not seem to have worked as well as I had hoped. Got 8 new spammer registrations earlier today:
I'm running this by my server guys to see if perhaps I just didn't set this up correctly.
I'm running this by my server guys to see if perhaps I just didn't set this up correctly.
Well, I let this run for a few days, and I'm still getting spammer registrations from the countries supposedly blocked. My server guys told me that this really wouldn't help much because IPV4 IP addresses change hands quite often, even between countries. So although the list gets refreshed every time csf is restarted, it will likely block IPs from countries I really don't want blocked, and will allow spammers with IPs even recognized as being from the blocked countries.
So this seemed like a real good idea to try, but unfortunately it just doesn't appear to work as well as I had hoped it would. I don't believe that the number of spammers I have to block at registration really changed any. And, of course, any using a VPN could easily sidestep this anyway.
And it might have just been my imagination, but it seemed that every now and again that my own accessing my sites would sometimes just hang up with a delay in allowing me onto the sites or make a post.
So all things considered, I disabled this function.
It was worth a shot, however.
So this seemed like a real good idea to try, but unfortunately it just doesn't appear to work as well as I had hoped it would. I don't believe that the number of spammers I have to block at registration really changed any. And, of course, any using a VPN could easily sidestep this anyway.
And it might have just been my imagination, but it seemed that every now and again that my own accessing my sites would sometimes just hang up with a delay in allowing me onto the sites or make a post.
So all things considered, I disabled this function.
It was worth a shot, however.