• 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.

Notice about earthlink and other ISPs who have spam blockers

WebSlave

I believe I have made it safely ashore.
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I get quite a few emails like this:
I apologize for this automatic reply to your email.


To control spam, I now allow incoming messages only from senders I have approved beforehand.


If you would like to be added to my list of approved senders, please fill out the short request form (see link below). Once I approve you, I will receive your original message in my inbox. You do not need to resend your message. I apologize for this one-time inconvenience.


Click the link below to fill out the request:

Just for the record, I do NOT click on the provided link to approve my email address to your ISP. I just do not have the time to go through that stuff everytime I get a bouncback email. Therefore your activation email when you registered here, nor any subsequent emails are likely to get through to you. It is up to YOU to make sure that the email address of messages from this site ([email protected]) is preapproved and able to pass through your spam blocker software. Your emailing me about problems will be fruitless because any reply I may make will be BLOCKED as well.

If this affects YOU, then YOU have to take steps to correct the problem.
 
BTW, some ISP's are down right terrible concerning blocking legitimate emails. Yahoo is one of the worst, and it was quite interesting when I was looking at contacting a software vendor and saw this notice they made:

Yahoo! mail not supported 01 Jan, 2012
Unfortunately, we can not support Yahoo! mail anymore. Their services keep blocking our e-mails (including support) despites their confirmation to allow it.
It's highly recommended to switch from Yahoo! mail to a normal and stable e-mail provider, like Gmail.
You can thank us later :)

I don't know how many times I strongly considered doing the same thing. :yesnod:
 
Anything linked to Microsoft has been bad lately too (@hotmail, @msn). We run our own email servers for our clientele and have to change the ip address at least every other month because Microsoft is always blocking our servers even though we know each and every last client and none are doing anything they shouldn't be.
 
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