• 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

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    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....

Notice: Deleting classified ads

WebSlave

WebSlave

It is what it is, but certainly not what it was.
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I get about a half dozen or more emails a day about this.

I have disabled the capability for anyone to delete ads in the classifieds section of this site. I felt it was best for ads to remain visible for a reasonable length of time, even after the item is sold or has otherwise ended. As such, ads will automatically be deleted 6 months after they have either been closed, or sold. Otherwise they are there for the entire duration.
 
Heck that was posted over 14 years ago. Lots of things have changed since then around here.

I believe I might have even been using a different message board system back then, because as far as I can recall, vBulletin doesn't have the capability to automatically delete anything based on age. Especially limited to targeted forums. But heck, I've been wrong before.... :shrug01: Had it happen at least once just last year. :D
 
WebSlave said:
Heck that was posted over 14 years ago. Lots of things have changed since then around here.

I believe I might have even been using a different message board system back then, because as far as I can recall, vBulletin doesn't have the capability to automatically delete anything based on age. Especially limited to targeted forums. But heck, I've been wrong before.... :shrug01: Had it happen at least once just last year. :D
Click to expand...

Two cron jobs can get it done.

1.
"Move all threads older than 180 days and the thread-prefix=SOLD from forum-id=xx to forum-id=yy"

2.
"Delete all threads in forum id=yy after 365 days"

Forum id=yy can be a new "archive" forum for all classified ads. Step 1 can also be skipped and the threads just removed.
 
Thanks, but one reason I have been reluctant to do any such thing is because it might be wise to retain even the old sale ads in case someone needs the info if their deal went sour on them. Honestly, I have often considered just eliminating the ability for anyone to edit and delete classified ads once posted, just for this very reason. And other times I feel like, man, should I really care either way? These are supposed to be adults here, so let them manage their own affairs however they feel prudent to do so.

So like anything else, there are always pros and cons tied to considering any such changes around here. And it is not at all unusual for me to think one way about it on even numbered days, yet feel the opposite on odd numbered days.

:shrug01:
 
Yeah its a fence that is sometimes hard to decide to climb over or not. I find that instead of deleting them, moving them to an archive forum works to clean up relevant sub forums yet still allow the user to go back if needed.
 
I’ve used quite old classifieds ads to find leads on breeders for specific species, even if their ads are already closed/sold. It would be nice to be able to edit and update them, but I like having an archive to look through for cool species
 
Yeah, an archive seems like a good idea, but honestly, unless the removal of old ads is freeing up space on the server, then I really don't see much sense in it.

That being said, when a member takes the time to delete their own ads, they are really only soft deleted, so they are recoverable. Except when the rare instances of ambition overwhelm me and I go through old ads that are soft deleted, and hard delete them myself. Which, I have to admit, is VERY rare.

Sometimes I think perhaps I should never have deleted any registered members, nor threads, or posts. Some people look at those figures and consider the statistics as a good measure of whether a site like this is worth registering with and participating within. For instance, the stats right now are:
Threads: 339,705, Posts: 1,508,169, Members: 145,617
Click to expand...

Had I not deleted any of those items, nor allowed members to delete their ads and subsequent posts in those ads the stats would be approximately:
Threads: 715,272, Posts: 2,186,725, Members: 199,203
Click to expand...

Like I said, usually I just never know if my decisions were the best choice or not. And looking back, I still don't know.

I try not to look at the statistics section of the admin area any more concerning daily, weekly, monthly, etc. statistics for such things. That can get depressing when I get to wondering what decisions I made in the past were REALLY unwise.
 
Please do not get rid of our ability to edit our ads once posted. It is one of the best features for classifieds on this site and saves me a lot of trouble. I often update ads with a new price, new pictures ect. Their are competing sites that do not allow editing, and I really hate using them.
 
How about disabling commenting on ads older than say, 1-2 years. I love this site, but when someone comments on a 10-14 year old ad for my favorite, or hard to find species, and it pops up to the first page again, I get all excited, only to be let down hard when I see how old the ad is. Disabling commenting (but still allowing direct messaging) would still let people search through old ads to find contacts, but would eliminate dredging up a decade old ad to the first page again.... Just a thought.

(I'd also like to see prices & location listed on the ad listing, rather than only in the body of the ad once you click on it, but there may be reasons for not doing that...)

Otherwise, love the site!!
 
How about disabling commenting on ads older than say, 1-2 years. I love this site, but when someone comments on a 10-14 year old ad for my favorite, or hard to find species, and it pops up to the first page again, I get all excited, only to be let down hard when I see how old the ad is. Disabling commenting (but still allowing direct messaging) would still let people search through old ads to find contacts, but would eliminate dredging up a decade old ad to the first page again.... Just a thought.

(I'd also like to see prices & location listed on the ad listing, rather than only in the body of the ad once you click on it, but there may be reasons for not doing that...)

Otherwise, love the site!!
 
Lamprophile said:
How about disabling commenting on ads older than say, 1-2 years. I love this site, but when someone comments on a 10-14 year old ad for my favorite, or hard to find species, and it pops up to the first page again, I get all excited, only to be let down hard when I see how old the ad is. Disabling commenting (but still allowing direct messaging) would still let people search through old ads to find contacts, but would eliminate dredging up a decade old ad to the first page again.... Just a thought.

(I'd also like to see prices & location listed on the ad listing, rather than only in the body of the ad once you click on it, but there may be reasons for not doing that...)

Otherwise, love the site!!
Click to expand...

Members are expected to pretty much manage their own classified ads. There is a reason why advertising is free here. People are expected to do ALL the work associated with their forum based advertising. If we had to manage all the ads for everyone, well, that "free" part of advertising here wouldn't last very long.

Of course, some functions can be custom programmed, but even that would be eating away at that "free" aspect you now see here.

Requests that will cost money in custom programming are looked at in a cost versus benefit to the majority of the users type of analysis. Quite frankly, there is also the issue of some requests being too complicated and/or too difficult to implement than the effort is worth expending on them. This site is, after all, a MESSAGE BOARD site, that has been already heavily modified from the stock version of vBulletin. So the design considerations of the original developers were more in that direction rather than some of the directions I have tried to take it. There are some real good reasons why this site still uses a very old version of vBulletin.

There really are some benefits to having old ads still viable here. The original author may still be in business, and each view or reply to such old ads are potential customers. It also alerts other people that there are people interested in such animals or merchandise, and they are certainly free to contact such interested parties privately as their own sales leads. Members replying to such ads will bring their interest to public notice, which may possibly be prime examples of what I am referring to above.

So some things that people do not like, others may like, for their own reasons. And as such, programming out the things that some people do not like, often prove to be disheartening to those people who appreciated that function being available, as needed.

As for displaying more info in the ad listing, I believe each author can do so, if they desire. But quite honestly, I believe most authors WANT viewers to take a closer look at their entire ad. The listing text really should be an enticement for a viewer to open the ad and step in to look closer at what is being offered. This also trips the counter for number of views their ad has had, and I'm pretty sure most advertisers really want to know how many people have taken a look at their ad. I know I would. It gives you valuable information about how effective your marketing efforts are panning out.

Anyway, hope the explanation helps. Sorry this site isn't perfect for everyone, but that is a goal that I long ago abandoned as being an end of a rainbow not worth pursuing.
 
I totally get it! Thanks for your explanation. Like I said, I do really like this site, so it wasn't meant as a criticism, more, a "wish list", LOL. But agreed, that different people's wish lists may conflict with each others. Thanks, and keep up the great work!
 
I've actually been using the fact that classifieds, unless deleted, can be a great timestamp, hunting tool and seeking out like-minded people. It's been very helpful on re-entering the hobby.
 
re: re: re:

Lamprophile said:
How about disabling commenting on ads older than say, 1-2 years. I love this site, but when someone comments on a 10-14 year old ad for my favorite, or hard to find species, and it pops up to the first page again, I get all excited, only to be let down hard when I see how old the ad is. Disabling commenting (but still allowing direct messaging) would still let people search through old ads to find contacts, but would eliminate dredging up a decade old ad to the first page again.... Just a thought.

(I'd also like to see prices & location listed on the ad listing, rather than only in the body of the ad once you click on it, but there may be reasons for not doing that...)

Otherwise, love the site!!
Click to expand...

How would you feel about disabling commenting on ads older than 1-2 years, while still allowing direct messaging? please let me know
 
This site may be going to a new platform in the future. So any custom mods to THIS older software at this point in time is just out of the question.
 
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