On my iPhone, this site is littered with pop up ads and ads everywhere. Makes it difficult to navigate. How do I stop or get rid of these?
Thanks
Thanks
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Posted 12/19/2024.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Pop up ads
- Thread starter Mark M
- Start date
Sorry, but I had to do what I had to do to keep this site afloat financially.
You can opt out of those ads by becoming at least a Contributor level member.
This link will help guide you through that process if you are interested in helping out the site -> https://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=124939
If not, well, sorry...
You can opt out of those ads by becoming at least a Contributor level member.
This link will help guide you through that process if you are interested in helping out the site -> https://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=124939
If not, well, sorry...
Okay. I understand
Just a FYI for everyone.
Back on 01-24-2023 I was thinking that perhaps those pop-up ads from Google Adsense and InfoLinks were being such a burden to viewers that they might be affecting things like participation, new memberships, etc. concerning viewers accessibility of the actual content of this site. In particular the classified ads, which seems to be 99 percent of the reason that most people come to this site. The discussion forums never really amounted to anything other than just a joke here and could probably be discontinued with no impact whatsoever. But that is a topic for another day.
So with that in mind, on the above mentioned date, I asked my programmer to disable all those ads for regular registered members and above. Leaving those ads only viewable by unregistered lurkers, and those members who had not logged into the site. Prior to that, the ads had been disabled only for all Contributing members and above. So I decided to take it one step further to see what sort of an effect that would have.
Well, unfortunately, I am not seeing any difference at all in the above mentioned concerns. Matter of fact, the ONLY change I am seeing is that the revenue generated by those sources has dropped dramatically. I mean REALLY dramatically! So my thoughts that unregistered/unlogged-in viewers were making up the bulk of page viewing on this site is apparently mistaken and that this would be a relatively painless experiment turned out to be completely false, as well as somewhat painful.
So with the above in mind, I have asked my programmer to roll back that change mentioned above. Yeah, I know some people won't like it, but this site just cannot continue operating on people's hopes and well wishes towards it. Bills need to be paid, and I sure would like to continue thinking that keeping this site running is worth the headaches to me. And I will be frank about it, I am not going to continue offering this site to you all if it means I eventually need to do it for free, or even worse, dig into my retirement savings to do so.
So that is the way it is. I tried to figure out a way to make the advertising as painless as possible, but evidently there is a point beyond which it can go too far and have the pain fall on my shoulders. So I have found that point and need to roll back from it.
Sorry, but as I said, this is just the way it is.
Back on 01-24-2023 I was thinking that perhaps those pop-up ads from Google Adsense and InfoLinks were being such a burden to viewers that they might be affecting things like participation, new memberships, etc. concerning viewers accessibility of the actual content of this site. In particular the classified ads, which seems to be 99 percent of the reason that most people come to this site. The discussion forums never really amounted to anything other than just a joke here and could probably be discontinued with no impact whatsoever. But that is a topic for another day.
So with that in mind, on the above mentioned date, I asked my programmer to disable all those ads for regular registered members and above. Leaving those ads only viewable by unregistered lurkers, and those members who had not logged into the site. Prior to that, the ads had been disabled only for all Contributing members and above. So I decided to take it one step further to see what sort of an effect that would have.
Well, unfortunately, I am not seeing any difference at all in the above mentioned concerns. Matter of fact, the ONLY change I am seeing is that the revenue generated by those sources has dropped dramatically. I mean REALLY dramatically! So my thoughts that unregistered/unlogged-in viewers were making up the bulk of page viewing on this site is apparently mistaken and that this would be a relatively painless experiment turned out to be completely false, as well as somewhat painful.
So with the above in mind, I have asked my programmer to roll back that change mentioned above. Yeah, I know some people won't like it, but this site just cannot continue operating on people's hopes and well wishes towards it. Bills need to be paid, and I sure would like to continue thinking that keeping this site running is worth the headaches to me. And I will be frank about it, I am not going to continue offering this site to you all if it means I eventually need to do it for free, or even worse, dig into my retirement savings to do so.
So that is the way it is. I tried to figure out a way to make the advertising as painless as possible, but evidently there is a point beyond which it can go too far and have the pain fall on my shoulders. So I have found that point and need to roll back from it.
Sorry, but as I said, this is just the way it is.
Socratic Monologue
Well-known member
It is cool that you gave it a try, Rich.
There seems to be two ways to finance a website like this one -- ads, or user subscriptions -- and you're offering users a choice between either one as they like. Hard to see how things could be better than that for us users.
There's another model on which there are no Google ads, and use is free for buyers but sellers pay a subscription fee from $22 to $125 per month. That's apparently a way to encourage commercial breeders and large scale flippers to dominate, which hopefully everyone agrees is not how the entire hobby should look.
If you start a thread about axing the discussion sections, I'll try my best to make the case that they should stay.
There seems to be two ways to finance a website like this one -- ads, or user subscriptions -- and you're offering users a choice between either one as they like. Hard to see how things could be better than that for us users.
There's another model on which there are no Google ads, and use is free for buyers but sellers pay a subscription fee from $22 to $125 per month. That's apparently a way to encourage commercial breeders and large scale flippers to dominate, which hopefully everyone agrees is not how the entire hobby should look.
If you start a thread about axing the discussion sections, I'll try my best to make the case that they should stay.
I never had any illusions nor even hopes that running this site would make me wealthy. I have always been content with just being modestly comfortable in life. Fortunately Connie has always felt the same way, so there has never been any pressure on me to be unduly money focused. All my life I seemed able to get by no matter how much (or how little) money I was making.
Heck, I tend to value the donations and such more as an expression of appreciation from the membership than anything else. So I suppose it is the feeling of not being appreciated that is much more discouraging than any bottom line figures. Actually, in the distant past, it was members who asked me about memberships and advertising and such. Hadn't even entered my mind when I first started playing around with these website thingies. I just liked playing around with this stuff. I do have a programming background, although those talents have terminally atrophied over the years.
If you start a thread about axing the discussion sections, I'll try my best to make the case that they should stay.
Speaking of discouragement........
You would have a tough row to hoe making such a case. All anyone needs to do is to scan the discussion forums and note the date of the last post made within each of them. That pretty much tells the entire story, and presents my side of the case without the necessity of my having to say another word about it.
Socratic Monologue
Well-known member
There's more to the value of an online resource than date of last post. Some of that material has archival value -- 'Herps in the News' for sure, which also happens to be pretty regularly active. That's the only channel left for outing those people who get our hobby in the news for the wrong sorts of reasons.
Some of the material in discussion sections is supplemental advertising for users who post in the classifieds, which has value to them whether anyone comments on it or not:
https://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2331226#post2331226
https://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=801682
https://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=763712
I have one like this too: https://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=796953 I should come back to it and update. It looks like I found anery in Anza Borrego rosies, which is new. It will be nice to have that thread in place when I prove the gene out (it is a female, so it will be a while...).
I've posted a couple 'legal issues' sorts of threads that I think are valuable long term references.
Many of the threads that you, Rich, start there -- photos around your property are the ones that come to mind here -- contribute a lot to putting a friendly face on the site itself. If all that casual users knew about the guy behind Fauna was what you write in your Administrative role, that would be unfortunate and misleading.
Is there any harm to letting those sections stay? Are they expensive or laborious to maintain?
Some of us more active users could do a little more to encourage activity there, I'll admit. Especially if it would make you feel more appreciated.
The discussion forums are just something that pop up in my mind every now and again. I know in the past I have made noises about shutting down a bunch of them, but fortunately (I guess) out of sight out of mind for me. I guess it is just the lack of use, would means lack of appreciation for them even being there, that gets to me now and again. So I get into a sort of "use it or lose it" mode.
As for any harm with them being there? Well maybe. Perhaps over complicating this site to some members. Forums seem to be complicated to people who have grown up in the facebook age. Different structure that requires a different way of looking at information. I am the exact opposite. Facebook, from what little I have used it, just doesn't agree with the way I look at things on the internet. Push come to shove, whenever I am looking for any topic matter, I always try to find a forum based site to use for my research.
Not sure if that is a bad thing or not. Sometimes it is fun being thought of as an ogre.
As for any harm with them being there? Well maybe. Perhaps over complicating this site to some members. Forums seem to be complicated to people who have grown up in the facebook age. Different structure that requires a different way of looking at information. I am the exact opposite. Facebook, from what little I have used it, just doesn't agree with the way I look at things on the internet. Push come to shove, whenever I am looking for any topic matter, I always try to find a forum based site to use for my research.
Not sure if that is a bad thing or not. Sometimes it is fun being thought of as an ogre.
Well, the ads are back for all registered, non contributing members, now. I used to have a notice at the top of the pages informing members they could dodge the ads by becoming a paying member, but not sure I will even bother putting that back up. Probably doesn't matter to most people, anyway.
Anyway, things are looking a bit better concerning the revenue those ads generate. Which is a good thing, because I imagine that sooner or later I am going to have to figure out a good way to update this site. It is running on very old versions of server code, and the data center hosting my server is not going to be supporting them forever. Having the finances available will allow me a wider range of choices to pick from.
Anyway, things are looking a bit better concerning the revenue those ads generate. Which is a good thing, because I imagine that sooner or later I am going to have to figure out a good way to update this site. It is running on very old versions of server code, and the data center hosting my server is not going to be supporting them forever. Having the finances available will allow me a wider range of choices to pick from.