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Request: Separate Crested Geckos from "Geckos" Classifieds?

M

mplexus301

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Hello,

I was wondering if the idea of separating crested geckos from the main gecko classifieds has been discussed? Looking at the "Geckos" classifieds forum, it seems that 70%+ of the posts are always about crested geckos and ads for other species get bumped down quickly.

Giving cresteds their own forum would make it much easier to browse ads for all of the other species.

Just a thought.

Thanks in advance,
Michael
 
I think this is a marvelous idea!! I was searching the ads the other day, and it was very hard to find what I wanted, or to even see if there was an ad for one between all the lovely cresties.
 
:thumbsup:

First time posting on Fauna but I agree - Cresteds have become so very populous that they and other gecko species could benefit from having a forum of their own.
 
I give this a thumbs up as well, I've always wondered why cresteds didn't get their own classified, there are plenty of ads for them.
 
Many of the classifieds sections were previously separate (as were some of the now combined discussion areas). There were a few factors that led to the change - including member complaints that there were too many sections, lol.
I'm not saying Rich won't revisit the idea...I just wanted to point out that anything we do to please one group inevitably ticks off another.
 
hhmoore said:
Many of the classifieds sections were previously separate (as were some of the now combined discussion areas). There were a few factors that led to the change - including member complaints that there were too many sections, lol.
I'm not saying Rich won't revisit the idea...I just wanted to point out that anything we do to please one group inevitably ticks off another.
Click to expand...

I can totally understand how too many subforums can end up cluttering up a forum.

I may be missing something, but other than that one issue of "yet one more subforum," I can't think of any other negative repercussions to separating them out??

Another possible solution that we implemented on a different vbulletin forum is to make a dropdown menu at the top of the forum that members can categorize and then sort/view items by; then "geckos" could be all one forum again, but using the dropdown menu search would pull out all the "leopard geckos," "african fat tails" "crested geckos," etc.

[The flip side of that idea is then people will complain because there will be so many new ads that no one's ad will stay on the front page for long! lol]

I do agree that there are so many Cresties in the main geckos forum that it's hard to find other species right now.
 
So, are most of you wanting cresteds to be in a separate classified forum simply because you want to get them out of the way so finding other types of geckos will be easier on you? Or are some of you crested breeders who want your own section?

If the latter, how many of you would be willing to be paying sponsors of a crested classifieds forum to help it to earn it's keep here?
 
Like a lot of these folks, I love and breed cresteds but when looking to purchase other species find it difficult to navigate the geckos subforum because cresteds are just so numerous they flood everything else out pretty quickly. Would you be willing to let us know how many paying sponsors you need in order to have a separate section for crested geckos? Would this be the $50/user/year cost listed at the top of the crested geckos section?

(While I was looking at those ad sections at the top I also noted that Gecko Greatness's ad is still up though it leads to a dead site, just in case you prune those out.)
 
While I was looking at those ad sections at the top I also noted that Gecko Greatness's ad is still up though it leads to a dead site, just in case you prune those out.
Click to expand...
I've noticed that with other sponsorships...but, when the person is still paying to have the link there, it becomes harder to justify simply removing it. Dropping a website doesn't mean going out of business, and it really isn't our place to make that decision. At the same time, it is a sponsorship LINK, so dead links are pretty useless.

Rich, I'll raise this topic in the mod forum, so it doesn't muddy things up in this thread.
 
When I think of it, I audit the sponsors via the admin page that shows all active and inactive subscriptions. "Subscriptions" in this context means a payment made via this site for either sponsorships or paid memberships.

Generally, as long as the paid subscription has not expired, I pretty much have to leave the sponsorship up on the site, regardless of whether they are still in business or not. Unless, of course, they indicate to me that the sponsorship link can be removed.

If they have an automatic subscription payment through PayPal, which automatically makes the payment, and they allow that to continue, pretty much my hands are tied. I would rather not have a dead link, but the payment has been made, so it's pretty much an implied contract.

If they wish to pay for the sponsorship regardless of them not having an active website, I really haven't made any rules against such a situation. Perhaps they are planning to come back some day and want to keep the name out there? :shrug01: I've got enough to do without trying to chase down issues of this nature. It's their money, I guess.
 
WebSlave said:
So, are most of you wanting cresteds to be in a separate classified forum simply because you want to get them out of the way so finding other types of geckos will be easier on you?
Click to expand...

Mostly this, and the inverse of it. If I want to look at cresteds, I don't want to have to look through a bunch of other species that will make me want to spend money. And I'm interested in helmeted geckos. Finding them in the gecko category is a pain because there's so many cresteds.
 
Inret said:
Mostly this, and the inverse of it. If I want to look at cresteds, I don't want to have to look through a bunch of other species that will make me want to spend money. And I'm interested in helmeted geckos. Finding them in the gecko category is a pain because there's so many cresteds.
Click to expand...

Well, how about this, then. How about counting up how many NON crested ads are posted per day and let me know what you come up with. If the ad forum only produces at smattering of posts without those ads, then the forum will just be wasting space here anyway without those crested ads.

And obviously no one has stepped up to the plate offering to become a sponsor of a new forum targeted specifically for cresteds.

So you all need to look at this from my perspective, too.
 
WebSlave said:
And obviously no one has stepped up to the plate offering to become a sponsor of a new forum targeted specifically for cresteds.

So you all need to look at this from my perspective, too.
Click to expand...

I um... posted asking how many folks/what amount you were looking for :) Just waiting to hear.
 
And how many $50 sponsorships would it cost to make a cresteds sales forum?
 
It depends on how much removing crested from the geckos classifieds section guts that section. But realistically, the more sponsors willing to subsidize a new classifieds section, the more likely I will be to consider it.

I'm looking at it from this perspective: A forum needs to earn it's keep in one of two ways. (1) Traffic supports either the new forum standing on it's own legs, or does not then gut and neuter the forum that the new section comes from. Or (2) Sponsors are willing to provide a financial incentive for such a break-away forum. Does it make sense to take a subsection away from a forum that then leaves that parent forum floundering and then a waste of screen real estate? If all of the sponsors to that parent forum then want to move from the parent forum to the new one, has the site really gained anything?

Not to mention that I will likely have to be the one doing all the work associated with such a change. So is it going to be worthwhile to ME?

So the creation of a new forum for a classifieds has to be a positive step for this site as a whole. Not just for a few people who might feel inconvenienced because other ads are getting in the way of what they specifically are looking for. A new classifieds forum would then add a minor inconvenience to EVERYONE, because it will increase the page size going to their computer or handheld with every new section added in here. Yeah, what webmaster wouldn't like to have separate forums for every topic under the sun? But how many sites has that KILLED because it was more confusing than practical?

There are a LOT of new things I would like to try, but I have to keep these facts in mind. I would love to be able to incorporate graphics banners into the sponsorships, but that would dramatically increase the bandwidth required to send relevant pages to viewers. I would like to add commercial forum sections here attached to the highest membership level that would also incorporate banner graphics on the main page. But again, the above consideration about bandwidth needs to be kept in mind.

I would like to add more general purpose forums to broaden the scope of interest of this site. But broadening the scope of the site might dilute the perceived participation of the members.

With the profusion of small handheld devices being used to access the internet, will large complex sites like this one soon become dinosaurs abandoned because they are too unwieldy on a small viewing screen? Would it be more feasible and perhaps smarter to REDUCE the complexity by cutting back on the number of forums rather than increase that complexity with more of them?

I would like to think I've learned a thing or two about running a site like this over the years. Lord knows I don't know every right step to take, but after getting my toes pounded on here and there, I do like to tread more carefully than I used to with decisions like this. It seems that every change I have ever made here has had a cost associated with it. Then on the other hand, perhaps every time I have had an opportunity to make a change, but decided not to, there has likely been a cost associated with that decision as well.
 
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