• 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....

Special offerings for contributor members?

WebSlave

WebSlave

It is what it is, but certainly not what it was.
Staff member
Staff
Joined
Feb 3, 2002
Messages
20,505
Reaction score
864
Points
113
Location
Crawfordville, FL
I'm trying to figure out something that would help to get more people interested in becoming paid (contributing) members to this site. I saw on another site (unrelated to animals and such) that they had a special section where dealers would offer contributing members special deals that were only visible in that forum. Since I am not a paid member there, I couldn't really see any of the details of how it worked, nor could I see how effective it was as far as offerings. I didn't really want to spend the $35 just out of curiosity sake, since it was unlikely I would find something I was wanting to buy there. The thought had crossed my mind that they should offer a "sneak preview" membership just for someone to take a look to see if it is worthwhile for them.

Anyway, I wonder if something like that would work here? Not sure of the mechanics of how it would work, but I'm thinking that I could offer the people or businesses (merchants) something along the line of an Endowment level membership for offering their animals or wares in this forum. Of course it would only be open to paid members to view, but would that be enough incentive for merchants to take part in it? I think I need to offer something else, but not sure what else would be appropriate. Maybe a whole different level of membership to recognize their participation in this? Should there be some sort of minimum level of participation for those merchants? I mean should I offer that expended membership level to someone who only posts a single special offering?

Do I make it a forum based specials area, or put it in the classifieds section?

Anyone got any ideas that might help? Or is the idea just all wet and I am getting myself into more work that I really don't need?
 
Rich,

You could simply make listing in the classifieds open to paid members only. For $10/year you get to list as many items as you like. Simply put, this site has a high volume of traffic and it's worth $10 to have your ad(s) seen. There's a value that people might see rather than the complaint of "Why would I pay $10 to post about a negative experience on the BOI?". And that wouldn't cause you any extra work or headaches.
 
I love the idea of an 'unlisted' bargain forum that only members can access, it will have a certain cachet. I would think the vendors might appreciate a special membership, but you are giving them a chance at a solid customer base so it does benefit them. I would certainly visit such a forum.

Another incentive for paid memberships might be an advance notice from those same vendors of hatching litters that are to be put up for sale. For some of the more unusual morphs of corn snakes, leopard geckoes and the like, there may be a short supply of certain sought after morphs and this private forum might give members an opportunity to pre purchase prior to a general offering to the public.
 
Jim O said:
Rich,

You could simply make listing in the classifieds open to paid members only. For $10/year you get to list as many items as you like. Simply put, this site has a high volume of traffic and it's worth $10 to have your ad(s) seen. There's a value that people might see rather than the complaint of "Why would I pay $10 to post about a negative experience on the BOI?". And that wouldn't cause you any extra work or headaches.
Click to expand...

Wanna bet? :rolleyes:

I would be innundated with emails from people asking why they can't post ads any longer. I got those kinds of posts every single day when I switched from the forum based classifieds to the current system. And I'm still not convinced that charging specifically for the classifieds won't be the death knell for that system here. Then we would still face the problem of allowing unrestricted posting on the BOI of returning to the garbage we have all seen when it was available to all non-paid members. Personally, I don't want to return to that at all. I do believe that the paid verification process is being extremely helpful in keeping the chaff out of the wheat there. If an occasional piece of wheat doesn't get into the pot, then so be it.
 
I have no doubt there would be transitional headaches, but there would for anything you might do. If you set up a "members only" area for selling items do you think that you would not get multiple e-mails and PM's asking "why can't I access this area?"?

So perhaps the easiest thing to do is listen to Wes and let the site stay stagnant.

My point was that doing as I suggested would require minimal programming, and minimal additional maintenance once it was effected. Yes, for a month or two there would be loads of PM's and e-mails. A simple, canned, one line response with a link to the announcement would serve to answer those.

WebSlave said:
Then we would still face the problem of allowing unrestricted posting on the BOI of returning to the garbage we have all seen when it was available to all non-paid members.
Click to expand...
You lost me here Rich. How does this relate to my proposal?
 
Jim O said:
You lost me here Rich. How does this relate to my proposal?
Click to expand...

Sorry, my mistake. I thought I was getting another one of those arguments that I should charge for the classifieds rather then posting access to the BOI. Shot first, aimed later...........
 
WebSlave said:
Sorry, my mistake. I thought I was getting another one of those arguments that I should charge for the classifieds rather then posting access to the BOI. Shot first, aimed later...........
Click to expand...
You know Rich, it isn't paranoia if people really are out to get you. :uzi:
 
I can only say that I have given fauna members a different price (lower) than non members, a couple were not paid members at the time but I did pay their $10 membership after the sale was done.

So basically, yes I can see an area where you get a members discount, where one can offer a certain item or reptile for a "members only price"
 
I started doing something along this same vein over on the CornSnakes.com forums whereby I was offering special deals to Contributor members over there. Seems to work out pretty well. So I implemented something similar to that over on this site. The difference is that the way the classified section's code is written, non paying member cannot even SEE that there is a section there for contributing (Participants and above) members only. I may need to have some custom coding done there so the category will be visible yet the ads themselves are not to non paying members. I think it would be best for non paying members to see that there is something they are missing by not being a paid member. I'll wait and see how if works out "as is" first.

The way it is set up now, only paying members (Participants and above) can see ads as well as post ads in that section. I made it so that highlighting, bold, and italics are FREE for all paid members who post there.

I would still like to figure out some way to provide incentive for sellers to use this section to attract paid memberships here, but I haven't put all of my brain cells into the problem yet to come up with a satisfactory solution. And I'm not sure at all that this will even pan out anyway.

Oh well. I'll just have to see what happens.
 
Excellent points.

lucille said:
I love the idea of an 'unlisted' bargain forum that only members can access, it will have a certain cachet. I would think the vendors might appreciate a special membership, but you are giving them a chance at a solid customer base so it does benefit them. I would certainly visit such a forum.

Another incentive for paid memberships might be an advance notice from those same vendors of hatching litters that are to be put up for sale. For some of the more unusual morphs of corn snakes, leopard geckoes and the like, there may be a short supply of certain sought after morphs and this private forum might give members an opportunity to pre purchase prior to a general offering to the public.
Click to expand...

I have incentive enough to contribute because I consider this site a valuable and quality resource for information. If there would be additional benefits that contributing members could enjoy, then that would be a great bonus.

I plan on making my "contribution" this next payday. What makes taking this step so easy and attractive for me is the fact that I can do it via my PayPal account.

Rich, I think your idea is valid and progressive.
 
I am open to suggestions on how to make this work. I tried a forum at one time open to contributors only, but it didn't take off. Is the time ripe now to give it a whirl again? On the CornSnakes forums I have an "Insiders" forum that is open only to Contributors, and it seems to work pretty well. Perhaps in conjunction with the limited access classifieds section it will gel together well. Insider information on special offerings in the works or just something someone may want to make public but in a small dose to a limited audience.
 
WebSlave said:
I am open to suggestions on how to make this work. I tried a forum at one time open to contributors only, but it didn't take off. Is the time ripe now to give it a whirl again? On the CornSnakes forums I have an "Insiders" forum that is open only to Contributors, and it seems to work pretty well. Perhaps in conjunction with the limited access classifieds section it will gel together well. Insider information on special offerings in the works or just something someone may want to make public but in a small dose to a limited audience.
Click to expand...

I like the idea Rich.... you also have a lot more "Contributors" now than you did before.
 
Well, hello all first of all. In case you didn't notice I am new here. I also try to stay out of all the admin type stuff most of the time. Mainly because it just all gets too confusing for me to keep up with. (Maybe I will consider things like that in 5 years when I retire, 20 years in the military <-- my own reminder :) )

Any how,
I have been a member of a gamers forum for many years now and have since passed the account along to my son. I have seen that site go through many changes, members left because they didn't agree with the admins and then came back 6 months to a year later. (<-- that comment is based on some of the other post I have been reading about a friend of Rich that was mad and kept saying he was leaving but yet kept posting) The point that I would like to make is that no matter what the admin(s) ask to try and better a site, or what they actually do to try and better it, They will make someone unhappy. Paid or not paid it don't matter someone is going to be unhappy. The main reason that I bring up the gamers forum here is because of a recent change they went through that cost the admins a few of their mods. They got mad and left the forum leaving the admins more work to try and mod the site. I don't know how many forum mods there are here but Rich can expect that what ever changes he makes that there will be at least one mod unhappy with it. That is not to say don't make the change, but it is more just to say don't expect everyone to be happy.

Now in response to a comment made by dragonflyreptiles, you said that after you made a trade with someone you then paid their fee to be a paid member to this site. Well once again I bring up the gamers forum, they used something there (I know you cant use it here but it is a good example) called forum gold. There is a real dollar value placed on it and once you have accumulated enough forum gold someone would be willing to pay your fees to be a paid member for a certain amount of forum gold. That system was put into place mainly for kids who didn't have credit cards and there parents would not pay for a membership fee. I think that that system could be modified to work here for certain type of things, like what dragoflyreptiles did. This way the admins don't loose the monies that help pay for the site and people that don't have the money to pay for a membership can still be able to be a valued member.

I have a bad tendency to rattle on and loose track of what I am talking about when I am typing out my thoughts, and I am not much better verbally either, LOL. With that in mind I will stop here before I start confusing everyone.

BTW I plan on becoming a paid member (like endowed hehe) before the first of the year.
 
Back
Top