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Sponserships in classifieds

U

Uluru

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I will use the bearded dragon classified section as an example.

It says no more spots are available due to a limit of 20 sponserships per section. A few of the links dont even work anymore. I think a clean up might be in order. Why should a link that doesn't work be able to eat up a limited sponsership spot? . . .Just a thought
 
Uluru said:
I will use the bearded dragon classified section as an example.

It says no more spots are available due to a limit of 20 sponserships per section. A few of the links dont even work anymore. I think a clean up might be in order. Why should a link that doesn't work be able to eat up a limited sponsership spot? . . .Just a thought
Click to expand...

Regardless, the member still PAID for that slot.
 
Maybe the fineprint needs to be rewrote? Get active breeders and sites traffic ,not ones that are no longer in business and not active. It doesnt make sense. I understand they paid for the spot but in fairness to everyone else since there are so few spots available have it in the rules that thier link must remain active in order to sponser a page on fauna?


Again just my thoughts and opinions.
 
What of people that maintain their websites, but have seemingly fallen off the face of the earth? Do we remove their links, as well?
Keep in mind that sponsors pay for those links, and it is for a finite period. It's not like those links stay there forever...if people don't renew, their links come down.
 
I did take a quick look, and only noticed one...and I don't know if that person is still dealing with dragons (at least under THAT business name).
While I understand, and to an extent agree, with your concern, I'm on the other side of the coin...meaning that I know that what you are suggesting requires us to check all sponsor links on a regular basis, then attempt to make contact with any sponsor with an invalid link. That would address the people that allow their website to expire (or take it down); but it would still leave the people that are seemingly out of business, despite having a working site. It would also add another tedious, make work type task to already busy schedules.
 
In the top three there are two that dont work. I know you guys have your plates full. So maybe once every six months? Or maybe getting a moderator that oversees the sponserships or something like that?

And since you said they are finite I guess thats a little better.

This isn't a huge issue or anyting its just something I noticed and thought I would bring it up.
Thanks for the quick responses
 
Maybe add a page in the Reptile business forums , like a directory of breeders? You could still charge people to be listed there.
 
I see what you are saying but for the people that did pay, even if their link isn't active, they did pay for it. If we started removing then would they also be due refunds?
it could get real messy real quick
 
And what if they had a valid link for 10 months, then it stopped being valid? Would they be entitled to a full refund? Or would they be entitled to say a 20% refund? How, or who, would decide that? What if it's just down for a day while they're updating their site? Who would know the difference? Who would decide it gets the axe if there's no response, because the person is so focused on their site?
 
Utta said:
And what if they had a valid link for 10 months, then it stopped being valid? Would they be entitled to a full refund? Or would they be entitled to say a 20% refund? How, or who, would decide that? What if it's just down for a day while they're updating their site? Who would know the difference? Who would decide it gets the axe if there's no response, because the person is so focused on their site?
Click to expand...

Someone could contact them from fauna. And the refunds could be pro rated. If they paid lets say $100 for ten months and thier site went down after three they would get $70 back. And its not like fauna would be out a lot of money, that spot would be available again for purchase. And it would make it look better to have working sponsered sites vs non functioning ones.The examples in the dragon classifieds have not worked for months. Ive tried going to thier sites numerous times and they dont work or dont exsist anymore.
 
Sorry, but no, I am not going to do it the way you want. I won't do the legwork necessary for what you suggest, and certainly I am not going to ask the mods to do that neither.

Seriously, I would really like to take your money so you could be a sponsor, but I have to look at the big picture and make decisions that I feel are reasonable and prudent with as much considered as possible. Quite frankly, although it would certainly be in my best interests to just allow unlimited sponsor links for whoever wants them, and just grab the money, but I just do not think it would be in the best interests of those people actually trying to VIEW those forums to get to the actual meat they are there looking for. If I had 100 sponsors for the Bearded Dragon classifieds forum, do you think people having to scroll through all 100 sponsor links just to get to see the first actual ad might find this just a bit tiresome?

So I set the limit at 20. I took money from those sponsors who paid for their link to be there for 1 year. So the link stays, no matter what they do on their end of the deal. Within reason, of course. Someone decides to link their domain to a porno site or some such, then no, that will not be permitted. But otherwise, I'm sorry, but that's just going to have to be the way it is.
 
Uluru said:
Someone could contact them from fauna.
Click to expand...


The mods here have enough work as is, without having to click on every sponsor link once a month or so to see if they're all working, then having to dig threw each one to find the email address, email them, then wait for a response.

And the refunds could be pro rated. If they paid lets say $100 for ten months and thier site went down after three they would get $70 back. And its not like fauna would be out a lot of money, that spot would be available again for purchase.
Click to expand...

Automatic refunds, means extra programming, which in turn, means out of pocket money for Rich. You're also assuming that the spots will fill up right away. He might have 15 empty spots just sitting there, wasting space for months until someone else decides to purchase a spot.

And it would make it look better to have working sponsered sites vs non functioning ones.The examples in the dragon classifieds have not worked for months. Ive tried going to thier sites numerous times and they dont work or dont exsist anymore.
Click to expand...


Statistically, 2 out of 20 isn't all that bad. It's damn good, actually. So as for "looking better" I don't think so. fixing 2 links won't change much of an opinion.
 
Fair enough, I dint start this thread to want to change a bunch of stuff on fauna or make more work for the mods, just something I noticed that I thought might have been overlooked.
 
One question, Rich - is the classifieds sponsorship set up for automatic renewal?
If somebody has to manually renew, it is less likely that inactive members will retain those spots (working, or not).
 
hhmoore said:
One question, Rich - is the classifieds sponsorship set up for automatic renewal?
If somebody has to manually renew, it is less likely that inactive members will retain those spots (working, or not).
Click to expand...

I believe they are now, but weren't in the beginning. Actually the reason I made them recurring subscriptions was because otherwise it was rather difficult trying to determine who had let their subscription lapse. Oftentimes there is absolutely no directly linking info between what they might have in their sponsorship text and link and what their member name is here. So figuring out WHO actually has the sponsorship can sometimes be a challenge. So I figured that when they cancelled their subscription, that this would be an easy flag for me to pick up to figure that out.

Of course, that didn't work out well, neither, as some members will cancel the automated subscription immediately. So I STILL have to manually audit the sponsorships to try to figure out which ones have actually expired. Which, honestly, I don't have on the top of my list of things I find fun to do. So yeah, someone might actually have a sponsorship link up for months after it has expired. That's the breaks, I guess, and since it's really me that takes the hit when that happens, no big deal. I don't really lose any sleep over that at all. If someone gets some free time with a sponsor link, then good for them. Everyone likes to get a freebie now and again.

I actually thought about setting up ALL of the forum sponsorships much like I have it set up in the Board Of Inquiry forum, with the little 120x60 mini banners. Possibly I could allow more sponsors that way, but it might be a tossup as to which method is better with bandwidth and loading on a viewer's browser, so I haven't seen any pressing reason to pursue it much.
 
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