• 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....

The BOI will be coming to an end on 02-02-2020

I'd like to gift 4 $25 paid memberships. One for Mike Troetti: username: Miket1971 and Mike Souza usrename: Snakeman236. The other two can be decided by more established members of this forum.

Rich,

Send me a message to figure out the details.

Thanks,

Chris
 
Looney said:
I'd like to gift 4 $25 paid memberships. One for Mike Troetti: username: Miket1971 and Mike Souza usrename: Snakeman236. The other two can be decided by more established members of this forum.

Rich,

Send me a message to figure out the details.

Thanks,

Chris
Click to expand...

PM sent. Thank you.
 
I was wondering why no new BOI threads were popping up in my feed. I am very saddened to hear this but I understand the reasoning. Perhaps this site would consider taking on the structure more seen on arachnoboards? There you leave reviews with a rating directly on a person's profile. It's much easier to see the reputation of a person and doesn't seem to require as much moderation. Thank you for all you do in taking care of this site.
 

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I do think improvements could be made, if it were thought it was a worthy investment. On arachnoboards their profile reviews are advertised as being the main way to get good info on sellers/buyers, whereas here I got the impression that the BOI was fauna's main thing. Perhaps how I use fauna has affected my view, but trader rating just isn't as approachable and isn't a well known/used feature.

Ultimately and of course it's not up to me, but just my two cents.
 
I'd like one of the other two gift memberships I purchased to go to username
JumpSpidersInc: real name=Maggie Headley. Rich confirm when you get a chance.

Thanks,

Chris
 
Looney said:
I'd like one of the other two gift memberships I purchased to go to username
JumpSpidersInc: real name=Maggie Headley. Rich confirm when you get a chance.

Thanks,

Chris
Click to expand...

Looney said:
The other can go to username Fatalis. Real name= Erin Summer. Rich please confirm when you get a chance.

Thanks,

Chris
Click to expand...

Done!

Thank you! :ok_01:
 
FYI, for anyone who has noticed, I am changing permissions in the BOI forum whereby some days regular members and visitors can see thread topic lines, or both thread topic lines and thread content in the BOI. But posting by regular members will not be re-enabled at any time.

Couple of reasons, one of which is because I want to see how that affects the statistics for the Google Adsense ads I am running here.

A second reason is because I may just open up the BOI now and again at random times and for random periods of time just to allow new members to get a peek at what is in the forum. Perhaps they will find it worth becoming a paying member sooner or later. Heck, probably not, but what the heck. Can't say I didn't try. :shrug01:

Not a whole lot can be determined from traffic statistics quite yet, in this short period of time, but there has been an upswing in paid memberships, although there have also been a few that have dropped out recently as well. I do thank all of you who have helped out recently both with new memberships and renewals.

As an aside, I believe there is a good chance that this site might be able to survive based solely on the classifieds sections. Which might very well mean that all general discussion forums can go away as well, with little to no impact to this site. So if the statistics seem to point in that direction next year, and all those forums are just taking up space for no good reason, and losing them will not have any real impact here, those might be gone as well. Honestly, I never have been able to work up much interest from the membership for those general discussion groups anyway. And now with Facebook providing that service to most people, and they seem to find that more to their liking anyway, then heck, why bother with them here at all? This IS FaunaClassifieds, after all, is it not? So maybe this site can get along just fine solely being a classifieds site and do away with all that unused clutter that no one really gives a damn about anyway.

Anyway, this is sort of a status report on this topic. For anyone interested, of course.
 
I can see doing away with some, or most?, forums but, honestly, I would hate to see all of them disappear.
Maybe you could just condense some of the separate forums into one. At least for a time? Then see how that goes.
 
A lot of what makes Fauna a community rather than a mere commercial site site comes from the BOI and the forums. While the risks inherent in running the BOI have been discussed at length, are there any additional risks/expenses connected with running the forums?
 
Pasodama said:
I can see doing away with some, or most?, forums but, honestly, I would hate to see all of them disappear.
Maybe you could just condense some of the separate forums into one. At least for a time? Then see how that goes.
Click to expand...

I will be keeping an eye on the discussion forums and do what seems prudent when the time comes.

Honestly though, does it really make much difference if 10 discussion forums are not being used, or a conglomeration of them merged all into one large forum still not being used? Seriously, some of those forums have been online here for nearly 17 years. Does anyone really believe they will suddenly turn around NOW at this late date?

:deadhorse
 
WebSlave said:
Which might very well mean that all general discussion forums can go away as well
Click to expand...


WebSlave said:
one large forum
Click to expand...

There's a big difference between zero and one, and the discussion non reptile forums have smaller than the BOI but persistent use.

WebSlave said:
I will be keeping an eye on the discussion forums and do what seems prudent when the time comes.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. The overwhelming majority of readers agree that you need to do what is best and most prudent according to your judgment, and I agree with that also.
 
Lucille said:
A lot of what makes Fauna a community rather than a mere commercial site site comes from the BOI and the forums. While the risks inherent in running the BOI have been discussed at length, are there any additional risks/expenses connected with running the forums?
Click to expand...

No, not that I am aware of. But it makes the site apparently too complex for some people, and is an obvious waste of screen real estate when loading the site to your browser. And obviously uses up server resources unnecessarily.
 
Lucille said:
There's a big difference between zero and one, and the discussion non reptile forums have smaller than the BOI but persistent use.
Click to expand...

Quite likely the way I would handle it is somewhat how I have stated I will handle the Chuck Kimmel's "What's Cooking?" Kitchen forum, in that if a couple of months go by without any posts in a particular forum, then I will consider it as dead wood and eliminate it from the site. Just taking a casual look around I can see several already that would be qualifying for that axe.

That sort of puts the burden on the membership to show me that a forum they wish to remain here actually does so by proving that it is being utilized.

That seems fair, doesn't it?
 
Since I don't contribute, I can't see the boi anymore. But a day ago, I could. Now it's gone again and can only be read by those who have paid. Will it be kept up to read in the future so people will be able read if they aren't a contributor? That would be much appreciated especially to those like myself who have good feedback and have contributed in the past. It's fine that I can't add to it. Just want to be able to see. Not sure if this has been covered in this thread. Haven't read every page.
 
James L said:
But a day ago, I could. Now it's gone again and can only be read by those who have paid.
Click to expand...
Here you go James
WebSlave said:
FYI, for anyone who has noticed, I am changing permissions in the BOI forum whereby some days regular members and visitors can see thread topic lines, or both thread topic lines and thread content in the BOI. But posting by regular members will not be re-enabled at any time.
Click to expand...
 
James L said:
Since I don't contribute, I can't see the boi anymore. But a day ago, I could. Now it's gone again and can only be read by those who have paid. Will it be kept up to read in the future so people will be able read if they aren't a contributor? That would be much appreciated especially to those like myself who have good feedback and have contributed in the past. It's fine that I can't add to it. Just want to be able to see. Not sure if this has been covered in this thread. Haven't read every page.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but no. By leaving the threads in the BOI visible, I would still be subject to the threats of lawsuits from people wanting posts about them removed. So it just points back to the original reason for this step: Too many people have stopped supporting the BOI with not only their contributions, but also with even their continued participation on this site. A lot of people, apparently like yourself, have stopped contributing here, and unfortunately this is the direct result.

The BOI has always been based on the premise that it had the support of the majority of the herp industry/hobby. Not only from a financial standpoint, but from the premise that the power of peer pressure would force "bad guys" to change their ways, or else die on the vine because their wrong doings made their business plan melt away under scrutiny by a substantial portion of their prospective customers. So it is not only the financial support lacking that makes this an unsound business plan for me, but it is also just as obvious that the BOI no longer will have the power to be effective without the numbers of people needed to provide effective peer pressure.

I doubt that this will turn around, unfortunately, even just based on what I have seen statistically since February 2, 2019. Which means, sadly, that on February 2, 2020, the BOI will be officially gone to everyone.
 
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