Actually, I was preparing an answer for Evan's original rant, even though it is probably moot now...
There is a very common public perception in the industry that the BOI and fauna as a whole is a playground for a small group of people that get preferential treatment over everyone else and people do not want to come on here to post there transaction or information because they fear they will get bashed and teamed up on by the group of regulars on this site that have a long history of this behavior.
And I suppose the reason you bring it up is because you believe this as well. Evan, you've been around here long enough to know this is certainly not true, and yet you are going on record lying out of your ass here. I guarantee you have never seen me give anyone preferential treatment here at all. If anything, I have gone overboard trying to treat everyone the same, and being actually more tolerant to people who didn't actually deserve it.
The only people who should fear the BOI are those who have a problem with the truth. As has been shown time and time again, liars will be exposed. It may take a while, and some people may get fooled for a while, but eventually the truth WILL usually come out. So yeah, I guess liars, and those people who may be a little footloose and fancy free with their ethics just might be a bit concerned about getting their BS exposed to the harsh light of the BOI. Which is as it should be.
And as for "regulars"... Yeah right..... Take a look at the members here now and try to tell me with a straight face that they are "regulars". People come and go in this business, and people come and go here as well. YOU used to be a regular as well, but I seem to recall banning you for some reason or another, and I guess that rash hasn't quite healed yet, from the looks of the slant of your posting. But, oh yeah, I guess your being a paid member AND a regular and getting banned kind of runs contrary to the theory you are touting here.
To make things worse, instead of reinforcing or expanding the idea of this being a legit place to post your concerns and transactions the mistakes were made of adding paid memberships and of taking it upon the site to "certifiy" "good guys". These two moves gave this site an overwhelming appearence of bias and being a paid members club that others are not welcome to be here. True or not this is a perception that people have.
Yeah, right... And paid memberships (meaning people willing to pay to help support this site) are "bad' in what way now? So that was a mistake in your eyes? Well yes, I guess it was for someone who apparently would like to see this site fold up and blow away. But for many other people, I believe they would rather think it's going to be around for a while, and are willing to help make sure that happens with some financial assistance. You were a paying member too for a couple of years. Why did you help contribute to that "mistake"? Was it not a mistake then, or did you just not understand what you were doing at the time?
And has been mentioned, no, this site doesn't certify anyone. I accept applications from anyone who is a paid member (when I have time to process them anyway ... sorry, I DO have a backlog), and from there it is completely up to them to KEEP their participation in that program via the way they do business with the members here. And yes, I do have a filter in place whereby only paid members can vote on those certificaion polls (as well as the trader ratings), simply because without it, it would be childs play for any number of people to completely corrupt those sections of the site by simply registering countless false member names and making the votes go whatever way they wanted them to. For instance, someone could highly inflate their own poll or trader rating with dozens of positive votes. And on the other hand, if they had a personal issue with someone (or even a competitor), they could completely demolish that person's ratings with negative votes. Anyone who thinks that this can't happen is naive beyond belief. So I have taken steps to try to limit that as much as is possible.
If people wish to have a contrary opinion of the reasons for what I have done, then that certainly is up to them. Not that it would surprise me that people who don't spend enough time here to KNOW the reasons might come to the wrong conclusions based on lack of knowledge. But I can't fix everyone's problems, and have no intention of trying.
It would have been good to solicite sponsors and thank them appropriately at some spot on the site if Rich felt the money was needed, but to put logos next to the names of contributors and restricting access to those who chose not to pay, after all the years of it being a free site simply makes this site look like a bunch of snobs and a private club, again. Bad descision.
"Bad decision"? Since when have you become omnipotent and all seeing Evan in order to KNOW how to run a site like this. Do you have something similar that you can show us all so we can see how successfully YOU run something like this with all the answers at your fingertips? Seriously, I would like to see the source of your opinionated criticism to see just how qualified you are to make such brash statements.
"Restricting access"? From where? The only "places" I can think of where access is restricted on this site to non-paying members is the two above mentioned sections where the GGC polls are (and they can certainly READ the polls, but just can't VOTE on them), and the Trader Ratings (again, they can READ, but not VOTE, for the above mentioned reasons. So what is this "restricted access" you are talking to that this bunch of snobs and private club is holding back from everyone else. Oh yeah, I do have a single very lightly traveled forum section for paid members, so I guess you got me there. I'm sure everyone else is just chewing nails because of that...
By taking it upon yourself to tell everyone who is good and who is bad, instead of letting the BOI function as designed to do that, by being "proactive" and giving out certificates you again bias people and create a detrement to the very environment that you sought to foster.
Again, Evan, you apparently don't have a clue about what you are talking about. Please show me where I am "taking it upon myself" to tell everyone who is good and who is bad. Really, just point it out to me, because I would really like to see this evidence you are holding so dear as being the truth.
As for the certificates, yes, they go to everyone who participates within the GGC program. It's called "giving everyone the benefit of the doubt". No one has to prove anything to me as to their being qualified to participate. Yes, it is for paid members only, simple because I have to take the time out of my schedule in order to set these up, and quite frankly, I'm just tired of giving away my time for free. Not to mention the edits I have to do for changes in the data in those entries. But how does that "bias" anyone? In my opinion, if there is any bias at all, I would think it might be a positive one, simply because it does give people looking at a participant's website a modest amount of comfort knowing that at least there is SOMEPLACE that is taking a step to try to get sellers to act towards buyers in a reasonable and ethical manner. That's what peer pressure can do for business. If the certificate has any value to the people and businesses that use them, then they will certainly try to take steps to KEEP it. And that is a bad thing? How, pray tell?
I have not been a paying member of fauna for a couple years now. When I was on here I sold many animals to members and I have many positive threads and posts on here about me. I appreciate that. I also have one of the top levels of trader ratings on here with 100% positive comments. I have not gotten one since I left a couple years ago and yet I am still up there. I have sold many more animals since going back to the kingsnake classifieds but those people do not rate you on fauna as they do not have paid membership. That is fine. But, why give an advantage in deciding who gets the big positive press from this site by how much and wether or not they pay this site? Doesn't anyone see that as a problem?
And if there was no requirement for paid members, what would you do if a dozen or more negative votes suddenly appeared on your rating, and it was apparently that it was some person you pissed off down the road doing it? Yes, tell me what anyone would do in such a circumstance... Well I'll tell you what they would do. They would come to me all pissed off and wanting ME to do something about it. They would want ME to spend my time trying to fix a problem that I KNEW would happen and decided to take steps to prevent that with the current system we have now.
As for any advantage one way or another, that would be true no matter how this was handled. And quite frankly, I don't know of any perfect system, but am willing to try it THIS way to see if it helps in some small way. That is worse than not doing anything at all? And if that $25 per year membership fee is far too much of a burden for more people to try to be part of the solution rather than not participating, then whose fault is that? Personally I highly value the paid members on this site and hope that they contributions are a sure sign that they want to make a difference in this business. Well THIS is the only place where that can happen. THIS is the only place where newbies can get their name the exposure it needs for when they do GOOD business. There are over 54,000 registered members on this site, and certainly not all of them still come by here or are even still in business, but I guarantee that a LOT of people in this business DO stop by and look around quite often. Many are certainly anonymous, but regardless, a LOT of eyes are on the people here who are trying to get ahead in this business by doing business the RIGHT way. And just as certainly, those people who get caught doing business the wrong way, have a lot of people seeing that evidence as well. So tell me, where ELSE can that happen for this industry? And if what I am doing here is NOT good for the industry, what are YOU doing in a like fashion instead?
Many of the people who created this business use kingsnake due to how much traffic it gets and they do not choose to use fauna because instead of it just being a sales platform, it is a club and it has more politics and arguments than any other site in our industry. Most people in this hobby or business want one or more of three things. 1) to find and buy good quality animals, 2) to sell their products, 3) to find info and chat about animals ina friendly environment. In my opinion this site has tried to be all those things to all people at one time or another but is now failing in all three areas.
Ah... too bad for them. I would have thought that they might want to be able to check out people and businesses before they made a purchase from them. Not many places you can do that, you know? Well actually, now that I think of it, there really is NO WHERE else to get that information at the level of depth you can get here. Imagine that.... And yeah, there are a lot of arguments here. Sometimes that's what it takes to get the truth out and to the bottom of things.
At this time there are several major moves being made in government at all levels to block all importation of our animals, to prevent them from crossing state lines and to outlaw them outright. These moves all have the potential to end this hobby and business for good, overnight. Not one word on fauna or the BOI about that though as it all happens. Not one attempt on this site to rally people in this industy and prevent these things from happening. I felt strongly enough about it to email Rich to ask if he would do something, post some info on the home page, anything really! I received no reply and nothing was done. So lets be real and see the site for what it is. A site controlled by a small group of people who have a long history of pack behavior against outsiders. That is why not one named player or major company in this industry is utilizing this site or advertising here.
Hmm, where did you post information on this site about those issues, Evan? I seem to have missed them... Oh, well I guess maybe this is another case where you wanted ME to do that instead of your doing it yourself.
I did get that email from you, but darn if I can find it now. And I did go to several sites to look around, and by golly NONE of them had those links and banners you are talking about.
Oh well, I'm not going to go back and proof this message. I think subsequent ravings pretty much painted the picture here anyway about this person.
