Well, this is interesting and instructive for me. Perhaps now for you too...

[WebSlave]

Four days ago I closed nearly all of the discussion forums on this site. Not just stopped them from replies, but completely removed them from even being viewed. And guess what? Not a single solitary soul seemed to even notice. No one contacted me to ask what happened to them. No one seemed to even raise an eyebrow in curiosity. Not that this comes as any surprise to me. But it was definitely a confirmation of what I have long been seeing as the direction and future of this site.

Around the same time, I changed the paid memberships in both cost and duration. Cut prices substantially because I cut the duration substantially. All of the paid memberships are now only for a duration of 30 days. Prices are not 1/12th of what used to be the yearly cost, however. With PayPal's cut, going too low would mean PayPal would get more money out of this than I would. Sorry, but no on that.

Sponsorships were ended completely. Too much hassle to deal with for just a 30 day duration and equivalent cost.

Any current paid memberships and sponsorships for 1 year will still run the entire duration. Just no renewal for that duration is being offered.

So why did I do this? Simple. I figured out that if I were to close the site right now, I would owe some people for those paid memberships and sponsorships. Even trying to prorate them would be a real pain in the ass. And would mean PAYING money to try to avoid LOSING money. Yes, that is income, but over a projected year's time would not cover the cost of the server lease used to run this site. It would not stop the terminal bleeding. So adding insult to injury, I would have to dig those funds out of my pocket just to close this and walk away from it. Yes, I could just stop accepting renewals, but that would STILL leave me having to pay for the server lease for an entire year with NO supporting funds coming it. That isn't very attractive neither. Looked like either way I would jump I would be trying to plug more holes in the dike than I have fingers.

So the monthly plan seemed the best choice. At least there might be some incoming funds for the next year. Of course, maybe not, but it appears to be the only reasonable path right now. Not enough money coming in to be back in the black, but hopefully enough to not bleed out completely. I believe I am now losing money every month this site stays alive. I know I have said countless times that I cannot do that. And I guess very few believed it, or really gave a damn. So the day I warned about has arrived. On July 1, 2027 I will stop accepted even those monthly renewals. On August 1, 2027, the plug gets pulled on this site and it is gone. I will say that if things seem to turn around by July, then I will re-evaluate the situation then, but I seriously doubt that will come about. I am no longer saying "if things don't turn around I will have to close this site". It has changed to "this site IS closing down unless I get surprised by things turning around".

I know some people liked being able to advertise here for free, but obviously too many figured on someone else to pay to keep this resource available for them. Sorry, that plan didn't work out for you. I kept this site running long after I got out of the business (16 years? Has it really been that long?) figuring I was making a little bit of money from it, and enough people were using it to make me feel I was still doing something constructive and helpful for the business itself. That is no longer true on either count. So I am cutting it loose, and cutting myself loose completely from the herp world. Going FULL retired. Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn. I only give a damn about people who give a damn about me.

So, there you go. The sand is running out of the hourglass for GAME OVER.

 

[WebSlave]

For the record, I enabled those discussion forums again. Not because I thought they would be noticed, but I checked Google Adsense and apparently disabling them cost me $2 per day in advertising revenue via clicks. Yeah, I know, big whoop. But that is $60 per month towards the server lease. So every little bit counts for now.

 

[Martin Nowak]

“Four days ago I closed nearly all of the discussion forums on this site.”
What prompted you to close the discussion forums?
What was your motivation?
Did you really study the numbers, topics, categories, readers' interests, data first?

“Not a single solitary soul seemed to even notice.”
“No one contacted me to ask what happened to them.”
No contact does not equate to not noticing.

“apparently disabling them cost me $2 per day in advertising revenue via clicks.”
So you were not even aware the presence of forums and clicks provided you income?

And in fact, people are aware of the forums when they are evident.
And they click on topics of interest.
And thereby provide you income.

What if you added some motivation and attraction to the forums?
Perhaps interest would increase and so would your income.

I must add, over just a couple years I posted a lot in the forums and had great responses both in comments and in DMs. People were often very engaged with the topics. Not infrequently comments were added more than a year after first posting. Comments were instructive, educational, opinionated, additive, fun, and useful in every case. If you look and add up, my postings received in aggregate over 150k clicks in a fairly short time. My time and voluntary contributions on the forums contributed to your income. The same can be said and attributed to every person posting, commenting, and reading. Both AI and other sites often pick up on Faunaclassifieds' Forum postings and provide attribution which further garners attention to this site.

How valuable are public forums to web sites?

Boost engagement
Develop new ideas
Create loyalty and drive referrals
Improve SEO and boost traffic
https://www.starchapter.com/blog/benefits_of_a_public_forum

Builds a community
Stimulates discussion
Improves branding
Provides communication strategy
Supports collaboration and support network
Provides a loyalty tool
https://www.en.sitew.com/Website-building-expert-advice/Benefits-creation-forum

 

[WebSlave]

Really, at this point, I just do not care to put ANY more effort in here. This site has been limping along for a long time now. Tried for a long long time to figure out something to get people excited and interested in being part of a community instead of just a place to visit the classifieds to post their ads and look over others' offerings. If that is just what people wanted and were willing to support the site financially to keep it for such use, then I should just let it be what it will be, and I will just stay out of their way.

All well and good when the site was operating well in the black. That is no longer true.

I do not NEED any income from this site to get by just fine in my retirement. It has always been just pocket change anyway. I NEVER aspired to get wealthy off of this endeavor. Truth of the matter was I started it all out of fun because I liked playing around with this sort of stuff. Any income and all participation just seemed a measure of how much people appreciated what I had created here and enjoyed them using it. The pocket change was just gravy.

In any event, this time next year, I fully expect this place will be gone. Unless something happens that requires me to dig deep into my pockets to fix it. Then it will be gone sooner. Just not throwing good money after bad. This place has given me a lot of headaches over the years. Not allowing that to happen any longer.

Oh, you mentioned "loyalty". Obviously not very common in this world. Otherwise we wouldn't be where we are right now, would we? Can't say I blame people. They are just looking out for "number one" in their lives. And this is not it.