• 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....

What happened to BOI????

WebSlave said:
You know, I've been thinking of this ever since I read it, thinking of the repercussions and unavoidable hate mail I'm going to get at that time. Probably pretty much what I went through when I originally set up that paid member requirement for the BOI years ago. Might have to read up on those old threads to get in that frame of mind again.

**Edited for space! Rich's full post is above!**
Click to expand...

I think a paid membership is worth the shot! Anything to save the BOI and the valuable information that it contains! I think it's worth the cost.

Just an idea on what to do about those people who need to defend themselves on the BOI, if they aren't a contributing member. How about a one time, 24-48 hour, free pass, if their name is brought up in a "BAD GUY" thread? After that, they then have to buy in to continue or just be a second hand, spectator.

Just a thought

Wayne
 
Mooing Tricycle said:
Ionno rich..... I just dont know. I hope that what little my contributions to this site have been help, and and really hope that my signature pulls in more people to help contribute as well.


I want to see the BOI succeed.
Click to expand...

Alicia,

Thanks for the signature plug, but could you change it a bit for me?

You have it as this:
Get the word out! Help contribute to help keep the Faunaclassifieds BOI alive! Otherwise its doors will officially shut on Jan 1'st 2010! Support the site that outs the scammers!!!
Click to expand...

That makes it sound somewhat like the entire SITE will be shutting it's doors on January 1. Perhaps something like this might be a bit more accurate and not scare people into thinking the whole site will be going bye-bye...
Get the word out! Help contribute to help keep the Board of Inquiry alive! Otherwise the BOI's doors will officially shut on Jan 1'st 2010! Please support the site that outs the scammers!!!
Click to expand...

Thanks...
 
MedusaCoils said:
I think a paid membership is worth the shot! Anything to save the BOI and the valuable information that it contains! I think it's worth the cost.

Just an idea on what to do about those people who need to defend themselves on the BOI, if they aren't a contributing member. How about a one time, 24-48 hour, free pass, if their name is brought up in a "BAD GUY" thread? After that, they then have to buy in to continue or just be a second hand, spectator.

Just a thought

Wayne
Click to expand...



This is a good idea!!!!! It gives them TIME to bring in the information pertinent to the thread, but does not allow them a free ride either. Would Temporary accounts be EASY enough to set up this way??? I really do like this idea!
 
WebSlave said:
Alicia,

Thanks for the signature plug, but could you change it a bit for me?

You have it as this:


That makes it sound somewhat like the entire SITE will be shutting it's doors on January 1. Perhaps something like this might be a bit more accurate and not scare people into thinking the whole site will be going bye-bye...


Thanks...
Click to expand...


Absolutely! :D
 
I think if someone has to defend themselves, they should be subscribers to the BOI anyway as they are selling items or animals. They would want to check on their buyers as well.
So maybe a 24 hour pass or something along those lines might work, but I think they should have a full subscription regardless.
It would be worth $25.00 for the subscription to defend my name and business!
Just my thoughts....:)
 
TripleMoonsExotic said:
Not to be nosy, but why?
(don't feel obligated to answer my question, I'm just curious and the following explains why...)

I was thinking...As an incentive for new contributors...

What if a seller on the Classifieds offered a $50 discount to any buyer who signs up as a new contributor at the time of purchase? It would work out to be a $25 discount to the buyer, a $25 payment toward Fauna and a $50 cut into the sellers profit...But if you would do that on say, purchases of $500+ it wouldn't seem like such a huge chunk.

I'm rolling the idea around in my head to do...
Click to expand...

It was .....something.....like that~ but the deal to the buyer was more .........lucrative.......(not sure if thats a good word to use~ perhaps substantial) to the buyer. Unless absolutely necessary I'd prefer the buyers (they know who they are) not give details of the exact nature of the transactions so as to not have others expecting the same consideration when I begin advertising for sales again very soon.....but basically the buyers got better than a good deal if they were currently or became at the time a contributing member to faunaclassifieds. It was not stipulated by me at the time that the membership must last a full year but as Rich was not offering prorated memberships it was understood by both myself and the buyers in this particular occasion that a one year membership already in place or the purchase of the one year membership was a stipulation of the transaction.

So~ he's not entitled to any refund for the membership period that includes Nov/Dec of 2008 per the stipulations of the agreement reached with me ~IF he was already a paid member and his membership rolled over after Nov/Dec 2008 then his fuss would be with Rich.
 
Actually I took down the BOI sponsorship section after I only had one person sign up for it. It wasn't paying for the real estate it took up on the page.
Click to expand...

I guess the reason I'm confused is because I didn't think Fauna Classifieds was in jeopardy of closing just the Board of Inquiry. So if I sponsored the Boa Forum, for example, it wouldn't show my support of the BOI but it would help the site. If there was a place to sponsor(support) the BOI specifically I could go there and show my support. I really wouldn't care if my name was going anywhere just as long as it was clear I was attempting to help keep the BOI alive.
 
Rich, how about a plug on Reptile Radio, or any of the other reptile podcasts, news sites, and such? Do you think something like that would help get subscribers headed this way? There are so many out there that don't know what's going on, or even that the BOI is a wonderful tool for us. I've been missing it since it's been down to research sellers.

I like the idea mentioned earlier of offering discounts on animals and products for paid contributing members.
 
Why not follow the BBB method

of a yearly fee as an example $ 10.00 for accessing the BOI to get any information available on either a person or a business that has been brought to the attention by a participating member.... Skip all the nonsense about defending, arguing, etc...

If there is no record of a person or business, and you have had a bad or good experience............it just gets noted, not discussed... If you want to see if any information exists on any particular party, then you pay the yearly fee and use the service... Would that work... JERRY
 
KNOBTAIL said:
of a yearly fee as an example $ 10.00 for accessing the BOI to get any information available on either a person or a business that has been brought to the attention by a participating member.... Skip all the nonsense about defending, arguing, etc...

If there is no record of a person or business, and you have had a bad or good experience............it just gets noted, not discussed... If you want to see if any information exists on any particular party, then you pay the yearly fee and use the service... Would that work... JERRY
Click to expand...

Jerry, I actually had something like that in place a while back. Used to be a "Participant" level membership for $10 per year that allowed access to the BOI. Got shot down in flames. At one point I made that membership $10 for 10 years, but didn't garner much interest, so I shut down the entire program.

As for temporary passes to the BOI, it would all have to be done manually. There is no native facility in the vBulletin code to implement something like that that I am aware of. Sure, it could be programmed in, but that would be yet another expense I would have to bear, that could very well be wasted effort.

If I ever find that magic lantern, one of my wishes I will ask of the genie will be to wake up one morning, have an idea to implement here that would be *perfect* and everyone would agree to and feel it is a positive step to take.
 
WebSlave said:
Jerry, I actually had something like that in place a while back. Used to be a "Participant" level membership for $10 per year that allowed access to the BOI. Got shot down in flames. At one point I made that membership $10 for 10 years, but didn't garner much interest, so I shut down the entire program.

As for temporary passes to the BOI, it would all have to be done manually. There is no native facility in the vBulletin code to implement something like that that I am aware of. Sure, it could be programmed in, but that would be yet another expense I would have to bear, that could very well be wasted effort.

If I ever find that magic lantern, one of my wishes I will ask of the genie will be to wake up one morning, have an idea to implement here that would be *perfect* and everyone would agree to and feel it is a positive step to take.
Click to expand...


How about you tell us how much it would cost to code, and lets see if we can ALL pitch in to get that done!? I think that if you have an idea that should be put in place, we should support that idea and give it a shot!!!
 
To make it easier and cost effective, make us all pay for it. You may weed out some of the people who post just for drama that way.
Get the people in here who are truly serious about the industry and buying/selling and reputations.
 
I'm not a contributor here (yet...when funds permit...) but I tend to read the BOI a lot, and have been following this thread rather closely. I'll fully admit I'm on here because of the BOI. I'm not a breeder, nor do I have a ton of herps. I'm here to read discussions sometimes, but mainly to learn about who is good to deal with, and who isn't.

I don't have any issue with the BOI going to a 'contributors only' status, but I do think that ethically someone would have to be given a free pass to defend themselves, if someone brought up a bad guy thread on them. Otherwise it reeks of holding someone's good rating hostage, and I know that is not the intent...but that is likely how it would be seen.
 
Mooing Tricycle said:
How about you tell us how much it would cost to code, and lets see if we can ALL pitch in to get that done!? I think that if you have an idea that should be put in place, we should support that idea and give it a shot!!!
Click to expand...

That's actually not that easy to determine. Because all custom coding mods are an eternal expense. Whenever a base code upgrade is needed here for security or bells and whistle improvements, those custom mods need to be done all over again since the base code normally changes so much that they pretty much need to be rewritten. That is why I hold off on upgrades as long as possible. Paying $1,000+ per upgrade wears on me after a while.
 
ciara said:
I'm not a contributor here (yet...when funds permit...) but I tend to read the BOI a lot, and have been following this thread rather closely. I'll fully admit I'm on here because of the BOI. I'm not a breeder, nor do I have a ton of herps. I'm here to read discussions sometimes, but mainly to learn about who is good to deal with, and who isn't.

I don't have any issue with the BOI going to a 'contributors only' status, but I do think that ethically someone would have to be given a free pass to defend themselves, if someone brought up a bad guy thread on them. Otherwise it reeks of holding someone's good rating hostage, and I know that is not the intent...but that is likely how it would be seen.
Click to expand...

Yep, I agree. I've heard of some other sites similar in nature to the BOI whereby the owner will DELETE a negative thread about someone if money changes hands. Personally, my opinion of that is that it stinks.

But again, it's the manual nature of this that is a stumbling block. Once I am retired, that may not be an issue, but right now adding one more thing to my "have to do" plate just isn't very attractive to me.
 
Thanks Rich for all the time!!!!

Hey Rich!!!!
To everything there is a season and now is the time for y'all to enjoy a life!!!! I've posted before that it was amazing that you would take all the pooh (best a minister can say!!!) that you have over the years!!!!! If the BOI disappears will I be disappointed??? Heck yes!!! Do I want it's continuance to be a burden on you???? Heck no!!!!! Over the years I have had nothing but positive experiences from my dealings with you. Whether it has been critters (your blood lines will continue in my snake room!), advice, encouragement, whatever, it's all been great!!!! I wish I had more time to be on the forum. Right now I am dealing with all the wonders of being a Pastor and taking care of a 15 year-old low functioning autistic son. Believe me, extra grief isn't worth it. In my Hospital bed last year, I found out life is too short!!!!!!! Just my $0.02!!!!

Shalom,
Pat Glazener-Cooney
 
It's really too bad that even though no one wanted to step up and buy out the entire serpenco business, that no one has offered to "buy" the BOI. Basically having it change hands to someone else that is willing to be responsible for everything having to do with it like you have been all these years would make things far easier than having to come up with all of these possible changes, etc, to make it worth running for you personally.
I would just hate to see it go, it's been like going through withdraw not being able to read it and have instant access to all of that info.
 
Rich, I dont know about a "participants level" but

I would from a business point of view, eliminate everything but the BOI. Charge the yearly fee, and give it a year to allow people to post their exeriences or information on businesses and individuals who come across this industry without the 300 pages of posts back and forth...

It certainly has to be easier to and more reassuring that for $ 10.00 bucks you can find out if there is or are any negative information that can help you in making an intelligent decision to purchase or stay away from... That I can assume would really limit your liability.. When someone needs information on a company, the contact the BBB and there is a fee for that information.. So I dont see why this cannot be implemented the same way... If nothing is available on the person or business after checking here, at least a "no feedback" is better then a "bad feedback". Just stop the discussions and concentrate on providing information that could benefit someone in making a decision to buy or not to buy ! JERRY
 
I am baffled at Erik... :(

WebSlave said:
Used to be a "Participant" level membership for $10 per year that allowed access to the BOI. Got shot down in flames.
Click to expand...

I never understood why people were so against paying a measly $10 for such a useful tool as the BOI. :confused: It is well worth it! Well worth more, if not for outing the scammers and saving people from being taken, the drama is entertaining in itself. I can't count how many times I've referred people from other sites to the BOI. Keeping reptiles is not a cheap hobby, how is $10 enough to cause such an issue?

I contribute to Fauna because I've had sales on the classifieds and I truly appreciate the BOI. If the BOI is gone I will be sad but will continue to participate. I'll have some stuff for sale shortly and if all goes well I plan to increase my membership level.

I want my BOI! :willy_nil:
 
OK, I've reopened the BOI forums. I have enough food for thought from the test so no need to keep it shut down any longer.

To those of you who pitched in and recently made membership donations to help out, I REALLY thank you for this. Sorry I had to do it this way, but I felt most people weren't getting the message about the future (or lack thereof) of the BOI. Either my hints were being studiously ignored or not understood, I guess, so it appeared obvious that a more direct message needed to be sent.
 
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