I know, I know, we have SO many mini-forums as is, but...

Is it possible to have a section where we can put cross-postings for birds looking for homes? I can't remember why we did away with that on the forum.

Seems to me that the current Rehome section, which is suppose to be for birds owned by members only, is used for cross-posting as well. Wouldn't it be easier to have a separate forum? Or change something so we can cross-post for birds belonging to non-members?

I'd vote for that. It sounds like a good idea to me.

I think that is a great idea. There are so many fids out there that need homes and there are so many great people on here who may be able to help them out. I am for it.

Got my vote too.

I think the reason it got changed to the way it is is because people were reading and putting them off craigs list and a bazillion other places whether they knew the other people or not...

I wouldn't have a problem with cross posting if you actually know the person (at least like we do here on the forum) but just to pull it off Craigs list or out of the news paper...I don't think so...

ok thank you I got worried there for a minute because I put an ad on for a friend of mine. I too think it would be wonderful to be able to access others posting rehomes as well a lot of people dont frequent bird forums and go straight to craigslist. Usually if I catch them before they are flagged and it is a true rehoming I will steer them towards the forums I use where the members deal specifically with birds. I just wish there was a way to spread the word about these forums so that other bird owners would know where they could turn when in need.

Makes sense to me.

You aren't the first one to post for someone else, which is why I posted about it. But the forum rules state only members can post about rehoming their own birds.

I can understand not wanting cross posts for Craigs list and newspapers, but they still happen on the Rehome section.

I'm not sure if there is a right answer or not, just putting the thought out there.

I understand completely it can get a lil confusing doing this as you are talking to a third party. But good news if all works out I may have found all 4 new homes yah!! if this happens I will update the rehoming post to let you all know if this all works out.

Please do let us know

As for confusing, I don't think it has to be. It's no different then when someone PMs me to find a breeder for them. I put the word out and forward all emails directly to the person of interest. This way I actually don't do any talking between the two parties except to start the flow going.

On other forums where cross posting is allowed, most people just provide an email address for the person looking to rehome or ask the members to PM them with their information. After that, the person who cross posted pretty much stays out of it.

I don't see anything wrong with posting for someone you know or for someone off of another forum, but I can see how it may get confusing as to what is and isn't allowed to be posted. As is, we have that problem now. So by adding more conditions for posting, it may get even more confusing.

The cross posting from other forums as it relates to re-homing birds was never done away with because it was never allowed.

The implementation of the Re-homing section was always intended for the re-homing of birds belonging to QP.com members. It's purpose was to provide our members that were faced with this difficult decision a venue to re-home their birds to someone they have possibly grown to know and trust their dedication to birds.

The posts that fall outside the rules are removed when a forum assistant is made aware or comes across it.

QP.com is also a very large and active forum with an already large database so the space, bandwidth and time to monitor may be an issue and the decision would rest with Shelly.

Keeping in mind that Craig's list, other forums and lists etc are also very active so by not posting them at QP.com isn't going to hamper the re-homing of the bird. Also, QP.com members can easily monitor Craig's list and other forums on their own.

Even with these rules in place from the beginning, people were joining solely to post in that section and not participate in the rest of the forum. These posts in many cases were simply cross posting from other already advertised forums or lists. It also becomes exhaustive as some would be posting the same link over and over.

I personally don't see a benefit in multiple posts of information that is already easily available elsewhere. Als the notice at the top of that forum seems very clear and the rules are linked to and attached within the same forum

The header at the top of the forum reads as follows:

QUOTE

Please read the "Rules For Posting" before posting in this section of the QP Forum

This section is intended to be used for the rehoming of birds belonging to our members.

Please don't cross-post other birds for sale or needing homes.

Cross-posts will be deleted.

Again I will flag this suggestion and ask Shelly to take a look..


Thanks

I would also like to add that the reason the Re-homing section was implemented was as a result of the daily multiple complaints from members about the cross-posting that was taking place in other forums.

The general feeling in the complaints was that the cross-posting was getting excessive and almost all mentioned Craig's list being the most common. It was felt that we should maybe have a forum specific to the re-homing of birds owned by our own members.

QP.com also has a policy about no advertising for financial gain. I think that is very reasonable policy when you consider that Shelly provides this forum and all it's benefits to members at no cost. She shouldn't have to pay to provide someone with a place to market their product and they in turn would gain financially. However, the re-homing of birds for our own members is an exception to that policy as the member is allowed to ask for a reasonable amount to cover the cost of re-homing but not to make a profit.

Having said that, we have no way of monitoring something cross-posted on Craig's list for example ... in turn Shelly could be paying for someone else to gain financially.

Strange then, because I remember many cross-posts on this forum prior to the current rehome section.




That is perfectly understandable. And while I understand that we are allowed to use this forum with no cost to ourselves, it is the norm with online forums.

If cost is such an issue, and I assume it is because it comes up quite often, then why doesn't Shelly open the forum to advertising? I know this is something that has been mentioned last year but nothing has come out of it as of yet. I mean there is already advertising on the forum. Just look at the ads at the top of the page. I suppose I'm just wondering why forum members aren't allowed to advertise and yet other places can?

I think a paid advertising section would be good.

I don't know for sure but I would guess the ads at the top are "affiliate" program(s) to help cover the cost of hosting, etc. There are different types of affiliate programs. With most of them, the site owner gets a few cents each time someone clicks on the links. Some of them only pay for actual sales.

As I understand it...By Shelly allowing the ads at the top of the page to be there, that cuts the price down for her. If we saw NO ads at the top then the price to Shelly goes up by a lot...At least that's how I understand it.

Right, so by allowing forum members to advertise such as the people at the top of the forum do, would that not do the same thing? Help cover costs?

My point exactly. Prior to setting up the re-homing section members were complaining about the multiple cross posting going on in other forums. It was suggested to setup a section for re-homing birds and restricting that to members only.



I guess that depends on the forum. I belong to a few forums where you pay a yearly fee. Other forums you pay lump sum for gallery or blog etc ... Also if the forum is using open source software then the only cost to the owner is their hosting fees .. even in these cases they accept donations.



On the otherhand Shelly, is more then willing to provide the forum, gallery and blog free to all members for them to interact and be part of the QP.com community. She won't even accept donations .. I tried! Her way of giving back to the avian community ...

Cost only becomes an issue when there is a possibility that someone will financially gain by using Shelly's resources and large audience. If someone can financially gain from selling a product then why should Shelly foot the bill?

We did try to find out if members would be willing to pay a fee to post their products in a forum ... that just didn't fly!

The ads seen at the top of the page are ads from Google .. and Google pays Shelly depending on how many hits are received from QP.com .. So they aren't advertising for free.

Sorry .. we must have been posting at the same time ..

Exactly .. we actually place a thread up one time and there just didn't seem to be anyone interested in paying to advertise their products.. So we didn't even look into setting it up ..

Is this the thread you are talking about? Click~Here If so, then seems to me like there were a number of people interested in it.

I never said Google was advertising for free, I just said why can they do it and not members of the forum? Seems to me that if a member of the forum were willing to pay a fee for advertising, that our money is just as good as the money coming from Google, right? Or is there some kind of politics behind it that I'm not aware of?


I just want to be clear here. I am NOT knocking this forum in any way, shape, or form. I love the fact that Shelly has done everything she can to try and accomodate such a large population on this forum. If this place ever got shut down I would miss it like a dear friend. I acknowledge the time, money and effort that goes into keeping a website, such as this, up and running. It isn't inexpensive by any means.

Yes that is the thread I am talking about .. and although many replied that they would like to see advertising and possibly browse an advertising forum .. only 16 out of 35 that voted in the advertisers section said they would be willing to pay to sell their products. Not an overwhelming interest from the advertisers considering the number of active members. There also was never an intent to have members pay to browse the advertising section only have those who wanted to advertise would need to pay ..

It is always something we can do .. If there is interest from advertisers they can still PM Shelly or myself and we can works towards having a paid section for advertisers .. if we have enough advertisers interested. The thought was never off the table .. nobody ever contacted us to go forward so we let it drop because we didn't think there was an interest to pay for the service.

I personally replied favourably in that section and would still like to see it fly ...

I never suggested that you didn't know that Google was paying for its ads .. I was making it clear for everyone reading this thread that the ads at the top of the forum are paid for.

Yes .. members money is just as good as Googles! I think you will need to define politics ... I honestly have no idea what type of politics can be going on behind the scenes that would change or affect anything that I have posted so far.

Hi everyone, I just wanted to add a couple of things to what Dee has already explained.

First, there was a secondary reason for setting up the rehoming section, and that was due to a number of members who became upset when they saw posts of birds needing rehomed. By placing these posts in their own section, the hope was that we could provide a "safe" place for members to post without fear of being judged or attacked because of their decision to give up their birds.

We thought that by having a separate section that people who become upset by these posts wouldn't have to look at them. This has only been partially successful, and I think we'll need to look at this more closely and try to figure out a way to do better.

As far as the google ads... yes, they do help some to offset the cost of our dedicated server and various other expenses related to keeping the forum going. Not only that, but they provide an easy way to advertise on this site for anyone who would like to. If you're interested, you can open up an account at adwords.google.com, set up your ad and choose to have it shown on this site only.

We haven't forgotten about the advertising section, but like Dee mentioned there just doesn't seem to be enough interest in it. Maybe that will change in the future.