wow- This again?
My plan is not to restrict D. capensis from the public here. Believe it or not, I do care about everyone here and I also care about my family and I try to keep the impact of me BUYING this forum from affecting them (although so far, unsuccessful). D. capensis is listed on my store because I have them. They are likely not going to make me or break me. That is why I allowed the seed giveaway. And really the occasional D. capensis plant giveaway would be fine too (unless that's going to anger folks who have been not allowed to giveaway/ask for trade etc before. If it's going to cause a problem of not "equally enforcing the rules" then D. capensis plants won't be allowed to be traded/given away either...) but I would hope everyone could see the difference between trading/giveaway of VFT 'Akai Ryu' and D. capensis??
As far as that "Please don't offer/ask for any plants that are sold here at www.flytrapshop.com" rule goes.... that rule was implemented with the old owners of this forum, and I just kept it. None of these rules are new since my ownership the name of the inserted store was simply changed.
Are my prices really so bad that you feel ripped off to buy a plant I carry rather than trade it?
I feel like I've told this store so many times that every one here should know it, but I'll go ahead and tell it again for anyone that have missed it.
The owner of this forum (and a CP store) decided to move on and no longer sell CPs. So he sold his store and started looking for someone to buy the forum. Of course all the "investors" out there just wanted to plaster the forum with ads and let it go unmoderated till it dies, then shut it down. I'm sure some of you would like the forum to be unmoderated, but lets face it, forums that are unmoderated soon turn into a place you don't want to be... anyway, I decided this was a place of my friends and a place I love to spend my time so I took out a
loan and
purchased the forum. I ran the forum for about 4 months before I decided it was costing too much money (between the loan repayment, server costs etc) and something had to be done.
That is when I decided to open the store. Of course this cost money out front, but hopefully would recoup that, AND start supporting the forums. Let me be clear when I say so far, I have not had a single month go by yet that the advertising on the forums, and store sales have paid all the bills associated with running them. This is why I've kept these rules that some of you hate so much.
I am, on a regular basis confronted by people that are interested in "investing" in the forum at the cost of plastered with ads but I'm not willing to do that. I actually hate ads, and try to keep them at a bare minimum.
I've also said before, that once my store is supporting the forum so it's not costing out of pocket hundreds of dollars a month, that most of these rules would go way. Until then, I need them in place to help me out as much as possible. I already work a full time job, then I started flytrapshop so that terraforums wouldn't be out of pocket, and then I've started a 3rd (part time) job to also help pay for terraforums (man I'd love to quit that one!
) all this, and I have 2 kids (1yo and 2yo)... You could say I'm pretty busy.
I know this won't make everyone "like" the rules... But it gives you an insight as to why they are implemented.
Andrew
PS- I'd rather not do an auction thing so that the auctions can stay strong for those NASC folks