Your Reptile and Amphibian Resource and Information Site
 01/11/08  10:00PM

SERVER MIGRATION UPDATES

01-08-2009
I have already started transferring some of RZ's info to the new server. There are some areas and parts of the database that I can not move until just before we are ready to switch. I plan on finishing most of the transfer Wednesday night, possibly Thursday night. We will be working to get off this server either Thursday late night or Friday night. Some of you may be wondering what will be going on. So I am making a list of things we can expect and things that we might expect to happen.

*Forum Posts will be turned off. This means you will get the archiving message, but in more detail letting you know we are moving the database.

*The message system will be turned off. Not sure what you will receive as a message there.

*I will try to keep everyone updated on what is going from the main page of the site.

Now some things that may not work out the way I planned.

*I can't predict how long it will take once I give the ok to redirect the server. I had one site recently take 3 days, and another site take 3 hours. Majority of the time it should not take more then 24 hours. Let's hope for the shortest time period.

*Since we use several databases it is possible that I may have to make some adjustments on the databases to get things working properly.

I should have some time to test things out before everyone comes over to the new server.

If anyone has any questions please feel free to contact me.

Thanks

Doug - Webmaster

12-30-2007
OK some new updates! I spent a large portion of the end of the week testing RZ scripts on the new server. There were a few things that I had concerns about in order to move to the new server. However, I have managed to resolve just about all the basic problems that I can think of off-hand at this time. I will do some larger scale testing over the next couple of days to make tp be ,pre sure. There will certainly be prolems, but I can resolve small ones over time. Currently I am concerned with bigger issues. There is one additional problem I haven't finished looking into, and that is down time. Hopefully I can get that established soon. So keep an eye on the announcements, we should be doing the move shortly after the new year. I will keep everyone updated. As always feel free to contact me with questions, comments, or suggestions. On the subject of suggestions, we will have a form for anyone interested in making suggestions for when I re-write the forum around March.

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster

12-21-2007
I am just updating everyone on the migration of RepticZone to a new server. Originally I was hiring company to move the site for me and do the original server administration stuff. However it has been a week now since they have given me any response in getting this done. So as of yesterday I have started configuring the server myself and knocking off my server admin rust.

I guess the advantage to me doing the migration is the ability to test a lot of things prior to moving everything over permanently. Something the company I was hiring wasn't allowing me to do. The server change will hopefully be done by next weekend. Check this admin message for updates

As always feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.

Doug - Webmaster

12-15-2007
I been talking the talk for several years now about upgrading RepticZone's server. I have purchased a new server for RZ. I am not sure what date we will move to the new server so I would recommend checking the Admin messages daily.

As far as what to expect for down time during the process, I don't think it should be long. However since we are moving to updated server with new software there may be some scripts and areas that will not work right away. The 4 main areas that I will work through first are the login, signup, forums, adminstration, and the messaging system. I know positively the database and several scripts will not work until I make adjustments.

I am currenlty researching scenarios that can possibly happen, so I can correct them as quick as possible. All the scripts of RZ will have to have some database adjustment and we have hundreds of scripts. So it may take me months to finally get through every script. Once I am comfortable about the challange that lies ahead I will post the date of the server migration.

Thanks for everyone's patiences all these years with the server glitches. In the long run, once this part is done we will be bringing back old features and adding a lot of new ones!

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.



Thanks
Doug - Webmaster




 01/08/08  10:00PM

SERVER MIGRATION UPDATES

01-08-2009
I have already started transferring some of RZ's info to the new server. There are some areas and parts of the database that I can not move until just before we are ready to switch. I plan on finishing most of the transfer Wednesday night, possibly Thursday night. We will be working to get off this server either Thursday late night or Friday night. Some of you may be wondering what will be going on. So I am making a list of things we can expect and things that we might expect to happen.

*Forum Posts will be turned off. This means you will get the archiving message, but in more detail letting you know we are moving the database.

*The message system will be turned off. Not sure what you will receive as a message there.

*I will try to keep everyone updated on what is going from the main page of the site.

Now some things that may not work out the way I planned.

*I can't predict how long it will take once I give the ok to redirect the server. I had one site recently take 3 days, and another site take 3 hours. Majority of the time it should not take more then 24 hours. Let's hope for the shortest time period.

*Since we use several databases it is possible that I may have to make some adjustments on the databases to get things working properly.

I should have some time to test things out before everyone comes over to the new server.

If anyone has any questions please feel free to contact me.

Thanks

Doug - Webmaster

12-30-2007
OK some new updates! I spent a large portion of the end of the week testing RZ scripts on the new server. There were a few things that I had concerns about in order to move to the new server. However, I have managed to resolve just about all the basic problems that I can think of off-hand at this time. I will do some larger scale testing over the next couple of days to make tp be ,pre sure. There will certainly be prolems, but I can resolve small ones over time. Currently I am concerned with bigger issues. There is one additional problem I haven't finished looking into, and that is down time. Hopefully I can get that established soon. So keep an eye on the announcements, we should be doing the move shortly after the new year. I will keep everyone updated. As always feel free to contact me with questions, comments, or suggestions. On the subject of suggestions, we will have a form for anyone interested in making suggestions for when I re-write the forum around March.

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster

12-21-2007
I am just updating everyone on the migration of RepticZone to a new server. Originally I was hiring company to move the site for me and do the original server administration stuff. However it has been a week now since they have given me any response in getting this done. So as of yesterday I have started configuring the server myself and knocking off my server admin rust.

I guess the advantage to me doing the migration is the ability to test a lot of things prior to moving everything over permanently. Something the company I was hiring wasn't allowing me to do. The server change will hopefully be done by next weekend. Check this admin message for updates

As always feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.

Doug - Webmaster

12-15-2007
I been talking the talk for several years now about upgrading RepticZone's server. I have purchased a new server for RZ. I am not sure what date we will move to the new server so I would recommend checking the Admin messages daily.

As far as what to expect for down time during the process, I don't think it should be long. However since we are moving to updated server with new software there may be some scripts and areas that will not work right away. The 4 main areas that I will work through first are the login, signup, forums, adminstration, and the messaging system. I know positively the database and several scripts will not work until I make adjustments.

I am currenlty researching scenarios that can possibly happen, so I can correct them as quick as possible. All the scripts of RZ will have to have some database adjustment and we have hundreds of scripts. So it may take me months to finally get through every script. Once I am comfortable about the challange that lies ahead I will post the date of the server migration.

Thanks for everyone's patiences all these years with the server glitches. In the long run, once this part is done we will be bringing back old features and adding a lot of new ones!

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.



Thanks
Doug - Webmaster




 07/26/07  09:00AM

No Selling or Advertising on Forums

This is a reminder about our rule on selling and advertising on the forums. We are going to be less tolerant amongst members trying to sell reptiles on the forums. RepticZone's forums are for exchaing information and sharing our experiences, not for selling. We state this clearly in the rules. I am only making this warning because selling in the forums has been overwhelming in the last several months. So please abide by the rules.

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.



Thanks
Doug - Webmaster



 03/19/07  08:00PM

Disappearing Posts...

I received messages from a few members about some posts disappearing. We had a database crash and when repairing the datababse some posts are removed by the repair utility. Some posts will come back. If your post is gone please contact me and I will check the database to see if it is still available in the database.

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster



 02/19/07  07:00PM

Sorry about the long archiving times!

I just wanted to apologize for the long archiving times today and some yesterday.So I am going to take a couple of minutes and explain what happened, happens, and what we are doing to better the problems in the near future.

So here is what happens. Usually the archiving is done at night and most of you will never notice because you are either sleeping or it is done on low peak hours. After archiving there are spaces left in the database just as if you removed files or programs from your computer. In order for the searches and insertion of information to run quicker I have to remove the spaces just as Window users have to run defrag on their hard drives. Yesterday the database was slowing up, so I put up the archiving notice to allow the database to catch up and had to "defrag" the database to resolve that issue. When "defragging" it usually takes about 20-30 minutes. The actual archiving that you don't notice so much takes several hours. When archiving you can still submit posts, but when "defragging" the database all inserts have to be held off.

Here is what happened...My work schedule for the last couple of months has been a little crazy. I mainly work nights and shifts of 12-16 hours. I am also required to do a lot of studying for my job. So today when I arrived home from work I tried to take that 20-30 minutes before I went to sleep to "defrag" the database and I ended up laying down for a minute, well that minute ended up being 5 hours! So when I woke up I realized that I never reset the forums to accept messages. I didn't even realize I fell asleep by accident.

Here is what we are doing about things...As of next week my job is temporarily changing my shifts to all day and evening shifts. Although I prefer the shift I am on, this other shift will allow me more time to work on RepticZone's upgrades and programming. Plus my required studying won't be so tough as it is now. The upgrades will resolve the archiving and defrag problems that we currently are having. We have a lot more traffic then we had a couple of months ago as well. On the message below this you will see we are trying to re-write the areas of the forums so they run much faster. I have a forum that I been testing and will work more aggressively on getting that done over the next couple of months while my new schedule lasts. We are also looking to move to a bigger and faster server as well.

I have a few new things lined up this year. As of now I have the start of a new food chart. it is currently geared to herbivores and omnivores, but will be further developed for all. It's a lot different then any reptile food chart out there and will be much more educational then any reptile food chart out there. The new chart will be interactive as well. Another area we are working on are suggested caging requirements and of course that will be interactive as well too.

In addition to programming RZ, I will be opening up a fitness site as well. My other hobby along with reptiles and amphibians is working out and diets. The new site is intended in helping people receive support and motivation while trying to trim down, bulk up, or just to help live a healthier life style and diet. So that is something that will be in progress by mid this year hopefully.

Anyway...I do apologize for falling asleep while working on the database. Thinking about it and seeing the time the database finished..I only had to be up another minute or two.

As always feel free to contact me on anything Contact Here

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster



 10/27/06  04:00PM

Updates You ALL Should Like!

Here is an update many of you may have been waiting for. As of today I started writing and testing some new updates to the forums. This new update will speed up the time of waiting for your post to turn over to the index. So I am re-writing and restructuring the scripts and database tables to do this. So far things are looking positive and just a few more tests that I will do over the next week before we start the process of converting the forums over to the new structure. Once the testing is done, I estimate I will move 1-2 forums a day over to the new structure, so it may take about 2-3 months. Maybe considerably less than that depending on how smooth everything goes once I start the process. I know there are scripts that work with the forums now that will have to be changed as well. So that will take some additional time.

I know I have been slow on the archiving and updates, but I'm hoping to have more time to spend at RZ like I used to. Right now my job requires me to study for tests and be on call, not to mention work and sleep crazy hours. So I apologize to everyone for that.

As always feel free to contact me on anything Contact Here

Thanks Everyone
Doug - Webmaster



 09/15/06  10:00AM

Photo Server Down

We are having problems with the photo server coming back up. The whole partition is corrupted which means that some or all of the photos can possibly be lost. I may be able to recoup some, but definitely not all. Until I get the server accessible I cannot give you any exact information on what will happen to the photos you have uploaded. Worst case scenario I need a new drive, reinstall the operating system, and find the last backup I have. Which unfortunately wasn't a recent back up.

So between this and my ac going out...it is going to be a trying day!

Any comments or questions please contact me.

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster



 06/06/06  09:00PM

More Forum Script Updates!

Now
Ok I starting some major updates to the sites which involve the database. I made one update today which information is below this message. That switch was made pretty flawlessly and most probably didn't notice because I added a few lines of codes to accommondate the old table. I'm currently in process of moving information from large tables into smaller tables which will have quicker access times. I didn't develop this database to withstand the traffic we currently have.

Current problems you may be experiencing now and during the transformation of the database is bogging down and double posts. This isn't going to be permanent. The change that I made early today has already shown relief. However tonights major slow down was my own stupidity. I seen a window of opportunity where load averages were low so I ran two database intensive scripts for the archiving project that is being undertaken. In 3.5 years I should of known better then to run those scripts in the evening when they are normally ran between 2am-3:30am and then again between 5am-7am. I was trying to save me time of not sleeping or not having to wake up in the middle of sleeping.

Another reason for some slow down is the fact that I am removing large chunks from the database, which effects search times greatly. My only solution to that is optimizing the database which can only be done about 5am or I have to shut down the webserver because no data can be inserted.

So that is the scoop. As usual always feel free to contact with whatever questions, comments, suggestions, or concerns you have.

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster

1:00pm
I will be working on the some of the forum scripts today. Making changes to the formats of tables, adding new tables, and trying to reduce datbase seek time.

At this time I am working on the views of each thread. Threads before today will no longer have the views counted. Threads that are created today will have their views counted. Part of this process involves me staring at the queries coming through the computer to make sure the seek times in the database on this query is cut down dramatically.

This is one step into speeding up the forums, this was an issue that I need to take action with for a while. I fortunately have a whole week off so I am taking advantage of that by making needed changes to help improve RZ performance.

If you have any questions concerning this particular update, or want info on some of the other updates always feel free to contact me

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster



 05/27/06  01:00PM

Messaging System Updates

We are currently working on the messaging system to update some site security features. You may get an error saying that you are on a probation period. Please ignore this. The estimated time for this process to be done is sometime tomorrow afternoon.

Sorry for any inconvience and please feel free to contact me.

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster



 05/20/06  03:30AM

Photo Sever is Currently Down Update.

Updated Message
Just an update, I managed to get the photo server back up and running. New parts are going to have to be ordered, but for now it has a decent banadage on it.

Thanks Doug - Webmaster

Original Message
Due to some hardware issues the photo server is down. It will most likely be down for several days as I determine the cause and try to correct the problem.

Sorry for any inconvience.

Doug - Webmaster



 02/18/06  12:00AM

Server Maintenance Tonight

I will be doing some server maintenance tonight. Changing and testing different sever settings along with testing the archiving script. So you may notice increase in speeds, then slow responses and even a chance of no response for a small period of time. Just wanted to let everyone know what to expect over the next 4 hours.

If you come across any problems contact me right away to make me aware of any issues I overlooked. Also feel free to give me feedback if the server seems faster or slower, etc.

Thanks Doug - Webmaster



 02/13/06  02:00AM

New Updates and Problems Associated With It

I been currently working on some new updates this weekend. Once again this is an update to conserve resources. Some of you may of noticed that you received a "Forbidden" message a couple of times. If you do see this message. Cut and paste the url from your browser and email it to me at webmaster@repticzone.com
For subject just put type in "Forbidden Url". This will help me sort out some of the problems that I didn't recognize myself.

One other notes...I'm still working on the archiving section. Which will lead to a couple of new features that we will be adding on as well.

If things go right we may be upgrading RZ to a larger and faster server.

Thanks and feel free to contact me anytime.
Doug - Webmaster



 01/21/06  06:00PM

New Year Updates...

Some good news and bad news

...Good news is the archiving system part of the site has been coming along and may possibly be done in a couple of weeks. Making the archives updated in about 3 weeks. Maybe less, maybe more...didn't expect the second part of archiving would take almost 2 months. We just finished moving archived threads to a different part of the database. Still have to optimize the table to remove all the empty spaces left. This will be done when the server is off-line. There is still more work ahead for the archiving system. Which should also ease some of the resources of the server.

Missing Amount of Posts?
This is already coded into the scripts, however because I have to pull the information from two tables I have to make sure I can properly optimize this which I haven't done so far.

The bad news...is actually good news, just bad news for my pockets! We will be moving RepticZone to a larger and faster server. I tried putting it off with all this programming, but we have just outgrown the resources of this server. We have nearly doubled the traffic this January already compared to the full month of January of 2005.

Hope you are all enjoying the new year. Thanks to everyone for being part of RepticZone
Doug - Webmaster



 12/31/05  08:20PM

To A New Year...

Well we are coming to the end of our 3rd season of RepticZone's appearance on the net. I think we done pretty good. We now have over 24,000 members and I stopped counting traffic mid year, but we more then doubled stats of last year.

This was tough year for a lot of us, seemed to go by very quickly as well. Many of us were inconvenienced with hurricanes, floods, and economical suffering. Personally last year started off with 3 of my friends deaths (all non-related) before the 3rd week of January, then it just became worse as the year went on totaling 8. I'm am hoping this will be a much better year for everyone.

We have a lot of things planned for the new year, I know I say this every year and I never quite get done what I wanted to do. However I am hoping to get some members to volunteer to help take some of the workload of this site off me. I'm not even going to list the new stuff. So if you want to help out some feel free to contact me and see what you can do to help out. Also what are your thoughts if I brought reptile jewelry on here? My cousin is a jewelry designer, just a thought.

On the update side. I am still archiving the site. Didn't think it would take this long. I hope by now we are starting to see a speed difference in site operations and posting. I not have an anticipated deadline to move the records over to the archive table, but most projects will be put on hold until this is completed.

Anyway...I hope everyone will have a happy and safe New Year! Thanks for being part of RepticZone Doug - Webmaster



 12/23/05  04:00AM

Update and Maintenance

Update On 12/23/05
Just figure I would give everyone an update on the work I been doing on the server. We have now archived over 150,000 records and a couple of hundred more records to go for this part of the process to be complete. By now you should see more speed in posting and will continue to see more speed as we keep progressing with the archiving. As of now we are processing about 400 threads every time I run the script and the script is ran twice between 1am and 4am and once at 7am when traffice is minimal.

Anyway I will keep this update short because it is just been a busy couple of weeks to do any real thinking.

Hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday.

Update From 12/14/05
This morning the scripts for Part 2 of updating the site has been finished. All archived threads are now being transfered to another table in the database which will speed up the site and fetch times. However we can only archive about 800 threads every 10 minutes and we have about 56,000 threads to move. Also because this is the first time the script is running it is going to use a lot of resources until more of the threads are moved. So we will run the script several times a night in 10 minute intervals between 2am and 4am until all the archived threads are moved. Once this is done all backend scripts will be ran automatically a couple of times a week to try to assure the best speeds and use of the site. It is unlikely you will see any major changes tonight, but hopefully we should see some difference by this weekend.

Also note that I limited the messaging system to only show up to 50 messages. Your messages are still in there. I was just was looking for a quick way to reserve some resources. If you have any problems and need to access some older messages, contact me and I will see what we can do.

Update From 12/03/05
I am just giving an update to those that been following my announcements. I'm in process of writing the backend scripts for the site. So all forums will be automatically archived once a week. I'm only in the first stage of the script writing, but will be doing a majority of the testing on the smaller forum sections. As of now I think it is important to get the larger forums with inactive threads moved to another table to establish a smaller search criteria. During some of the process the server will be turned off in order for the scripts to run quickly and move the threads. I usually work on this between 12am and 4am. At 4am the server does its usual maintenance so I have to stop at that time. The server will most likely be shutdown between 2-4am. So if you experience any problems that may be why. Update From 11/28/05
As many of you know from reading this section we are still continuing to update and restructure the database so we can have the site run faster with the volume of members and visitors we have. Some of you may notice this as "internal Server Errors" or "Too Many Connections". We are looking at completing this in the next 2 weeks.

Work on this will now be done between 12-4 am.

For those that are curious about the progress of the updates, here you go.

Stage 1 - Completed 11/28/05
Delete All Threads and Messages that were removed due to abuse from the point of the new upgrades in Dec 04.

Stage 2 - In Progress
Move all archived threads and messages to another table in the database.

Stage 3 Completed in sequence with Stage 1
Manually search for threads that were removed previously to Dec 04.

Stage 4 - In Progress
Restructure some of the database tables to have quicker searches. Plus upgrade scripts.

Stage 5 - New
Write a set of new scripts to auto archive and remove threads and posts that have been removed by our removal system.

Firewall Update
We just installed a new firewall, which has cut down the amount of resources, plus we added a personalized script to catch server attacks. This will actually take a couple of weeks to work and build up the attack ban directory.

As Mentioned In The Last Update Some New Ideas Are In The Works
I am currently looking for some acerage here in Florida to put a reptile rescue. We will be having a bunch of different ways to raise money to help the rescue actually happen. I have some leads on available property, but still have to make some contacts. So keep an eye out in the next few weeks about how you can help out.

If you have any questions, comments, ideas or suggestions always feel free to contact me. Even just to say HI! I enjoy hearing from members so don't shy away.

Contact Me

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster



 11/23/05  05:00AM

More Updates At RepticZone

As most of you know due to the increase volume of traffic, I need to concentrate on some database stuff to help speed up the site. Some of you may notice this as "internal Server Errors" or "Too Many Connections". Originally this task was going to take me somewhere in the range of 3-4 weeks to clear up due to there being a few stages in this process because of upgrades of the scripts over the last couple of years and poor planning on my part. I had no clue we would grow so fast. Good news is I have a great friend that is a database engineer and will be aiding me and consulting me in speeding stuff up around here.

The work will be done between 2-4 am on nights that I am not working on my contract jobs.

For those curious about what is going on here is an idea.
Stage 1
Delete All Threads and Messages that were removed due to abuse from the point of the new upgrades in Dec 04.

Stage 2
Move all archived threads and messages to another table in the database.

Stage 3
Manually search for threads that were removed previously to Dec 04.

Stage 4 - New
Restructure some of the database tables to have quicker searches. This is where my friend David comes in with his extensive knowlege of database design.

Another New Updated Added Last Night
I just installed and updated a new firewall system because we were getting spammed a few times a day which adds to the server slowing down. With this new firewall in place and new script that was added to ban ips that are attacking the server, we should see some difference in performance. For example in a 6 minute span we were hit with 1100 connections. That is enough to slow down the server to make your pages load at very low speed. So this process will take a few days to kick in, but we may see results as soon as tomorrow. I personally get to see the attacks com in now and I am anxiously waiting to see the scripts take effect on it.

Some New Ideas Are In The Works
Sometime in the next couple of weeks we will be starting a rescue project in South Florida and will become a non-profit organization. We will be converting one of our other sites into the rescue site to collect donations. So we are going to have some programs to help facilitate funds for the rescue. As it stands of now when we incorporate we will be open to donations, sales of particular items, and when our store comes in a percent of the sales will be going towards that as well. I have also had some promising conversations with a couple of companies willing to help out as well. The biggest and hardest part so far is finding property down here in South Florida, but I am hunting around.

If you have any questions, comments, ideas or suggestions always feel free to contact me. Even just to say HI! I enjoy hearing from members so don't shy away.

Contact Me

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster



 11/13/05  04:00AM

Forum Updates Please Read

Due to the increase volume of traffic, I need to concentrate on some database stuff to help speed up the site. This task will take me somewhere in the range of 3-4 weeks to clear up due to there being a few stages in this process because of upgrades of the scripts over the last couple of years and poor planning on my part. I had no clue we would grow so fast.

The work will be done between 2-4 am on nights that I am not working on my contract jobs.

For those curious about what is going on here is an idea.
Stage 1
Delete All Threads and Messages from the point of the new upgrades in Dec 04.

Stage 2
Move all archived threads and messages to another table in the database.

Stage 3
Manually search for threads that were removed previously to Dec 04.

Some New Ideas Are In The Works
Sometime in the next couple of weeks we will be starting a rescue project in South Florida and will become a non-profit organization. We will be converting one of our other sites into the rescue site to collect donations. So we are going to have some programs to help facilitate funds for the rescue. As it stands of now when we incorporate we will be open to donations, sales of particular items, and when our store comes in a percent of the sales will be going towards that as well. I have also had some promising conversations with a couple of companies willing to help out as well. The biggest and hardest part so far is finding property down here in South Florida, but I am hunting around.

If you have any questions, comments, ideas or suggestions always feel free to contact me. Even just to say HI!

Contact Me

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster



 10/19/05  03:00PM

ATTENTION: New Updates Please Read

I figured I would get to squeeze in this message before hurricane Wilma comes and replaces this headline.

Forum Search Function
One update recently was made to the search function for the forums. You no longer have to search through all forums, you can select a forum you want to search through. Also I added bold color to the key words and phrases. Most likely the color will not stay white, that was more for a quick test.

There are a couple of things I want to address here.

Removing Old Messages From Messaging System
First we are going to be clearing out the messaging system, removing old messages. This will be removed up until July 1st. So any messages you have saved that are prior to July 1st will automatically be deleted. So if you want to keep them...cut and paste them to your computer. This process will start next week on 24th of October.

Photo Gallery Issues
The second thing I want to talk about is the photo gallery section. We will be having a search program for people to be able to search through. So I would like to ask everyone to add a title description of your animal such as "This is my iguana Bob eating his salad". I notice as I review the gallery that either there is no title description or it is very vague and since we are about educating and providing information I think it would be a good idea to add some in depth descriptions so this information will be searchable by the upcoming search function. We will be updating the gallery some time next week. I just caught up on reviewing all the photos up till mid October. Since we are getting hundreds of photos submitted on a daily basis I am going to start automatically deleting photos that are not in the proper category. What I mean by this...I see people put their dogs photos in every category but the dog category. It takes up too much of my time to update this. As of now it takes me hours just to get through a few days of photos.

Behavior Issues
My third issue lately has been rude behavior by members. I never banned so many members in the last couple of months as I have the whole 2.5 years we been up and running. There are no excuses for cursing and being rude. If you have a problem with a post just report the post to me, please do not feed into it. All it does is make my job harder. Just report it and then we will see what needs to be done.

Banning Problems
Also I am coming to my limit of giving second chances to members that have been banned. I have given several chances to several members and I just end up banning them the same day I let them back on. So my I will not be as lenient as I once was.

More Updates To Come
I have more updates coming. We became side tracked on the store but we are getting back on track with that. We are also looking in to starting up a rescue here in South Florida.

If you have any questions or comments on any of the above or anything else feel free to contact me.

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster



 09/26/05  09:00AM

Hurricane Rita & Katrina: PLEASE READ!!!

As hurricane Katrina and Rita tore through parts of the United States it has left a path of damage and destruction. People have been forced from their homes. Some won't even have homes to return to. I was just informed the other night that a friend of mine has lost his home. I would like to help everyone we can, but that obviously is not possible. So I am trying to compile a list of members from the regions that have been devestated. I honestly have no experience with any kind of relief fund although I am trying to work through it with some active members here.

In the meantime if members from the damage regions read this, please contact me let me know how you are fairing and what items or help you may need. If you want you can leave a number and I can contact you where you are located. For members/companies willing to help physcially or by donating please contact me as well and I will compile a list and see what we can do to help out our fellow hobbyists. Here again if you want to leave a number I will contact you by phone as well. I will work on an idividual basis with members and with those that would like to donate to help other members. Also any companies willing to help donate supplies or anything feel free to contact me as well.

Also I want to add because we do have over a thousand members in these areas that any help we can provide will be distributed in priority of activeness and needs to the site. This is for obvious other reasons too since some people have no integrity and would try to take advantage of some situations.

So if you have something you contribute contact me and we will try our best in finding members that can use your contributions directly.

You can also feel free to contact Joanavokes to find out what you can do to help as well.

Here are some links where you can help as well:

Strengthen The Good
http://www.strengthenthegood.com/archives/2005/09/matching_the_go_1.html

And HOUSING Opportunities for KATRINA SURVIVORS is
http://www.katrinahousing.org/listinfo.html.

We will add more as we get them

If anybody has any other ideas or suggestions please feel free to contact me.

Webmaster

Doug - Webmaster



 05/27/05  04:30PM

Create Profiles For Your Pets

We just added a new feature for RepticZone allowing members to create profiles of their reptiles and amphibians. You will find this option in the members area of RepticZone called "Pet Profiles". Just click the link and you will be able to add a profile for your pet. These profiles of your pets will show up in your own profiles.

Hope you all enjoy!
Feel free to Contact Me with any questions, comments, or suggestions.

Thanks
Doug - Webmaster




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