blakkfrogg

I have a few things to say that a lot of folks won't like.... and by making these remarks, I mean no offense to anyone heavily involved in the free host game -- be you an operator or legitimate heavy user of free hosts. That said, here goes:

There are a ton of jackasses using free hosts and ruining it for those of us that take adult webmastering very seriously. Free hosts made it possible for every tom, dick, sally, margaret, tony & bill to try their luck in the pornslinging game WITHOUT having to make a serious financial commitment to the business; and YES it is a business.

This lack of financial commitment makes means they don't have to care what happens to the industry in the long-run. This creates and encourages short-term thinking and as we all know, short-term thinkers have a history of killing off good businesses in the long-run.

While those of us who OWN our own domain names are careful to meter the amount of 'free stuff' we use as bait so that our costs for bandwidth consumption do not outweigh our income from sales, the wanna' be pornslingers using only free hosts just throw their galleries out there without thinking about how too much 'free' makes it easier for the pornlovers/consumers to say, "Eh, why pay for it? I can get it for free....."

Am I saying that all free host users are wanna' be pornslingers? Absolutely not. I use them from time-to-time and find them to be an excellent tool when sales are down and bandwidth costs are a bit higher than expected. But they are a TOOL and not the mainstay of my adult webmastering arsenal.

OK, I'm done bitching for now and I hope I haven't pissed too many people off. As counterbalance for my negativity, I think it is only fair that I offer some positive thoughts as well.

I just hate seeing our industry fall into the crapper because people with no real commitment to the game are flooding the market with bullshit over-populated (meaning too much free stuff) galleries in the hopes of making a few bucks. It's all good to try and make money, but this trend is killing the source of our bread and butter.

Solution? Yep. Galleries should have a MAX of 20 images per gallery, with the norm being around 12 or 15. Should free hosts exist? Yes, but accounts should be handed out to 'qualified webmasters' (see a thread on this board I started last week), not to just anyone.

Yell at me, scream at me and tell me to go to hell, but that is what I think needs to happen. We all have to stick together and make the tools work FOR us, not against us. By the same token, these tools were originally developed to help serious pornslingers grow their business, not to make it so that others could make our lives harder.

Free hosts are a powerful tool and as with any great tool, in the hands of the uneducated, unskilled and/or uncaring craftsman/craftswoman, it can be used to destroy things with undaunting speed.

I've said my piece. *phew* Can I have a beer now?

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Eat Beaver.. It's Cheaper Than Caviar