Why .XXX is not the potential downfall of many in online. READ ME!
 

i really care about this industry and alot of the people in it. we got lucky today. nothing more nothing less. if anyone thinks icann spared the "poor pornographers" i would seriously reconsider that thought. they are a business too, and .xxx stood to put an assload of money in there pockets. i am sure that their reasons for not voting it in are not the ones that many of you may be thinking. i don't say this to insult anyone's intelligence, but i do feel that unless you have followed this for a long time, you may not understand the nastiness that this would have caused on many different levels.

i hope this serves as a wake up call to the adult industry as a whole to start taking the industry as a whole more serious. this could have very easily gone the other way. the time is now to support these organizatons that go to bat for this business, act like professionals, and push through the TLDs that "we" know will stop kids from accessing adult materials as best as possible.

we do in fact peddle immoral goods in the eyes of millions of americans and the governments that "protect" those people. however, many other industries are also peddling "immoral" and in fact extremely devastating products that affect the daily lives of americans for the negative. lets talk about gun manufacturers, cigarette companies, alcohol companies, and drug compaies, just to shave a sliver off the type of companies that push "questionable" materials to all the poor innocent americans.

all of these industries are represented at the government level and lobby hard to make things happen in their favor.

it is a known fact that cigarettes kill millions every year, disrupting families and damaging happy american dreamer's lives every day.

guns are responsible for many deaths each year, yet still are poured on to the streets in ridiculous numbers. All legally, and under the limitations of the law, but only barely.

how many people die from paxil, vioxx, and god only knows how many other drugs that are advertised to people on prime time t.v. every night? All legally, and under the limitations of the law, but only barely.

alcohol companies market under the radar to young people under the guise of crafty marketing campaigns and nifty, chic ads designed to subliminally entice them into the products. All legally, and under the limitations of the law, but only barely.

porn does in fact break up marriages, cause some poeple to become sex addicts, possibly influence young people to have sex more frivolously, but in my opinion, and the opinion for may others, does not do the damage that many of these "represented" industries of vice and destruction.

these other industries work on the fringe of "immoral and questionable" just as we do, but they do it by the governments rules.


our industry has problems uniting. until we get over that, there will always be another .xxx, another law, another acacia, and blah blah blah.

i can get into a ridiculously lengthy editorial on why i think what i think from a ton of different perspectives, but i won't. i guess my main point out of all of this is this industry is so "me me me" that everyone risks everything they have more regularly than makes me comfortable, because many of us can say "us".

thats all. I am extrememly relieved. this could have easily been the begininng of a very long and trying perod as .xxx would have been the rollercoaster ride to hell in so many ways.

congrats people, but like baddog said, "well, doubt she(.xxx) is dead, but hospitalized anyway".

be well everyone. we dodged a bullet.

Excelent write up airek

good post, but im still celebrating .xxx :)

but you're right, it could have been as well 9:5 in favor of .xxx and not 9:5 against

you deserve it man, i know how long you been sweating this. it kinda builds up on me and explodes at once when up against these things. i'm celebrating with you.

:banana :banana :GFYBand :GFYBand :GFYBand :banana :banana

You are correct, we as webmasters must get more involved.

A1R3K - would you and Ragecash be willing to be the first major sponsor to require all referring affiliate pages to be labeled/tagged (ICRA, megatags, your choice)?

thats something that we all should consider, but thats just the beginning. we need this .kids thing done, once and for all and put the responsibility back where it belongs. its much easier to restrict and "corral" kids to their own little playpen on the internet than to try to make sure all the adults in our "free" society behave.

we have got to evolve or others will help us do it. we don't want that, as shown in our favor today, luckily.

I disagree, the EU ICANN members would be just as against the US being in control of a .KIDS as they would be a .XXX.

So would you and Ragecash be willing to be the first major sponsor to require all referring affiliate pages to be labeled/tagged and get the ball rolling, or what would it take for a program to implement some kind of mandatory labeling?

i am merely a big mouth opposed to a TLD implementation. we will talk about this you bet your shorts at my meeting early next week. i am open to approaching anything seriously that the industry is willing to go at jointly. am i going to waste my energy swimming upstream draggin a bunch of people who aren't willing to help? probably not. this canot be one program doing it and everyone else saying "no thanks", if in fact that is the answer. would i be happy to be an organizing part of it and implementer? sure thing. it probably wouldn't accomplish anything but make me lose a whole lot of affiliates that i put strict guidlines on if other programs are not wlling to do something uniform across the board. and therein lies the difficulty. getting people to unite for the good of all. sadly its like pulling teeth.

If Visa clampdowns and 2257 left most unmoved, I'm afraid you are hoping in vain. 30-odd years ago I was in at the beginning of another industry and the pattern was the same: most of the pioneers had their heads or their thumbs, take your pick, stuck up their asses and never changed no matter how big was the writing on the wall.

You just have to be patient. Today's newcomers won't survive, let alone prosper, using the old tricks. As more people succeed on professionalism rather than timing, you will see them taking these broader issues more seriously and getting involved. Add to that in 5-10 years from now you can expect at least a half dozen large corporate entities, suits, bean counters and all, to have entered the business: another phase that every young industry goes through.

I hear you. It would definitely take several major sponsors working together to really get the ball rolling, but someone will have to be first.

Our industry is at a great point in time to start some kind of self-regulation, and we can do a better job at it ourselves than any government organization could.

yes, basically i am dreaming. but i have to say "i tried."


the renegades, bandits, outlaws, and the me me me's in this business don't give a fuck about anyone but themselves and collectively shit on the apple pie.

its cool, i understand. i feel better as a person and thats what mattered.

:thumbsup :)

excellent points. nothing falls on deaf ears to me. unification is the main obstacle. the easiest thing to accomplish but the same one so far away at the same time. a turning point of some sorts, along with an opportunity has just been presented to us. lets see what we all do with it.

I am only posting because I am airek's gay lover and he is forcing me to

but one thing I want to point out for all you "unite porngraphers" hippies, I said this to airek on icq and I will say it here:

"one thing people always need to realize with porn is there is always going to outlaw/renegade people in this industry that work on their own and will ruin it for everyone else...and society will ALWAYS lump us honest people in with those outlaws"

I will expand by saying that in most industries a "outlaw" or "renegade" is not looked down as terribly as it is in the porn industry...while a stock broker may do something illegal, he just fucked with someones money...in the porn industry when you do something illegal, you are fucking with someones children majority of the time...either literal or not

and as long as their are people that make kids get naked on camera, or send porn directly to childrens email accounts, or so many other ways that our industry looks bad every day, EVERYONE outside the industry will always lump all of us into a single group, those "pornographers"

so
try and unite all you want
or try and label sites with a cool graphic that states your are an ethical pornographer
even stand up in front of congress and give the most intelligent speech they have ever heard in support of pornography

no one will ever care, because to the common folk, you are in the exact same group as the perverted nut jobs that are forcing their daughters to strip for cash in front of a webcam

yes, thank you for that inspiration. trying is reward for me. if peple don't listen to me then i'll say "i tld you so" later. LOL

:1orglaugh

damn dude....fucking well said

that is so sad that it is that way, but so totally true

The other industries mentioned are well versed in business and hire according to respective knowledge, experiences, and benefit of the companies.. knowing just where the line is that shouldn't be crossed.. Not to mention the ungodly team of lawyers and lobbyists they all have...

Unfortunately, the adult industry, as a whole, doesn't come close to having the ability to have such cohesiveness..

Though there are a few bonafide adult companies that run their business in a serious manner, most will sign up just anyone (including teenagers) that wants to join an affiliate program.. There are far too many, 'webmasters' that know nothing about business.. They set up websites, throw up some tgp's with hopes of making a few bucks..

Such a structure gives this industry no hope of ever being united to any significant degree.. IMO

well said, and very accurate assessments. dead on fucking bullseye!!!!

Excellent post and I wish more people in this industry thought like you.

Excellent post man, very true. :thumbsup

Many industries and professions, from plumbers to accountants, have trade associations and codes of conduct. Contrary to your implication, they are not motivated by "hippy" ideals, but by a solid sense of self-protection and self-promotion.

The advantages run from the straightforward consumer appeal of "Hey, you can safely do business with us, we are the good guys", through being permanently organized to take on people who attempt to undermine trading conditions.

You appear to suggest we should give up because we will always have enemies. Surely that is the best reason of all to be in a position to fight back? We will never turn the diehard evangelists around, but we can be organized to deal with them and we we can distance ourselves from those in this industry whose conduct, whether because of the material they display, or the business methods they use, alienates a much wider audience.

maybe tony soprano shold run our union and whack the fuckers that don't join. ROFL.


* yes i know its a t.v. show. LOL

you are honestly comparing plumbers and accountants to double anal and ass to mouth peddlers?

they sell something TOTALLY different than sleeping girls getting fucked and double anal to mouth sex scenes....we are in a totally different world than those people, and before you continue your quest for unity, you have to realize that those people do GOOD things in accordance to society, we do the opposite, we do something VERY bad on the surface....and while most people may watch porn and love what we do, a very small percentage will admit that they quietly support us

I don't think we should give up, I just think that before you start realize what you are trying to accomplish

BEFORE ANYTHING is done, you need to tell the world that WE, as honest porngraphers, are DIFFERENT from those selling child porn.....majority of the world doesn't realize that

I don't think we should give up, I just think that before you start realize what you are trying to accomplish

BEFORE ANYTHING is done, you need to tell the world that WE, as honest porngraphers, are DIFFERENT from those selling child porn.....majority of the world doesn't realize that

Amazing how you could miss the point so completely...

Other industry groups are fortunate enough not to have people wanting to take them down simply because they exist. Yet trade associations and standards still make sense to them.

How much more important then for us to be in a position to respond when we are attacked and to do what we can to limit our opponents to those who will always see porn as a target. Where did I suggest a vision of our customers rising up to support us? We are the only people who will protect our own interests and that is what we should be doing. Piling in at the last minute, if at all, the way we have dealt with every major issue to date, is definitely not a smart way to conduct ourselves.

Nobody will do shit unless it DIRECTLY affects their pockets...

I remember when Visa came with the fee and everybody panicked, including me...I remember Acacia....I remember 2257...Now this....

It's just like when the govt. says how there was "chatter" about a terrorist attack...Now, nobody gives a shit...

I knew from the offset to just wait and see what happened...I only read a few xxx threads just so I could get the gist of what was going on..Other than that, I said fuck it.

I know this isn't the last thing that will challenge the adult industry..But as time moves on, more and more of the serious people in this industry will be moving offshore...I know sure as shit that puerto rico is only a place to get my feet wet before I do my BIG move...

It's easier to just get the fuck out..

no, I got your point completely...and I do agree to an extent

but if you all are on this ultimate search for respect and unity from the world outside of porn, then the first thing you are going to have to publicly seperate the good from the bad...and not just every average joe porn guy is going to be able to do that, it needs to be someone big, strong, wealthy and extremely famous before anyone will listen or care

steve lightspeed or steve hirsch can stand up and yell all they want, but who cares, they are smut peddlers

i think we all need protection, in a VERY SERIOUS way...but no one will ever join up, no one will ever take anything any one of these unifitcation groups does seriously, because in the end we are all out for only our own, and the bottom line is we are just smut peddlers

Great post brother i was thinking of something similar to what you have wrote up. Every 3 months we get attacked by something (acacia, 2257, .xxx, Visa, MC) and what happens is we always end up getting saved at the last second. We need to form some type of group that watches our asses and a team of lawyers on cal 24-7 365 :)

thanks for the heads up man, good post.

I was just reading about the interview Twomey gave after the meeting.

I thought this bit was interesting.

So you guys made a difference on this one.

good post

amen brother...

yeah man, i am pretty sure that all the rallying that the industry did over the course of the two years made a difference. if it was jsut enough to sway the decision then it was effective. .XXX was cancer and i think they saw that too.

great stuff Air3K a very well thought out opinion a big woof to you woooooofy :pimp

The major problem with the adult online industry is professionalism. Its not the product we sell, its how we go about presenting ourselves when we sell it. The major industry community board is titled 'Go Fuck Yourself'. You think the tobacco, alcohol, NRA would ever have something like that? Of course not. You cant clamor for respect in the mainstream community and then at the same time ask if you'd hit it. Majority of the people on this board cant even go a post without throwing the F word in. Its amazing to me that people who are very intelligent will post on a very important topic such as 2257, xxx etc, yet cant do so without dropping the F-bomb.

The majority of the people in this industry are not pornographers, we are Marketers. We build sites, we build companies, we distribute a product. It is no different than anything else. We buy content, we pay programmers, we pay designers, we build traffic, we market the package to consumers. What we do is no different than the MGM/Mirage company. How much adult content do they stream to the end consumer as pay per view? Far more than the vast majority on this board yet they are looked upon with respect. They treat it as a business and another revenue stream and its handled in a professional manner.

also extremely valid and well observed points.

:thumbsup


also, there is a time for dropping the f-bomb and time for not. being able to seperate when to do that is important.

Thank you to all the webmasters and companies that wrote letters to ICANN. Collectively, we moved the proverbial mountain.

I'd suggest that you continue to support the Free Speech Coalition. They sent Tom Hymes to Wellington to meet directly with ICANN. Reed Lee drafted a terrrific argument against adopting the XXX TLD. They worked long and hard to increase industry awareness concerning the potentially harmful affects of the XXX TLD. I think they made a difference.

In speaking of "Best Practices" and "Codes of Conduct", stay tuned to the FSC.

They represent the entire adult industry, they are lobbying in Washington,DC, they are starting state and local chapters, they are filing lawsuits to protect our interests (Utah, 2257, etc....), and a whole lot more. With about 3,500 members, they are a force to be reckoned with.....

Your support, membership, and opinions are deeply appreciated.

Keep up the good work!

Personally, I think "net neutrality" will be the next big issue.

Fuck you can sure ramble on.

The time for honoring yourself will soon be at an end.

what the fuck are you talking about?

what the hell did i ever do you you?

time for honoring myself? haha.

what you plan on taking me out the business.

two things won't happen. i wont' leave this biz and i won't ever shut up, so fuckin get used to it.




jesus christ some people need to take them selves down off their pedstals.

:321GFY