Now normally I don't really care about award
ceremonies because it's all a matter of
opinion and it's only natural to disagree.
But one has to wonder exactly what the point
of the 'Adult Site Of The Year'
category is in particular. If they'd have
put together that list in the previous three
years they'd have come out with almost
exactly the same sites. Abby Winters,
Brain Pass, Reality Kings, Video Box,
Brazzers - I could have put this list
together in my sleep. And it will look
almost identical next year.
Now we obviously have championed and
reviewed a number of sites on that list and
I'm certainly not criticising any of them
for their inclusion - actually, most of them
thoroughly deserve it. But wouldn't a 'Best
New Site' category have made more sense,
bearing in mind that the list will look
almost the same next year - guaranteed? And
if you're judging them on 2008's activities
alone, have Brain Pass or Reality
Kings done anything particularly
spectacular in that time to warrant
inclusion? Not really. 1 by-Day.com
probably has, maybe Brazzers too. I
just think it's a lazy list though.
For me, the third category, 'Web Starlet
Of The Year', is probably the most
worthwhile. It was great to see recognition
for Anna Miller and Misty Anderson, two
wonderful amateur performers, in particular.
I would especially like to see Miller win in
this category - her site, 4Real Swingers,
is absolutely outstanding stuff. The 'Best
New Web Starlet' category made less
sense though. Bree Olson's nomination in
particular was very strange indeed whilst
Celeste and Mya are similarly uninspired
choices. With any lucky, the wonderful
Candy Monroe should walk this category.
But it as at last a chance for web companies
and performers to gain some much-deserved
recognition, and hopefully these categories
will be increased next year and onwards. Oh,
and if you're wondering why we weren't asked
to participate in these discussions, well,
there was a South Park marathon on that
night and we couldn't make it. We thought
we'd let Rabbit and TBP have some of the
limelight for once.
If all that wasn't enough, they've both
launched themselves into a campaign to save
online porn punters from the evils of
cross-sales. If you don't know what they
are, basically, if you go to a subscription
page on a site, sometimes they'll have a
tick box underneath the main subscription
information in microdot-tiny lettering that
says something like, "In addition, subscribe
to YouAreAGullibleTwat.com at $365.98 every
month, rebilling every 13 minutes."
Quite often these boxes are pre-ticked and
it's quite easy to miss them, especially if
you're quite new to this porn business or,
if you're like me, just forgetful or
ignorant. This whole campaign, which was
largely started by Freeones actually,
has garnered a hell of a lot of attention,
particularly on GFY.com, a collection of
forums for adult webmasters and employees.
A couple of threads on this very subject
have garnered a mixed response from many,
perhaps understandably. Although there are
elements of this that I would question,
mainly along the lines of why it's taken so
long to hit back against cross-sales, I
think these guys should be commended.
After all, we didn't think of it first, and
everyone knows we're always the first with
great ideas. It has already had a knock-on
effect with other sites taking similarly
strict steps to The Best Porn, which has
even gone as far as shutting down all
reviews of sites from the Incredible Pass
network as a result of constant complaints
from their readers about their cross-sale
promotion methods.
This has created much in the way of drama on
GFY.com with no-one from Incredible Pass,
which is run, as far as I understand, by
Tera Patrick and her scary large husband
Evan Seinfeld, choosing to respond or defend
themselves in a couple of extremely negative
threads. They might want to though, I
suspect. Losing TBP and Rabbit as affiliates
is a bit like losing a leg in online porn
terms. They don't want to lose many others,
and they will if they don't do something.
I do think that Freeones are to be commended
for bringing these instances to wider
recognition. In a show of solidarity with
our review site brethren, we'll be keeping
an eye out for cross-sales and other such
shenanigans from now on in and letting you
know of it. If we spot it, we'll tell you.
But we're not copying them! We want that
made clear straight away! |
