What if this happened...

[XXXWriterDude]

a day isn't enough time to learn to make a single gallery, much less learn to create it, post it and then start to see the results (usually pretty poor for a newb). it takes either more than full time effort for weeks or else regular effort for months to get to really be a fairly well rounded webmaster.

spend a month as a webmaster full time and a person will have the very beginnings - not enough to make a living - of being a webmaster. the legal challenges, the various ways to get traffic - it's easy to talk and to hear about, but learning to do it is another story.

I agree, Patti, but then you run into issues surrounding compensation for all that time spent doing the research. Believe me, I would like to do this just so I COULD learn first-hand just what is involved in the industry, but A) AVN Online could never afford to not have me in the office for more than a week, and B) I doubt any magazine could afford to pay a freelancer for a month's worth of time spent with a webmaster ON TOP of the fee for the actual article. So you kind of have to go with the happy medium and compromise the vision a little. But I do think there is merit to this idea, and I'm gonig to pitch it again to see if we can't at least get away with "Spend a Week with a Webmaster."

[Lee]

"Spend a Week with a Webmaster."

Monday to Friday 9-5, just like regular Joe webmaster

Also, if you are being paid to spend a week as a webmaster, you still arent learning because ultimately, it wont matter if you make any sales, you'll still be getting paid either way.

1 day without sales really can make or break affiliates, many that i know if they skip a day without sales are fucked when it comes to paying the rent, electricity, or even eating.

Regards,

Lee

[XXXWriterDude]

Monday to Friday 9-5, just like regular Joe webmaster

Also, if you are being paid to spend a week as a webmaster, you still arent learning because ultimately, it wont matter if you make any sales, you'll still be getting paid either way.

1 day without sales really can make or break affiliates, many that i know if they skip a day without sales are fucked when it comes to paying the rent, electricity, or even eating.

Point taken, Lee, but you try convincing a professional to come put in the hours at Condom Cash and expect not to get paid for their time.

[Lee]

Point taken, Lee, but you try convincing a professional to come put in the hours at Condom Cash and expect not to get paid for their time.

Ken, thats my point, in my eyes (and a lot of others on GWW) spending a week doing stuff for Condom Cash ISNT spending a week doing the work of a 'webmaster'.

The fact is, if i could spend an entire week working solely on Condom Cash id be extremely lucky LOL

Being a webmaster means having to juggle several jobs at the same time, renaming, resizing and thumbnailing image sets is pretty much a days work, granted yoou can set it on 'auto' with the programs but, many new webmasters dont have the right programs, so thats a days work right there, then you have the uploading, and that isnt even touching the site building aspect of things yet that happens on a daily basis, or the submitting, or choosing the right sponsor, the right traffic sources, etc etc.

Spending 1 week at any of the major programs is not going to be indusive of a week in the life of a webmaster because a lot of webmasters dont own programs or even their own paysites.

Again, because you dont have first hand knowledge, you wouldnt know that, you think that spending a week ding stuff on Condom Cash is what a 'webmaster' would do, it really isnt, it isnt even what i do because i simply dont have time to spend a solid week JUST working on Condom Cash.

Regards,

Lee

[XXXWriterDude]

Ken, thats my point, in my eyes (and a lot of others on GWW) spending a week doing stuff for Condom Cash ISNT spending a week doing the work of a 'webmaster'.

The fact is, if i could spend an entire week working solely on Condom Cash id be extremely lucky LOL

Being a webmaster means having to juggle several jobs at the same time, renaming, resizing and thumbnailing image sets is pretty much a days work, granted yoou can set it on 'auto' with the programs but, many new webmasters dont have the right programs, so thats a days work right there, then you have the uploading, and that isnt even touching the site building aspect of things yet that happens on a daily basis, or the submitting, or choosing the right sponsor, the right traffic sources, etc etc.

Spending 1 week at any of the major programs is not going to be indusive of a week in the life of a webmaster because a lot of webmasters dont own programs or even their own paysites.

Again, because you dont have first hand knowledge, you wouldnt know that, you think that spending a week ding stuff on Condom Cash is what a 'webmaster' would do, it really isnt, it isnt even what i do because i simply dont have time to spend a solid week JUST working on Condom Cash.

Regards,

Lee

Yes, Lee, but MY point is that there is no way in hell we would ever get ANY kind of a story out of ANYONE if we asked them to work for free. Hello!

[gaybucks_chip]

I agree with Ken that, when you're talking about consenting adults, two people who meet each other and are attracted can, of course, decide to have a quickie/start a relationship/whatever.

My issue is when that decision occurs in a situation where there's an imbalance of power. That's the underlying reason why sex between someone under 18 and someone over 18 is generally illegal. It's the same between an therapist or physician and patient. And while not illegal per se, it's the same imbalance of power between an employer and employee that has given rise to laws protecting employees in the workplace from sexual harassment.

Especially when a studio is working with younger models, (ethical) owners or employees of the studio ought to know that regardless of how it's approached, a model may feel some sort of obligation to "go along" with a request for sex. If the model is doing the shoot for the money and really needs it, he may well feel that if he says no, he won't get the job, or won't get any future work or whatever. And even if he's disinclined to do it, because of the imbalance of power, if the studio owner says or implies that "this is the way it works in the business", the model may not know any different and, as many have stated here, simply believe it because of what they've seen in videos or from other perceptions they have.

I agree with Ken that the majority of companies in the industry as a whole may be more informal and unstructured than our counterparts in other industries. I also agree that selling sexually explicit materials is, by nature, intended to support the "loosening up" of sometimes prudish attitudes that a majority of people might have about sex and sexual situations. But there can still be professionalism in all circumstances, and there should (in my opinion) be respect and courtesy toward models in all circumstances.

We hired a new employee recently, a video editor. We didn't even know he was gay until after he started working for us. We explained during the interview process that it would probably be a little bit shocking for someone unfamiliar with porn and the porn business, because we'd be talking in detail about cum shots, asshole closeups, erections, etc., and I also mentioned that some of the guys who have edited for us have occasionally gotten, um, "distracted" while working with the materials, and that it was OK to go off and take care of that if it ever happened and he needed to. But all of the conversation was handled in a professional way, and I said that while we needed to be able to be open about communicating about content, we also wanted him to feel comfortable and we realized it would probably be a process that took some time.

Of course, you can't do quite the same thing with models who are fucking other models on camera, but you can still make it clear that they are there to do a job, that they'll be treated respectfully and professionally, and that no one will ever approach them or put them in a situation where they will feel uncomfortable or unsafe.

I do strongly believe that if it's going to happen, it should *only* be at a point where the imbalance of power is less present, such as contacting the model days or weeks after the shoot and after he's left the studio, or when there's less of an imbalance in the first place, such as a model that's worked extensively in the industry and knows the score, or a model who is considerably older and in less of a position to be manipulated. For our company, neither AJ nor I would feel comfortable approaching a model to propose having sex with either of us, nor would we tolerate that from any of our staff or contractors, but that's just the way we've chosen to run our business, and I'm not suggesting it's the "right" way or the "only" way.

[XXXWriterDude]

I do strongly believe that if it's going to happen, it should *only* be at a point where the imbalance of power is less present, such as contacting the model days or weeks after the shoot and after he's left the studio, or when there's less of an imbalance in the first place, such as a model that's worked extensively in the industry and knows the score, or a model who is considerably older and in less of a position to be manipulated. For our company, neither AJ nor I would feel comfortable approaching a model to propose having sex with either of us, nor would we tolerate that from any of our staff or contractors, but that's just the way we've chosen to run our business, and I'm not suggesting it's the "right" way or the "only" way.

Great post, Chip, and I agree with you.