Customers Are Catching On

I was delighted to discover that customers aren’t quite as clueless as the sites give them credit for. These customers (who shall remain nameless for their own security), detailed experiences they had on Streamate. In Skype chat conversations with me, they admitted:

There was no mystery surrounding the site’s erratic, bullying behaviour toward the more strong, independent-minded camgirls, from what I could see. This aggressive stronghold afforded them power to exercise authority, maintaining control over the masses. Implementing harsh penalties for anyone who steps out of line was a common theme amongst the sites and it worked like a charm.
It was easy to see why girls would conform. The fear of losing certain priveleges that translate directly into earnings was enough to silence most. Others (such as myself) were given a bumpier ride with that, as well as constant harassment, both on and off the platform, plus whatever was to ensue after obtaining the trademark for Amanda36c, had I not discovered their filing in the first place and opposed it.
To back up what these members are saying, I’ll add some of my own experiences.
Once, I noticed an influx of new girls replacing those that normally filled the top spots on the main page. Tired of the games being played on us by these sites, and being screwed over more times than I could count, I started to expose this in a blog. I’ve sat and watched the bouncing and blocking of members to my room more then enough times. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what was going on here (though don’t expect the cowardly sites to admit it).

I remained firm in my refusal to work under a recruiter for a smaller chunk of commission on promises of higher volumes of traffic. I know how these pigs operate. You give them an inch, they’ll take a mile … and indirectly point the blame at you. Unfortunately, most girls did sign the deal with the devil. Short-term gain must have looked appealing at the time but their failure to see the big picture was the downfall that had the most impact on the longevity of that deal.
There was another time I noticed a huge change in my room. Traffic entering would vanish immediately or before they even had the chance to type “hello” into the chat. Initially, I thought this was just a glitch but it went on for months, despite my efforts to be in compliance with the site’s recommended system requirements. Members that were persistent and finally did manage to break in, complained that they tried many times to enter my room but it wouldn’t let them in. This occurred in both free chat as well as private. They kept clicking but the system would return them to the listing. In the weeks to come, I started to notice my listing plummet further down the page. From page one, I eventually found myself on page two, being pushed further and further back. Then onto page three and eventually page four (what may as well be the site’s ‘black hole’) because by this time, not only were there no new members to my room, the regulars that were smart enough to find me outside of the site, would tell me I am no longer on their favorites list and they haven’t seen me live in months, when in fact, I was on nightly.

Relevant to my point, below are two screenshots of cam programs whose features clearly represent the type of activity occurring. All admin panels, controlled by the sites, have the ability to kick and block users from any particular room. While I’m sure their initial purpose was designed with good intent, my own experiences show them used for a less than noble cause.

Having established that motive for the sites to use the kick and block feature, it would be extremely naive to assume they won’t take advantage of this great money-making opportunity. Where do the users end up when they get kicked? Back to the listings. Page 1. Who’s on page 1? Studios and recruited girls whose commissions are way lower than 35%. Some (if not all) of these studios and agencies are owned by the site itself.

The same person paid to harass me was assigned the task of kicking and blocking members from my room, under his admin access. The whole scenario is complicated. Sometimes, it’s just wiser to keep my aces in the hole.

You can ignore this and just keep sending send them traffic from your Twitter and Facebook accounts, wondering where it’s all disappeared to when you notice none of it is in your room, spending. I’m sure they will have no problem shelling out 35% to you, over the girls who accept so much less than that. Just the fact that there exist girls who work for less should tell us all how disposable we are to these sites and how much, in their heart of hearts, they really give a rat’s ass about us.

They play businessmen but we all know what they really are.