rawTOP

I spent a fair amount of time this weekend and this morning drafting an 8 page (!) explanation of how to protect kids from accidentally seeing porn without infringing on people's free speech rights or their right to privacy. I then emailed it and sent it registered mail to Senator Schumer's legislative director. If anyone can get a good child protection law through Congress it's Schumer. The question is whether their eyes will glaze over when the read the details - so I had an older, (well-known) straight fetish producer who's a bit of a Luddite read it to make sure it was understandable. He liked it, but it wasn't the first time he heard me explain the concept. If I don't hear from Schumer's office in 2 weeks I'll send it to a Congressperson who's from Silicon Valley who has staff who are technical enough to understand it, and Big Tech connections connections who can validate that it can work technically. And if I haven't heard back from someone two weeks after that I'll alternate Senators & Congresspeople with technical expertise every two weeks until I hear from someone. Hell, I'll even hit up Mitt Romney if I run out of Democrats since I could see him supporting my approach. (Mormons tend to be fairly level-headed and practical on stuff like this). "Be the change you want to see in the world" - right? It is getting some press coverage, but not a lot. California also passed a law last year. The big social media companies pretty quickly filed a lawsuit to challenge it on First Amendment grounds. The thing is the Republicans wrote their laws so the government wasn't involved. Like many of the recent anti-abortion and anti-trans laws they get private citizens to file the lawsuits. So there's no way to file a lawsuit to challenge the lawsuit - we have to wait until someone is sued. I think a lot of porn companies are either unaware of the new laws (they went into effect quickly) or they assume someone will file a lawsuit challenging the laws (which is impossible), so they don't think they're a threat. Some paysite owners are making the tours PG-13 and then choosing a commercial service for age verification when someone from a restricted state goes to buy a membership. While the cost of those commercial services is cost-prohibitive for sites like this one, it's not in the context of someone buying a membership. So you're OK with this site shutting down if enough states enact similar laws? I'm thinking of banning you just so you can experience what that would be like.

The software that drives this site isn't capable of integrating with age verification services. Changing that would be cost prohibitive. Even if it could handle AV, the reoccurring costs would be more than Breeding Zone makes Even if the cost were affordable - it would block search engine spiders like Google (since allowing Googlebot/Bingbot through based on their user agent strings probably violates the law). Those search engines are the primary source of new members That will result in the slow death of the site - which is exactly why these laws are being passed - they want us to go out of business. I've said this pretty loudly on the main adult industry forum - there is a completely different solution which won't put us out of business. They're called Private Access Tokens (aka PATs). Apple has already started to use PATs to replace CAPTCHA, and Google is working on implementing them as well. The idea is that your device knows more about you than anyone else. Apple and Google are using them to confirm that the user is human. They could also be used to confirm whether adult content blocks are in place on the device. Then the parent only has to do a minimal amount of parenting to turn on the adult content block. (And adults who don't want to see adult content can turn on the block as well). Then PATs can be used to confirm that adult content block is not turned on. It's quick, cheap and efficient. And PATs are completely privacy-protecting. There's no 3rd party who knows you're accessing adult content. There's no additional database that can be hacked since it happens in the moment with no logging. Thing is, it's not age verification. It's verification of a lack of an adult content block. But it achieves the same goal. Actually, PATs would be more effective since the current laws don't apply to the major social media sites since the laws only apply to sites with >33% "harmful" content, and PATs are so quick, cheap and easy that even social media sites could be required to use them. At the end of the day these laws are being written by religious conservatives with the goal of putting sites like this out of business. Our silence is allowing them to determine how children are protected. They are not the best people to be writing these laws - their goal is to put us out of business. If the tech industry worked with the adult industry we could do a better job at protecting kids and not put us out of business. The laws in LA & VA want more than that. Yet those age verification pop-ups do help. It's pretty widely accepted that you'll never stop a kid who's determined to see porn. They will find a way to get around anything you implement. The thing absolutely no one wants and which needs to be addressed is kids accidentally seeing porn. The age verification pop-ups do help, but they're not perfect. Having to enter a birth date is even better. But the real problem is social media sites - and they're not covered by these laws - because the laws were written by people who want to put us out of business - "protecting children" is just a ruse.

If you're in Virginia - pay attention! You're about to be blocked from using this site. Just as Louisiana was blocked from this site a few months ago - your legislature just passed a bill similar to Louisiana's (with near unanimous support, and no one speaking up against it). Given the conservative leanings of your governor and the lack of opposition - it looks like it will pass, at which point I'll block the state of Virginia. More details here: https://apple.news/AEC0QFlK_RWu-ECr74wy3DA Please do the legwork and figure out if there's a way to stop this. And remember - WHO YOU VOTE FOR MATTERS!!

I just put something in place so 45 days after you request account deletion your profile page will start throwing a "not found" error. After doing a batch of deletions I usually get a guy or two saying "Why did you delete my account?" or "Why can't I login?" - either they had forgotten that they requested the account deletion, or they didn't logout and someone with access to their computer requested the deletion. This will up the chances that they see something is wrong and cancel the deletion request before it's too late.

Here's a weird factoid for you… You've probably heard of your "gut microbiome" but did you know penises have microbiomes too? And they're altered by circumcision… Full article here - https://www.sciencealert.com/circumcision-appears-to-alter-the-penis-microbiome-study-finds

This has been implemented. Every week or so I'll update the list of long bans. In the meantime if you try to go to a profile that has a long ban you'll get an error. That means that Google will drop those profile pages from its index (though it may take a week or so).

If I could reinstate it, then it wouldn't really be deleted, would it? When people ask for their accounts to be deleted they expect it to be in a manner where it's actually deleted. The laws on this topic also expect that. And to be clear - the only time I delete accounts is when someone goes into Settings and requests account deletion. Which means either someone had access to your account and requested it without your knowledge. Or you were high/drunk when you requested it and forgot you had requested it. Accounts aren't deleted until at least 60 days after the request - so there's plenty of time in there where you could have forgotten if you were impared at the time you did the request. I can't help any of those scenarios. It's up to you to 1) secure your account, and 2) take responsibility for what you do - even if you're drunk or high when you do it.

The one gotcha about how the software for this site works is that if you're permanently banned you can't login to request account deletion. (The software is what it is - I don't develop it - I just do what I can with it.) The other day I thought up a 1/2 way decent compromise… I'll make it impossible to view profile pages for users who've been banned for long periods of time. (For those who are techies - I'll return a 410 response code for those URLs.) The page technically will still exist, it just won't be viewable. I've written some code to do the blocks. I'll test it tomorrow. (It's part of a process that runs daily and I've already run the process today).

We have never sold the mailing list for this site. The closest we came was many years ago we gave it to a trusted sponsor who sent out promotional emails on our behalf. They assured us the list was deleted after they sent out the emails. But we don't even do that kind of thing any more. I responded to this user MANY times. He just didn't like the response. When his repeated emails turned harassing in nature I stopped responding.

And immediately after I write that someone reported a problem when they're using Safari on an iPhone 14… So not an old browser…

After some back and forth with the developer of the software used to run this site, I've implemented something which I hope will help reduce the problem. I suspect the problem is with older web browsers that don't fully support date input fields. When that happens the browser just treats the input area as a normal text input area. The developer put a placeholder (hint) into the area that said "Birthday" which is completely unhelpful to people who need to enter the date as text. I've written a Javascript which changes the placeholder hint to "YYYY-MM-DD" which let's people with older browsers know the correct format they need to enter to have their birth date understood. If you have a newer browser your browser will give you some sort of date picking interface and will then submit the value in that format. Some of the date picking interfaces are rather frustrating when you have to go years in the past, but that's your browser's fault, not the fault of the site coding. Now to see if the reports of problems go down significantly. 🤞

https://apple.news/AWT1Nmy_IRFWBxdJEDROEdA [Personally I've never had a particular good experience with marijuana. I've tried smoking it, I've tried edibles, etc. It's just not my thing. At the end of the day, while hardcore chem sex bothers me on many levels, I couldn't care less about guys using pot. IMHO, it's pretty harmless.] This site has a Chem Sex section, but with pot becoming increasingly legal, I'm questioning whether discussion of pot use is necessarily "chem sex" or whether it's somewhere between smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol. What are your thoughts? Those of you with addiction issues - is marijuana use something you'd like to see segregated along with chem sex? (That's another driver of what goes in that section…)

This isn't a development or business forum. So Urban, your questions aren't really appropriate here, so I'm locking the thread. (Don't start up another thread on the same topic - that will get you banned).

@MusclePup, @heavilypiercedguy, @Faggotwhore72, @rjtopher - you're all set. I'll try to release something tomorrow for you guys to see / test / discuss, but it won't be as much as I wanted because I came to the realization that I want to upgrade the page(s) to the latest version of Bootstrap. I was hoping to also release the text entry part of setting up a profile, but because that involves forms and how Bootstrap works with forms changed over the years since I initially built those pages, it'll take some time to get that working.

Done.

@UKFFBBBtm, @Medwaym, @cumslutfuckpig, @Pureviralchaser, @Chris42 - You're all set up. @Oldercumslut - You actually already had beta tester access. @BtmSubBoi, @PigglyScruff - ask again when you're out of "New Member" status.

We can't really take feature requests for the site since it's off-the-shelf software. Sorry.

It's because they went directly to my host, not to me. That sours my relationship with my host if it happens too often. And in this case it was an exposure fetishist who posted the content himself. It wasn't even piracy. I get it if some take down service goes to the host directly in a case of piracy, but members are expected to work within the community to get problems resolved.

There is no investigation. The site is generally GDPR compliant despite not being required to be since we have no business presence in the UK or the EU. There is also not a huge problem with registrations. The site gets about 400 registrations per month. A number that hasn't changed much in at least 18 months. However… a few people do have problems entering their birth date during registration. This has been going on for a while now. It's unclear why a few people have the problem while many others don't. I suspect it has to do with entering the year. If you have the problem 1) try a different browser, 2) wait a day or two and try again since once the cookie is st that you're underage you have to wait for the cookie to expire. But in general be very careful that the full 4 digit year is entered properly.

@OzzieCumdumpster & @Lonebottom - you've been put into the beta test group. There won't be any significant testing until mid- to late-January, however.

The block for the state of Louisiana has been enabled. If you're in Louisiana and not on a VPN, let me know and I can look into it. If you're on a VPN, turn it off and see if you can still access the site. (It's about making an effort to ensure it's working - helps the site legally).

I'm putting the block in place later today since I'll be out-of-town on the 1st. I've already put it in place on rawTOP.com and my porn sites (e.g. bbbh.com, spunkbud.com, etc.) The way it's implemented on rawTOP.com is most similar to how it will be implemented here, so those of you in/around Louisiana, please feel free to test it out and let me know if you're blocked. If you're not blocked I can look into what is going wrong.

The analogy I like to use is you're in someone's house and you make a mess and the homeowner has to then clean up your mess. It's no big deal if it happens once in a while by mistake. But it is a significant problem if you just don't give a fuck and have an entitled attitude as if your mommy still follows you around cleaning up your messes. The 2nd case is just flat out rude to the volunteer moderators who keep this site running. This is why I clap back HARD when people get offended by infractions. From my point of view the fact that you're complaining rather than apologizing means you're an asshole who I don't want on the site. Which then ties into the original question - prove to me that you understand what this site is about and its culture, THEN I'm interested in what you think is good or bad. Until then just watch and (politely) participate. (And yes, some interactions do affect other people's standing on the site - so I limit who can interact with posts. If I had designed the system I'd let everyone rate things and then weight the ratings based on their status on the site. So a newbie's rating might not affect anything while a senior member's rating could strongly impact things. And I'd probably go as far as making it so a newbie who gives the opposite rating of most senior members gets penalized for their rating. But that's not how the software works. )

Some good news… The Independent did an article on the bills that Sen. Mike Lee introduced… https://apple.news/AHdJq7h95TsONTKaKe3T8ew For starters the article clarifies that he introduced two bills (not one). SCREEN is about age verification, and the other is about redefining obscenity. The article does a good job of explaining each, in context (which I won't rehash here). Then it goes on… So this means that some adult industry people who were predicting that the bills could see significant support from both parties are most likely wrong. Luckily no one seems to like this guy. And if they don't like him, they probably can't be bothered to get his bills out of committee or vote for them. 🤞

And it get worse… A Senator from Utah is introducing legislation that would criminalize 99% of porn as well as this site. And there's a decent chance it could pass. Guys - this is why I keep saying WHO YOU VOTE FOR MATTERS!