Well, I’d vote no. I’ve reviewed over 50 clubs, I currently do not have VIP status. As mentioned in an earlier thread I don’t think me doing reviews on clubs I’ve already been to and reviewed multiple times adds much value. Therefore, I refrain from writing a review on a clubs I’ve reviewed multiple times so I don’t clog up that particular club page. I think a review once or twice a year on the same club is not overkill. Anything more probably is.
On the other hand dudes that haven’t written 1 single review, I can see the point of wanting them to contribute in some way to the site to get access to certain privileges.
Founder, a lot of guys on the discussion board message each other frequently. I’ve also had a lot of guys in the past read a review I wrote and message me specific questions. Likely that person paid or contributed to be able to read my review and that person wouldn’t be able to contact me if I was currently out of VIP status therefore not having access to messages.
Many longtime standing members probably float in and out o VIP status all year.
I get a lot of PMs - often from people coming down to Miami asking me club info - many of them are new to TUSCL and non-VIP or not very active and mostly non-VIP - I don't mind and enjoy sharing info.
It's rare I get "spam" PMs and/or improper PMs, does happen, but rare - I think completely discommunicating someone b/c they are not VIP it's too draconian - if it becomes a problem then the Ignore feature should handle that
No way. That would run people off. And with threads closing after two weeks, the volume of posts has already dropped. People are not going to pay money if they don't want to. Just like with RB, it works because most are not paying.
If it was up for a vote I think the PM system should remain just as it is I send and receive dozens of PMs every month, if someone’s VIP lapses I’d hate not having the ability to get in touch with them.
^^^ listen just because flagooner sends you a bunch of PMs I’m not sure you can say “I receive dozens of PMs,” like you’re somebody important like LDK82 or San Jose Guy.
The content of this site is user generated. This generates traffic and this generates the value. This is the only way there could be reviews and knowledgeable people from all over the country.
Most adult sites suck in terms of post volumes and active participation.
Requiring VIP status to read reviews is okay.
But making a two tier system when it comes to PM's would kill the forum.
also, bug report. Say go to discussions and look at one. Then say I click on log in and so so. It does not always go back to the same discussion, it finds another one. So I have to use the reverse arrow to get back to the original one.
^
Shailynn that's a perfect reason for you to write a review or two to get your VIP back and for Founder to make PMs for VIPs only.
Nobody's PMing the creep but he PMs every new dancer with his creepy stuff and I suspect that's why some of them post a couple times and disappear. He's scaring them off.
I'm for PMs for VIPs only.
This forum usually has a high level of trolling and people appointing themselves as enforcer of herd think. A two tier situation with regard to PM's would make it worse.
More posts and more participation would be better. How about topical sections for the Discussions Index, as most message boards have. Can threads be allowed to stay open? How about besides last post date, showing name of last poster. That way you don't have to click on the link, if you are still the last poster. Most message boards have this, and it does help, in my opinion.
This site is great! I don't want to see anything done to change that. If there are ways to improve it though, okay.
I'm going to chime in here with my 2¢. As shailynn mentioned he is, I am no longer VIP either. I still read, glance at, and reply to some discussions. I am not at all actively going to clubs any longer. Some here know the reason. Those members that I consider friends I use TUSCL messaging to keep in contact. Or a phone call now and then.
As one of the older and longest time TUSCLer, I'd hate to find out I might as well just give it up all together. That said, only one persons choice matters. I will leave that up to founder who as served my needs here well as I near the end of my 18th year on TUSCL.
I'll register a conditional no. Some really capable people sometimes let their VIP periodically lapse. I'd favor that once one reaches a threshold of submitting a minimum number of reviews (say, 1-3) then PM capability should be accorded and maintained. One website that I belong to requires a minimum of 5 DB posts before PM privileges are accorded.
I'd be curious to hear the rationale for VIP only PM's.
More seriously, I can't see how PMs for VIPs only would help the site in any way. Unlike reviews, PMs aren't such an asset that someone would write a review or pay for a VIP just for that; meanwhile, it could annoy the actual VIPs, who now can't even PM anyone who is not also a VIP.
As minnow suggests, I can see some minimum bar being set, I suppose -- 1 article published or 1 review or 20 forum comments, say, if drive-by PMing is some sort of problem on the site
Why don’t you guys just pay the ten dollars per month to have vip memberships? This is an expensive hobby. I’m surprised you guy won’t pay to support the site.
^i was paying at one point but it was a pre paid card and it expired or i forgot to reload after a while. I might get another one soon to support the site.
BJ99- Oh, but we DO pay to support the site. We do it by submitting club reviews where we spent $100-$300 per visit or more. Don't bite the hand that feeds you.
I’d be interested in some sort of “review volume index”, relative to past review volume or Founder’s goals. I might be interested in writing more reviews if I knew “quantitatively” how much I was helping the TUSCL “community”. Free 30-day VIP has its limits as an effective incentive.
Real issue is what new incentives will drive more review writing.
I think PM should be limited to those who have at least gotten one review or article published. Those with zero reviews tend to be trolls even if they paid for VIP or post a lot of nonsense remarks on the discussion boards.
I see what you're trying to do with limiting PM. I think you can tackle this another way. Perhaps restrict new accounts of some features (such as PM) for the first couple weeks or so
Maybe some VIP members get a lot of PM spam? My vote (with very limited info) is to leave PM's open. If there's a negative impact to keeping the site up and running with universal PM privileges, that's different.
Maybe some middle of the road options are worth considering?
An option for members to restrict incoming PM's to be from VIP's only? Maybe a VIP only option? Maybe a time limit, new accounts can't PM for a week or something? Maybe a minimum contribution score?
I guess it really depends what you're trying to accomplish. Get more people to go VIP? Prevent unwanted messages?
I think messages should be open to all users. However, if there are restrictions, it shouldn’t be to not allow messages. Maybe the restriction could be the number of messsges? But that’s a bit odd - as members can move from vip to non vip. So I’d recommend not changing it.
I don't think it's a lot to ask that a user post 1 review in order to unlock private messaging. This site primarily exists upon its reviews. It's fair for founder to put incentives in place to encourage reviews.
-->"I wonder.. If for some reason, founder would like more ppl to pay for membership, how could he incentivize that, while still encouraging reviews?"
BJ, I don't know of any sex industry site that has pulled that off. The reviews are ultimately what people will pay for, so the site's lifeblood is encouraging review-writing and rewarding it. I'm trying to think of, given I have a VIP from a review, what else I might pay for, and am having trouble thinking of anything. The other ways to increase revenue that I've seen are advertisements, which we already have. And, lastly, just more ways to bring eyeballs to the site, which potentially would increase the number of reviews, increase the number of paying VIPs, and increase the amount of revenue generated from ads. Again, the other revenue-generator I've seen from sex industry sites is classifieds, which is now a slippery slope, I suppose
^^^ people come here for the reviews, yes. But more generally, people come for information. Could founder somehow supply MORE information? More ACCURATE information? More PRECISE information? More USER DEFINED information? Some people may be willing to pay an extra 10 dollars if they can’t get that information anywhere else.
IMO, founder is sitting on a WEALTH of information that users have generated, and he is not fully tapping in to that information.
FTS: given someone who already has a VIP, what type of information would you consider paying for? I'm struggling to answer that question, but I might be lacking imagination here. I suppose I could imagine guys paying extra for more precise information of the type that is discouraged on tuscl currently (e.g., Candy at Club Vulva gives BJ for $200). Beyond that, given the level of YMMV, my gut feel about precise information is that the current level of detail gets us to all the significant digits, and anything else might be non-significant digits
So how can founder encourage both, writing reviews, and paying for vip? It seems like even the heaviest users of this site can’t justify 10.00 per month to support it, so why should casual users, who just read reviews now and then?
I think most folks are used to getting info on the web for free - IDK if there'd be a lot of folks willing to pay to read reviews but not sure.
Before I joined TUSCL, I had looked at it a couple of times and not joined to read reviews b/c I thought paying was the only-way and I was not really interested in paying to read reviews.
I think Papi_Chulo is onto something. I really doubt that you'll find many that will willingly pay a fee per month to get that information. We have many websites where you can get information and they're popular for a reason
Seems most websites rely on getting as many eyeballs/traffic as possible and then make $$$ from ads - usually the more eyeballs/traffic, the more ad-revenue, and charging readers one would think would decrease traffic - e.g. look at what's happened to newspapers.
Most sites on the internet do not charge for an e-mail address for a reason, that reason is simple, volume drives revenue.
So simply put if you have 1,000 unique pairs of eyes to view an ad you’ll get x if you have 100,000 pairs you’ll be able to charge y. The more clicks the more unique pairs of eyeballs the more valuable the real estare (ads are placed) and the higher the price per ad.
It’s no different on any media TV sells Super Bowl ads for millions, magazines, concert venues, sports venues, even building name rights, content drives revenue, (location) it’s simple folks end the free PMs and lose content, lose content. Lose eyeballs, lose eyeballs ad revenue declines. I don’t think there is a successful business, model that uses ad revenue that charges for content charge for content than eliminate the ads.
^ let’s compare! But we shouldn’t use the same pricing. I’m sure those dicks are harder for you suck the longer they get.
On the other hand, lap dances are easier when a guy has a bigger boner, so I’m thinking I’d start at some rate and then drop it by .50 cents for every inch after 3.
@Subraman. Off the top of my head, additional information could include:
How a clubs’ ratings (overall and by category) has changed over time. Especially useful for a club like Playhouse lounge, where the girls used to be much hotter. The data shows a gradual decline if you do the analysis.
Standard deviations, or something indicating a level of confidence in the rating. Anybody decent at math and stats can tell you that an “average” is totally useless, even if you know the constraint is 0-10.
Popular keywords. You ever see those infographics where a text is represented by a picture full of key words? And the more frequent the word, the larger it’s font? If a club is known for having mostly Latina women, the details might just list “mixed” for ethnicity. If I want more info, I have to read a bunch of reviews. If there was an info graphic, one of the big keywords might be “Latino” or something.
Ratings relative to city, county, state, and nation. E.g. Lido club rated #3 in NYC, #8 in NY, #42 in USA and #50 in N America
FTS: love your ideas, it's time tuscl offered strip club analytics for the masses! lol ... I'm joking, but I do find the things you mentioned useful, and with those as examples, I can think of other interesting ways to slice & dice this info as well. BTW, I also wonder if offering analytics and trending to strip clubs who advertise on tuscl, would bring in more advertisers?
For me, at least, it still doesn't address BJ's exactly question: will it get a review-VIP to also become a pay-VIP? For me, while I find the info interesting, I don't think I'd pay extra for it. But I tell you what I would do:
- If a single review got me a free VIP, but it took a 2nd review within 30 days to get the strip club analytics, I'd definitely do the 2nd review
- If I were on the fence about paying to become a VIP, maybe this would help tip me over
If founder wanted to seriously upgraded some of the data that is on TUSCL, seeing whether a SC is trending upwards or downwards is a great start. I personally do not care if a SC is an 8/10 overall but is more like a 6/10 in the past 6 months (2-3 months would be more ideal). Bringing more traffic to TUSCL will lead growth in the community and thus more reviews. Ad revenue helps as well. I would not want to have to pay for this information as I think it should be a standard feature but I am sure there are some who wouldn't mind
98 comments
On the other hand dudes that haven’t written 1 single review, I can see the point of wanting them to contribute in some way to the site to get access to certain privileges.
Many longtime standing members probably float in and out o VIP status all year.
It's rare I get "spam" PMs and/or improper PMs, does happen, but rare - I think completely discommunicating someone b/c they are not VIP it's too draconian - if it becomes a problem then the Ignore feature should handle that
SJG
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T575Pbo4…
SJG
Most adult sites suck in terms of post volumes and active participation.
Requiring VIP status to read reviews is okay.
But making a two tier system when it comes to PM's would kill the forum.
SJG
Older software did not have this problem.
SJG
Loretta Lynn - Harper Valley P.T.A. They used to play this on AM radio all the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYvzO91Q…
Shailynn that's a perfect reason for you to write a review or two to get your VIP back and for Founder to make PMs for VIPs only.
Nobody's PMing the creep but he PMs every new dancer with his creepy stuff and I suspect that's why some of them post a couple times and disappear. He's scaring them off.
I'm for PMs for VIPs only.
#stopthebullying
More posts and more participation would be better. How about topical sections for the Discussions Index, as most message boards have. Can threads be allowed to stay open? How about besides last post date, showing name of last poster. That way you don't have to click on the link, if you are still the last poster. Most message boards have this, and it does help, in my opinion.
This site is great! I don't want to see anything done to change that. If there are ways to improve it though, okay.
SJG
judy henske - high flying bird - 1963 from HOOTENANNY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxC4HZNx…
Richie Havens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj5aZdeH…
Jefferson Airplane
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsDdJWn5…
Over a year before the Beatles' Apple Roof Top Concert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAJJE5Wo…
Pentangle - Let No Man Steal Your Thyme (1968)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwT0COKX…
As one of the older and longest time TUSCLer, I'd hate to find out I might as well just give it up all together. That said, only one persons choice matters. I will leave that up to founder who as served my needs here well as I near the end of my 18th year on TUSCL.
PS well, okay, 8===D
I'd be curious to hear the rationale for VIP only PM's.
As minnow suggests, I can see some minimum bar being set, I suppose -- 1 article published or 1 review or 20 forum comments, say, if drive-by PMing is some sort of problem on the site
Real issue is what new incentives will drive more review writing.
My guess is that it’s not the money, but the inconvenience of finding a way to pay that won’t show up on your bank statement or credit card.
thank you.
An option for members to restrict incoming PM's to be from VIP's only? Maybe a VIP only option? Maybe a time limit, new accounts can't PM for a week or something? Maybe a minimum contribution score?
I guess it really depends what you're trying to accomplish. Get more people to go VIP? Prevent unwanted messages?
That's what you get for posting while waiting in line a Dollar Tree (best place room buy greeting cards ).
BJ, I don't know of any sex industry site that has pulled that off. The reviews are ultimately what people will pay for, so the site's lifeblood is encouraging review-writing and rewarding it. I'm trying to think of, given I have a VIP from a review, what else I might pay for, and am having trouble thinking of anything. The other ways to increase revenue that I've seen are advertisements, which we already have. And, lastly, just more ways to bring eyeballs to the site, which potentially would increase the number of reviews, increase the number of paying VIPs, and increase the amount of revenue generated from ads. Again, the other revenue-generator I've seen from sex industry sites is classifieds, which is now a slippery slope, I suppose
IMO, founder is sitting on a WEALTH of information that users have generated, and he is not fully tapping in to that information.
Before I joined TUSCL, I had looked at it a couple of times and not joined to read reviews b/c I thought paying was the only-way and I was not really interested in paying to read reviews.
So simply put if you have 1,000 unique pairs of eyes to view an ad you’ll get x if you have 100,000 pairs you’ll be able to charge y. The more clicks the more unique pairs of eyeballs the more valuable the real estare (ads are placed) and the higher the price per ad.
It’s no different on any media TV sells Super Bowl ads for millions, magazines, concert venues, sports venues, even building name rights, content drives revenue, (location) it’s simple folks end the free PMs and lose content, lose content. Lose eyeballs, lose eyeballs ad revenue declines. I don’t think there is a successful business, model that uses ad revenue that charges for content charge for content than eliminate the ads.
On the other hand, lap dances are easier when a guy has a bigger boner, so I’m thinking I’d start at some rate and then drop it by .50 cents for every inch after 3.
How a clubs’ ratings (overall and by category) has changed over time. Especially useful for a club like Playhouse lounge, where the girls used to be much hotter. The data shows a gradual decline if you do the analysis.
Standard deviations, or something indicating a level of confidence in the rating. Anybody decent at math and stats can tell you that an “average” is totally useless, even if you know the constraint is 0-10.
Popular keywords. You ever see those infographics where a text is represented by a picture full of key words? And the more frequent the word, the larger it’s font? If a club is known for having mostly Latina women, the details might just list “mixed” for ethnicity. If I want more info, I have to read a bunch of reviews. If there was an info graphic, one of the big keywords might be “Latino” or something.
Ratings relative to city, county, state, and nation. E.g. Lido club rated #3 in NYC, #8 in NY, #42 in USA and #50 in N America
.... I could go on....
Oh, wait...did I just post on this thread? Oh well, almost everyone else has.
For me, at least, it still doesn't address BJ's exactly question: will it get a review-VIP to also become a pay-VIP? For me, while I find the info interesting, I don't think I'd pay extra for it. But I tell you what I would do:
- If a single review got me a free VIP, but it took a 2nd review within 30 days to get the strip club analytics, I'd definitely do the 2nd review
- If I were on the fence about paying to become a VIP, maybe this would help tip me over