17 ms·

Thanks for sharing your xp. I always thought that working for ManWinn (the proprietors of PornHub and Brazzer etc) in Montreal would be an interesting xp. Wasn'

Thanks for sharing your xp. I always thought that working for ManWinn (the proprietors of PornHub and Brazzer etc) in Montreal would be an interesting xp. Wasn't even thinking about the technical challenges but thought maybe in a business where you are selling a primal human desire, you cannot be coy and hide behind the usual BS startup-speak, "changing the world by bringing joy to the inspired accountants and internet markers of the world via artisanal book-keeping SaaS/AdWords campaign dashboards written in GoFluxReduxGoRustEmberElixir and handcrafted in California, lightly dressed with material responsive design"... "No, we're the proprietors of amateur and Brazzer Network-produced porn using PHP and web-design from the 90's (yes complete with the old plain pop-up's but none of that new subscription modal pop-up dark pattern), but our customers' penises do not care - in fact they love it." When you're building software for a specialized field like finance, health care etc., the end-impact is always obscured by layers of product managers, business analyst and the domain where you have no knowledge - web development in porn seems like a good biz to be into where "I'm not only the Hair Club president, but also a client."

cerrelio 10y ago
You're right. Porn sites in general are poorly designed from the UI side. But the fact is, porn users will go through hoops to find what they want. Eventually the porn companies got into analytics (I'd say in the mid- to late- 2000's), and the ones who used that data to improve their products took off. One thing about being an engineer there was that you did actually own the product end-to-end. I remember taking systems from development to production without all the bullshit you normally encounter at large corporations. I would put something into production and my boss (the CTO) would leisurely say "Oh yeah, contact so-and-so in ops to have them secure the server." I would do that, and I didn't get a freak-out like you'd experience in more straight-laced companies: "YOU PUT THIS IN PRODUCTION WITHOUT FILLING OUT ALL THE REQUIRED JIRA TICKETS AND APPROVAL FROM 3 LAYERS OF MANAGEMENT?!?! WE'RE GONNA HAVE TO TAKE THIS DOWN AND HAVE A MEETING!" Nope, a dude in ops, who was usually stoned, would log in, add all the necessary protections and even redeploy the whole stack if he had to. No griping. One thing about it was that you'd have to be okay with some unscrupulous/unethical practices. Copyright infringement is par for the course in that industry. Studios/companies stealing others' content is unavoidable (and encouraged). I remember when I wrote a tube site and I was given a list of other tube sites to rip content from. For that particular project the product manager (who was also a high-ranking exec) strongly emphasized two things: every action had to be trackable, and it was a necessary requirement that handling DMCA take-down notices had to be a very streamlined and automated process. Why? They would have people monitor which videos were heavily viewed and which were taken down frequently. If a particular studio's content generated lots of traffic but were frequently taken down, the sales/ad guys would contact that studio to make a deal. If no deal was struck, then an "anonymous user" would reupload the content to the site; starting the cycle again. Eventually that would wear down the studio into cutting a rev-sharing deal. Sometimes the company would buy the studio outright, if it made enough sense.
- emp_zealoth 10y ago
  Actually the last part makes great sense - it pretty much is what allowed music platforms to proliferate. It levels the playing field where you no longer are fleeced mercilessly. I mean, I use Libgen and usually get enough books to cost me 5k or 10k €. Hopefully it will bring sanity into that market (Even though it is already blocked in UK, for some obscure reason) Take my Spotify away and I'll probably just stop caring about music that much at all
  - DanBC 10y ago
    Here's what some UK users will see. > Access to this website has been > Blocked > Blocking access to the ibgen.org and libgen.in website has been made pursuant to a Court Order dated 19 May 2015 obtained by the members of the Bloomsbury Publishing PLC and others. > Any TalkTalk customer affected by the Court Order has a right under the Court Order to apply to vary or discharge it. Any such application must: > (i) clearly indicate the identity and status of the applicant; > (ii) be supported by evidence setting out and justifying the grounds of the application; and > (iii) be made on 10 days notice to all of the parties to the Court Order.
    - dogma1138 10y ago
      http://golibgen.io/ http://golibgen.io/ works. The UK's asinine policy in regards to the internet is why I no longer use any connection that terminate in the UK.
      - jnsaff2 10y ago
        Or use http://aa.net.uk http://aa.net.uk which does not have filtering at all and has native IPv6, is run by people who care for their craft. I've been a very happy customer.
        dogma1138 10y ago
        They unfortunately have datacaps and don't offer fiber only openreach FTTC style connections at best and at about 3 times what I pay for 1gbit up/down in London ATM.

cerrelio 10y ago

You're right. Porn sites in general are poorly designed from the UI side. But the fact is, porn users will go through hoops to find what they want. Eventually the porn companies got into analytics (I'd say in the mid- to late- 2000's), and the ones who used that data to improve their products took off. One thing about being an engineer there was that you did actually own the product end-to-end. I remember taking systems from development to production without all the bullshit you normally encounter at large corporations. I would put something into production and my boss (the CTO) would leisurely say "Oh yeah, contact so-and-so in ops to have them secure the server." I would do that, and I didn't get a freak-out like you'd experience in more straight-laced companies: "YOU PUT THIS IN PRODUCTION WITHOUT FILLING OUT ALL THE REQUIRED JIRA TICKETS AND APPROVAL FROM 3 LAYERS OF MANAGEMENT?!?! WE'RE GONNA HAVE TO TAKE THIS DOWN AND HAVE A MEETING!" Nope, a dude in ops, who was usually stoned, would log in, add all the necessary protections and even redeploy the whole stack if he had to. No griping. One thing about it was that you'd have to be okay with some unscrupulous/unethical practices. Copyright infringement is par for the course in that industry. Studios/companies stealing others' content is unavoidable (and encouraged). I remember when I wrote a tube site and I was given a list of other tube sites to rip content from. For that particular project the product manager (who was also a high-ranking exec) strongly emphasized two things: every action had to be trackable, and it was a necessary requirement that handling DMCA take-down notices had to be a very streamlined and automated process. Why? They would have people monitor which videos were heavily viewed and which were taken down frequently. If a particular studio's content generated lots of traffic but were frequently taken down, the sales/ad guys would contact that studio to make a deal. If no deal was struck, then an "anonymous user" would reupload the content to the site; starting the cycle again. Eventually that would wear down the studio into cutting a rev-sharing deal. Sometimes the company would buy the studio outright, if it made enough sense.

emp_zealoth 10y ago
Actually the last part makes great sense - it pretty much is what allowed music platforms to proliferate. It levels the playing field where you no longer are fleeced mercilessly. I mean, I use Libgen and usually get enough books to cost me 5k or 10k €. Hopefully it will bring sanity into that market (Even though it is already blocked in UK, for some obscure reason) Take my Spotify away and I'll probably just stop caring about music that much at all
- DanBC 10y ago
  Here's what some UK users will see. > Access to this website has been > Blocked > Blocking access to the ibgen.org and libgen.in website has been made pursuant to a Court Order dated 19 May 2015 obtained by the members of the Bloomsbury Publishing PLC and others. > Any TalkTalk customer affected by the Court Order has a right under the Court Order to apply to vary or discharge it. Any such application must: > (i) clearly indicate the identity and status of the applicant; > (ii) be supported by evidence setting out and justifying the grounds of the application; and > (iii) be made on 10 days notice to all of the parties to the Court Order.
  - dogma1138 10y ago
    http://golibgen.io/ http://golibgen.io/ works. The UK's asinine policy in regards to the internet is why I no longer use any connection that terminate in the UK.
    - jnsaff2 10y ago
      Or use http://aa.net.uk http://aa.net.uk which does not have filtering at all and has native IPv6, is run by people who care for their craft. I've been a very happy customer.
      - dogma1138 10y ago
        They unfortunately have datacaps and don't offer fiber only openreach FTTC style connections at best and at about 3 times what I pay for 1gbit up/down in London ATM.