4 ms·

> The most fascinating thing to me about OF is how it's practically normalized having one. I don’t know any personal acquaintance or any celebrity that has one

by thih9 3y ago

> The most fascinating thing to me about OF is how it's practically normalized having one. I don’t know any personal acquaintance or any celebrity that has one. Perhaps I do but I’m not aware; my point is, it’s not that normalized, at least in my circle.

candiddevmike 3y ago
It's the butt of many jokes and a sign of desperation amongst my various circles. I don't think the service is empowering or pushing the industry forward, just another SaaS "pimp" creating more avenues of exploitation. Legalize the wide umbrella of sex-related work and stop the exploitation.
- voisin 3y ago
  I am confused by your argument. Is OF exploitation in your view? If so, how? If sex-related work was legalized (as OF is), would you think OF would no longer be the butt of jokes or do you think performers on OF would then turn to newly legalized sex acts?
  - candiddevmike 3y ago
    The platforms get to charge insane amounts of money and control the audience. Creators have no chance of building a legitimate brand, their only hope is to play the algorithm game and pump out content that the platform controls. IMO, legalizing it would let creators own their brand, get rid of exploitative race-to-the-bottom content, and give buyers/sellers confidence/acceptance to pursue their needs in a regulated and safe way.
    - Lerc 3y ago
      I'm not so sure. Youtube is more mainstream but creators are still subject to arbitrary rules, summary judgements, and are forced to play the algorithm game if they want to derive income from the platform. I agree that the stigmatization of sex work is a major driver of exploitation, but big tech is getting pretty good at the exploitation game itself.
    - johnnyanmac 3y ago
      >IMO, legalizing it would let creators own their brand, get rid of exploitative race-to-the-bottom content, and give buyers/sellers confidence/acceptance to pursue their needs in a regulated and safe way. I'm all for legalization, but I think this idea of "giving power to self hosted content" will go as well as pretty much any other blog site that's been replaced by tumblr, medium, wordpress, or ugh... Twitter. Yes, people would rather type out rants 300 characters at a time over 20 posts than use a proper word processing unit. Anyways, legalization won't solve the algorithm race. We're still dealing with those issues even on sites that ban 18+ content.
      - voisin 3y ago
        When you guys are talking about legalization in the context of OF, what are you talking about? What’s illegal about the site now, and where is it illegal?
        anuraaga 3y ago
        This thread is a great example of why not to talk about sex on HN. It can only go down from there.
    - voisin 3y ago
      > Creators have no chance of building a legitimate brand This sentence is only correct if you affix [on the platform] to the end. There is nothing stopping these creators from creating their own websites and using TikTok and Instagram to market themselves in much the same way they do now, directing viewers to their own website rather than OF. I don’t think the algorithm game is the driving force of viewership. I think it is the content creators “advertising” via TikTok and Instagram followings. Honestly it seems OF has the least platform control of most “social” sites.
  - alienicecream 3y ago
    [dead]
johnnyanmac 3y ago
>I don’t know any personal acquaintance or any celebrity that has one. Perhaps I do but I’m not aware I guess that's another allure for it: OF isn't really indexed, so it creates some privacy and security despite being a public website to link to. Very easy to have a 2nd twitter which links to OF and have your peers be none the wiser.

by thih9 3y ago

candiddevmike 3y ago

It's the butt of many jokes and a sign of desperation amongst my various circles. I don't think the service is empowering or pushing the industry forward, just another SaaS "pimp" creating more avenues of exploitation. Legalize the wide umbrella of sex-related work and stop the exploitation.

voisin 3y ago
I am confused by your argument. Is OF exploitation in your view? If so, how? If sex-related work was legalized (as OF is), would you think OF would no longer be the butt of jokes or do you think performers on OF would then turn to newly legalized sex acts?
- candiddevmike 3y ago
  The platforms get to charge insane amounts of money and control the audience. Creators have no chance of building a legitimate brand, their only hope is to play the algorithm game and pump out content that the platform controls. IMO, legalizing it would let creators own their brand, get rid of exploitative race-to-the-bottom content, and give buyers/sellers confidence/acceptance to pursue their needs in a regulated and safe way.
  - Lerc 3y ago
    I'm not so sure. Youtube is more mainstream but creators are still subject to arbitrary rules, summary judgements, and are forced to play the algorithm game if they want to derive income from the platform. I agree that the stigmatization of sex work is a major driver of exploitation, but big tech is getting pretty good at the exploitation game itself.
  - johnnyanmac 3y ago
    >IMO, legalizing it would let creators own their brand, get rid of exploitative race-to-the-bottom content, and give buyers/sellers confidence/acceptance to pursue their needs in a regulated and safe way. I'm all for legalization, but I think this idea of "giving power to self hosted content" will go as well as pretty much any other blog site that's been replaced by tumblr, medium, wordpress, or ugh... Twitter. Yes, people would rather type out rants 300 characters at a time over 20 posts than use a proper word processing unit. Anyways, legalization won't solve the algorithm race. We're still dealing with those issues even on sites that ban 18+ content.
    - voisin 3y ago
      When you guys are talking about legalization in the context of OF, what are you talking about? What’s illegal about the site now, and where is it illegal?
      - anuraaga 3y ago
        This thread is a great example of why not to talk about sex on HN. It can only go down from there.
  - voisin 3y ago
    > Creators have no chance of building a legitimate brand This sentence is only correct if you affix [on the platform] to the end. There is nothing stopping these creators from creating their own websites and using TikTok and Instagram to market themselves in much the same way they do now, directing viewers to their own website rather than OF. I don’t think the algorithm game is the driving force of viewership. I think it is the content creators “advertising” via TikTok and Instagram followings. Honestly it seems OF has the least platform control of most “social” sites.
- alienicecream 3y ago
  [dead]

johnnyanmac 3y ago

>I don’t know any personal acquaintance or any celebrity that has one. Perhaps I do but I’m not aware I guess that's another allure for it: OF isn't really indexed, so it creates some privacy and security despite being a public website to link to. Very easy to have a 2nd twitter which links to OF and have your peers be none the wiser.