TampaYankee

The usual policy is one review per escort per reviewer per year. More frequent more-of-the-same reviews by the same reviewer don't add significant independent information to justfiy inclusion in the library. The year interval recognizes that there is some value in knowing that the escort is still around and still getting the job done. It indicates reliability over time for the escort. The exception is if a gross difference in the nature of the reported experience warrants updating the community about that changed performance. One example might be that an escort has gone downhill due to drugs or maybe a theft occured on a subsequent occasion. Of course the reports have to be vetted. There has been one example of a follow-up review that I recall from KYTOP. The escort was unable to meet the agreed upon expectations at the first meeting. He promised to make it up which he did eventually. Reviews of both meetings were posted. The problem is that there isn't all that much out there that is this good. We much preferred dcforums. It was user friendly but not provider friendly. It had to be abandoned due to the developer dropping product support. We searched for alternatives and this was the best that met our requirements. We may take another look around for new arrivals but anything would have to dovetail with our reqs and database. You just cannot dump the previous content on the floor. Except for email and messaging I seldom have any problems with IPB. My secret: no running in the forums. I crawl. I believe in the KISS philosophy. No fancy techniques for me-- beginner here, all the way. I mentioned that function is screwed up. We tried to integrate the site messages with the board messages. Major mistake. Hopefully we can upgrade our version of IPB and return to separate site and forum functions. It is never a good idea to modify someone else's software unless they are perched on your shoulder. That takes money. I tried it without any problem. I did not complete the review gut i did copy text from Word to the text window using the right-click method. Unless something occurs when the review is uploaded I can't see a problem. This is a basic site design feature. One that is common to almost all sites. This site was created primarily for client shoppers seeking escorts. That most often involves searching who is available in a specfic geographic location. That function returns an index of escorts. This is a standard architecture for organizing data for presentation. One inovation at MER is that this index is more than a list of names. It contains a thumbnail, and certain relevant information of interest to help the client decide which escorts he wants to view in detail. This is a much more efficient process than using a simple name index and having to open each review for a pic, date of last review and escort stats and preferences. Thus the index list is a primary organizational structure in presenting data, whether it is a page consisting of one entry, or featured person entries or a city-list of entries. This architecture is not the best for snatching a quick peek of the detials for some eyecandy pic or for a fantasy on the other side of the country. It is difficult to make one architecture satisfy both requirements efficiently. That maybe compounded by a javascript pop up implementation for profiles, I'm not sure. I will ask the programmers for ideas but i'm doubtful that a reliable and efficient (not too complex) architecture can be devised to handle both missions in a overall satisfactory manner. Maybe abandoning the javascript aspects might facilitate a solution. It may come down to changing the site mission from escort search to eyecandy viewing. But that brings new complaints. Maybe the programmers have a rabbit in their hat? I will ask. The index annotation is a good idea. However, it can mislead you much of the time. Some escorts especially, rentboy.com types, register once and leave it on auto pilot. They have been in business for years. scatter ads around the internet and don't even remember all of the sites until a hit jogs their memory. The contact info usually remains good as they are long term stable providers. Nice idea and an easy way to keep listings current but we never seriously considered it. Bottom line: conflict of interest for any unbiased review site. You cannot have an unbiased escort review site and charge escorts for participation. They are not going to pay and take bad or mixed reviews. If they are the income stream the site owners have to balance the reviews against the income stream. Escort-pay-listing-sites (you know who they are) give escorts the ability to remove unfavorable reviews on a periodic interval. The number of reviews permitted to be scrubbed depend on the subscription plan. It is a nice feature to upsell subscriptions Our main mission was and remains to create and sustain a truthful unbiased review site that provides a level playing field for escorts and clients where all legitimate reviews with useful content were collected and made available to the hiring community. Charging for escort participation is inconsistent with that mission. Even a benign charge like a dollar a month is self defeating. A lot of guys dont have credit cards. Part of the 'charm' of this site is we attract newbies who dont know if they are really commited long term. That causes turn over and dead wood but it also presents some unique hiring opportunities that pay sites cant offer. Other guys just wont bother with the $1/mo credit charge. While i wish this latter option was viable I believe we have to rely on maintaining closer contact with the escorts through emailing and maybe phone. Thanks for the ideas and the nice words. Much appreciated.

Haven't seen any more rolling through my front door. Maybe tommorow?

The email/PM system sucks as you have determined for yourself. Hope to get it straightened out in the rebuild. Others ways to get at me: Contact Us link at the bottom of the page. (See the fine print. Magnifying lense only 49 cents. Magnifying sunglasses 19.95 puss S&H. I look good don't I! ) admin@maleescortreview.com maleescortreview@gmail.com I have read your comments but I not yet had the opportunity to respond due to distractions. Stay tuned.

Hit and miss has not yet been raised to the level of a policy. I just noticed and have no idea what has changed to cause that. Will investigate. Only when the admin is moved to undertake triple backflips followed by a cold shower. More seriously, I will (on rare occasions only, hopefully) offer an admin comment when moved to do so as I have in the past. Reasons range from: noting information about the escort, to remarking about something notable about the review, to that irresistable backflip urge. Only rarely, hopefully, but maybe not. The purpose is to be informative or to exhibit irresistable need to drool in public. Stay tuned for one on the next review.

I apologize to you and all other members for this. As Oz mentioned, we thought the 60 minute window under dcforums had been established for IPB when it replaced dcforums. Obviously it was not and we are responsible for that. Thus the apology. This action guts the conversational value of that thread and it interferes with the free flow and exchange of ideas of the participants and greatly diminishes the value to the readers. IMO it is also a measure of disrespect to the other participants in the thread and violates the spirit of the message board community, not to mention an immature act.

Ditto, eeyore... Definite hottie and sweet eyecandy. Thanks for the links. Show seems like a hoot too. Think I will catch up on some of the episodes.

That would have been my guess. Ahhh.... Yes, been there experienced that. Not exactly a reviewable experience but unpleasant no less. It is amazing how cramped a dance cubicle can feel even after requesting the dancer do a 180. One of my hopes for this site was a place where all legit reviews were accepted and reviewers felt comfortable taking on even the 'stars' if warranted. It is clear that over the years that peer pressure or admin decisions have caused more than a few negative encounters with 'stars' to never see the light of day. After a couple of years in this business, one thing I have come to appreciate is how very compromised review data bases are by what they contain and by what they don't contain. Ignoring the issue of real content for the moment, the number of bogus reviews submitted taken with legit reviews that never see the light of day. Apparently, it doesn't matter much to the broad readership as they get glimmers of this from time to time and still seem ready to settle for it. One thing I can guarantee is that this admin has never spiked a legitimate unflattering review of a 'star' and never will. Even stars can have an off day or cause disappointment by looking past an encounter on occasion or suffer from muddled communications that lead to misunderstanding. They are big boys and can speak for themselves. Even 'stars' have the right to rebut unfavorable comments and should have the opportunity to, just as their disappointed client should have the opportunity to relay the shortcomings of his experience. From day one we have been dedicated to a level playing field for escorts and clients.

We win some, loose some.

He did... and it was posted.

BG, Welcome back. It's been a long time. I have missed you even on an occasional basis. In fact, I was just thinking of you a few days ago about how long it has been. I hope all has been well. I keep goin' myself -- a few more aches and pains, a little crankier with age. We are glad to have all input and yes, I recall that you are not a fan of reviews. I believe that was the catalyst for thinking about you as this thread was growing. Good to see you get some value from them. Eventually we will try to appease everyone, if that is possible, with a separate feedback section. Much of our layout and requirements for reviews came from my experience and frustations with HooBoy' reviews. I used them heavily in the early years but eventually as they grew in number without much in the way of a content standard it became too frustrating for me to plow through so many content-free reviews in search of solid information. That frustration and a few other issues with the reviews just got me fed up. I totally weaned myself away from the reviews, essentially cold turkey. I chose instead to rely on my own instincts, communication talents and friends recommendations. I would not have had the courage to do that as a newbie but a little experience goes to one's head. It worked out well. Not much has changed with regard to my opinion. It would be uninspiring for me to work 7/365 to put together a review library that I would have no pride in and no desire to use. However, the client feedback section will permit any member to post any experience that does not violate site personal information, abuse, or stalking policies. Good to hear from you and thanks for your input. You and it are always welcome. TY

I'm curious about your own answers to your questions. You are a seasoned client. You have essential first hand knowledge of the escort that none of us have. Is he serious about service or on a lark? Is he new and clueless or seasoned who should know better but doesn't care? Are you inclined to teach someone in need of and willing to learn or are all escorts expected to be seasoned pros? That can influence the review perspective. How did the escort respond to the incident. Was he earnestly apologetic with an explanation or present the attitude 'shit happens'? Did he shower and clean up and give a great time or was he sent away in embarassment or resentment? Escort response is a signigicant factor in the reviewer response. Only you know the answers to these questions and others that influence what should go in the review and how it should be presented.

I received this email from a reviewer and thought it would be useful to share it and the relevant part of my response with the community. I suspect that this reviewer's thoughts are shared by more than a few others. The email: Let me begin by emphasizing two things. First, I congratulate you on creating and maintaining a wonderful website. It is a real contribution to the community and a great resource, and I thank you for all of your hard work on it. Second, I fully accept that when you own the site, you get to to make the rules and I have no problem with that. So, when you declined my review of xxxxxx and gave your reasons, I was okay -- you wanted more of a play-by-play than I was comfortable giving. Then, a few days later, I saw the review of Jasonk that was accepted and published. And, a few days after that, I saw the Zackhudson review. If any reviews constitute simple "press releases," if any reviews are "barren of relevant information about the reviewer's experience," surely it is those reviews. I simply do not believe that all reviews are held to the standard you imposed on mine, but, as I said before, you get to make the calls and you can consider whatever you want and you don't have to be consistent. I have seen xxxxxx a number of times and hope to see him again. I may try another review, for his sake. These reviews are important to him and he deserves the support. Again, I enjoy the site and wish you continued success with it. --- (reviewer name expunged) The response: (reviewer name expunged), Thank you for responding... A second thanks for conveying your opinion thoughtfully. I appreciate thoughtful feedback. You question whether all reviews are held to the same standard. They are all held to the same general minimal standard but the results may appear, at first glance, to vary with the type of escort service. First, I admit that the decision process is not an easy call in all circumstances. I do approve reviews that I find inadequate from my personal standpoint. Actually many accepted reviews fall short of that standard. However, my personal tastes don't dictate the acceptance standard. To explain the acceptance standard I have to make a few points that influence the standard. 1. Not all reviewers are adept at written expression. 2. Not all reviewers give much thought about what to write. 3. Not all reviewers seek the same 'type' or 'level' of service. 4. Not all reviewers intend to provide more than praise for the escort. The basic standard is: Are there ANY Facts that permit potential clients to draw inferences about what service they could expect with the escort. This necessarily goes beyond 'praise-only' experiences. The Jasonk review that you cite was a hard call for me. It was thin at best but in the end I came down on the side to accept. The facts: 1) muscle worship session and 2) the escort was receptive to receiving oral service from the client. Certainly not an escort experience that tempts me to hire. So why did I accept? I don't know if you are familiar with the old HooBoy site Message Board or the Old Gaiety Male Strip Theatre in NYC. Many patrons of the theatre shared their off-site experiences and recommendations of dancers who in many cases were little more than muscleworship posers that would permit themselves to be orally serviced at between $200 - $300 per 45 minute hour. This points out a demand in part of the community for this type of service thus I decided to accept it. The ZachHudson2 review met the minimal criteria that some facts were presented that would let prospective clients infer what they can expect: kissing and active anal from Zach. It is not the best written experience, it was minimal but it did provide some facts that prospective clients and, better, future reviewers can measure their experience against. Your review experience was a very well written description of the personality and personal attributes of the escort. However, after reading it I could make no inference on what specifics to expect in the way of services. The style and thoughtfulness of your writing was much beyond the other reviews but ultimately it was only praise. Some (not you) accuse me of demanding porn short stories for acceptance. That could not be further from the truth. It is invoked as a defensive reaction by those too inhibited to share what happened. They choose not to accept a middle ground of basic presentation of facts. Facts can be cast in the style of Grey's Anatomy (the book) or Masters and Johnson, or Henry Miller. Facts are facts and style is style. We seek facts. Reviewers choose style. So the bottom line acceptance standard is: Are there some facts that permit interested members of the hiring community to infer services they could expect to receive. Admittedly, that standard provides for acceptance of reviews with varying styles and information relevancy and content. It is a minimal standard not a quality standard. It requires judgments be made. I do my best. I'm not always happy with the result but I'm less happy with the alternative. I hope I haven't bored you with the lengthy response but you expressed a earnest doubt about the process and I felt I owed you an earnest response. TY

Trys this link: http://www.traumboys.eu/ Eddie caught my eye first but ultimately I'd have to go with the more passive Antonio.

Thanks for the supportive input, Adam. I appreciate it. Most of the feedback I get comes from clients who had rejected reviews or their escorts. Occasionally I get positive feedback about the reviews but it usually comes as an aside from others writing about another issue. The present review content policy was put in place with the prospecting client in mind, not the client looking to feather a relationship with an escort, although a good informative review can accomplish that objective as well. With so little positive feedback, at times I feel that I may be doing members and the site a disservice by imposing content standards on reviews. In the end it is all about giving the members what they want. Those that speak up ultimately get what they want. Others will get what they sit back and settle for.

Woefully undervalued IMO. They don't give the age of the aggrieved but as in domestic partnerships, the loss of companionship, physical and emotional, over the lifetime should be considered. That or an eye for an eye and then $795K to boot. The butcher got off cheap if you consider the eye for an eye option.

James, Thanks for the link. I enjoyed the photos. I've done Vancouver and MTL Prides but never made it to Toronto. Something to look forward to.

Lucky, Thanks for the article. The timing is curious. I have no qualms with legitimate law enforcement; and there were legit law enforcement goals here. But the timing takes it beyond law enforcement to harrasment IMO. These raids could just as easily have been carried out last week or next week. Me thinks the NYPD is trying to send a message. I hope the Gay Community has some political clout to bring to bear on this.

The latter. There is no seach capability for x-rated photos. Check out Kaleb Scott as an example. Some escorts wanted to include them in their profiles so we provided a mechanism to display them. As with the other photos, the content and quality varies as the escort submits whatever he wants. Not all photos qualify as hardcore. Anything with an overtly sexual or fetish tone is also included. We did not display them before because I didn't wish to display hardcore or sexual content that could be accessed by minors. Our policy of free access to all reviews and profiles precluded us from putting the site behind an AVS. The advent of our subscription service provided an AVS type screen that keeps minors out and gives the subscribers an extra bennie.

Anybody know anything? Got this email from Mark Nelson's mailing list: Who Called the Police? Saint @ Large (klik) Venue Change 4 Champions The Saint @ Large party has been moved to... Capitale http://www.capitaleny.com (amazing space) 130 Bowery @ the corner of Grand. C U there! The Official Afterparty of NYC's Dance on the Pier benefiting Heritage Of Pride Music by Stephan Grondin (10pm - 3am) Jonathan Peters (3am - 8am) Junior Vasquez (8am - 2pm) Advance Tix: $60 thru day of event $70 @ door / $30 under 28 after 4am Tix: Nasty Pig: 265A W 19th St / Screaming Mimi’s: 382 Lafayette St / Village Apothecary: 346 Bleecker St / Wear Me Out: 353 W 47th St Watch Movie Trailer of Party Last night the NYPD swept the town & caused all kinds of commotion. I was home in bed; so don't know any details. Victor Calderone's Evolve is postponed tonight. Tickets for Evolve will be honored @ a later time ... ______________________________________________________________

Steepest Rise Is in Black Males Ages 13 to 24 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...er=emailarticle

Lycees, Thanks for highlighting that problem at this time. I am aware that a number of escorts fall out of the business without informing us. Since site inception I had been looking forward to implementing an automatic process to validate escort emails on a periodic basis to determine both dead email addresses and a laspsed time since last email response. However, that enahncement was always on the To Do list waiting its turn for attention. The site rebuild is a good time to make sure that gets implemented. It is also a good time to enhance the featured persons selection process. Presently the selection is done on the fly selecting each days replacements as replacements are made. The capacity to plan and queue featured persons ahead would facilitate verifying the status of each selection ahead. Good point to raise at this time. Thanks.

With all due respect, I looked at them and I did not seek a porn story just some basic facts to give SOME idea of the experience for others. I read them but all I got from them is that you were content. I could take the trouble to locate the emails describing my request for some basic factual material, not War and Peace, but that doesn't matter at this point. As part of the site revamp we will add a 'Client Feedback' Section. It will be distinct from the reviews. It will be a semiautomatic operation. Limited info required. Vetting only to guarantee no personal identifying information. Info to include: Escort Name/Client Name, date, contact info, feedback text block/escort response block. The client supplies any other info he desires. No vetting of contributors beyond member email account, no minimum content standards. What is received is what readers will get. This will provide a bare-bones platform for those clients who do not wish to write a review but who wish to offer a testimonial or recommendation, to say as little or as much as they want. As this essentially will be totally contributor driven, we won't make any representations as to the validity or reliability of the feedback. This will likely result in some reduction of the number of contributed reviews, which I will regret. However, it will offer a contribution vehicle to hiring members that find the review process too burdensome or intrusive.. P.S. The site rebuild won't happen overnight so any changes won't be seen for several months.

Stef, Thanks for passing along some comments from your clients. The following is meant for them and others with similar and with different views. "I have several friends of mine that did stop the review procedure as it was way too long ... Just took for ever.. " For those who feel this is the case please state what you recommend removing from the Review form in order to ease your burden. We need concrete inputs. "If the review allows one to know if the escort lives up to his reputation or not, without the need of writing a novel." My issue with this is: How do we know what the escort reputation is for if we know next to nothing about the services he provided? This question gets to the nub of the issue IMO. What is the purpose of an escort review? Is it to provide the escort with nice notices of support or is it to inform potential clients about what they can/should expect from the escort? The complaints about writing novels is a red herring IMO, if the comment applies to the 'experience' block. There are plenty of informative reviews submitted that are brief and to the point. This is a user input issue not a site requirement issue. We have no minimum word count for experience. I think the real complaint behind such 'novel' comments are the 'to the point' aspect. On the other hand, if this refers to the entire review form that mostly requires checking boxes then please be specific about what you feel is unnecessary and wish to see discontinued. We wish to provide an informative website that also satisfies member interests. Do we emphasize substantive reviews for escorts or accept pretty much everything with many only nice notices of support? Are members willing to search through the notices to get at the reviews? Should we revamp our Review form into a Review Lite form? How will we differeniate MER from Daddys, as a review site? Is there no reason to offer something different? Based on an empirical measure of participation a case can be made that a site mission change MIGHT increase participation. Of course, it might cause little substantive change too as a few more notices and participants won't change night into day. Nevertheless, the river will have been set on a new course never to return to its old banks. Recapturing the former site environment won't be possible as database information will become a subset of present data and it wouldnt be practical to segregate notices from reviews in the database. So any change will be permanent. Not a worry if the previous enironment won't be missed. A final observation... This site doesn't exist in a vacuum. It costs money and significant time on a recurring basis to keep the site going. It is not supported by any charitable foundations. Thus business interests may dictate a change in the site direction irrespective of desired 'site mission'. This is only mentioned to stress that whatever decisions are made about style and content of the site, ultimately they have to be evaluated based on their effect on business realities. If we are going to revamp the site software then that is the time to make any changes in the site direction too. The squeaky wheel gets the oil usually. Stand up to express your views or stay seated and let the views of others prevail. To paraphrase, in the Land of the Mute the Lone Voice calls the tune.

This is something I have desired from the beginning. Unfortunately, it did not make it in the first version of the software. This would be a great time to do it. However, giving the escort access to change any information in the reviews except for photos isn't in the works. We do recognize that every escort has implicit copyright to his photos. However, not every escort is happy with every one of his reviews, thus there would be potential for mischieviousness. Obviously, the escort is the best source for his contact information if he is earnest and willing to supply it. Next to that is the client since, presumably, he was in direct contact with the escort. We cannot proactively confirm contact info with an escort prior to each review. Our review time-to-post interval would be shot to hell. The latter point brings up a common sense solution to managing escort contact information. If escorts would just maintain single phone and email contacts it would eliminate the need to manage/update contact info on a review-by-review basis. Overseas travellers may need a North American phone number in addtion to their home country. Providing slots for two business phones seems worthwhile.

We will look into what is possible short of customizing the code. Customizing code may leave us without developer support and may commit us to maintaining some else's code -- an intensive proposition at best. We have to live with what is available off the shelf. Else we go into the code development business, not the online escort information business.