Golem

You need a what now?

These parts are getting pretty transparent, these days.

This, this, this. Making a decisive judgment about who is at "fault" is silly given how much information we don't have available to us. The OP got some helpful advice for how to make up his own mind about this situation, which is really all that can happen here.

I do not think that word means what you think it means.

If Boomxyz's account is deleted, will the comments he left on my profile be deleted too? "Sly venomous hater" has a certain poetry to it. I feel like this is a reality TV show or something

Actually, reopening it like 5 minutes later. There was another goodbye message last night less than an hour before the one that was posted overnight; Boomxyz deleted it about 5 minutes after posting it. Angel, meanwhile, I will simply note writes in exactly the same style as Boom and SS. *shrug*

Hey @Angel, what is your connection to Rentboy.pro? I ask because 1. You are confident they are "good people", so I assume you know them 2. Both Boomxyz and SecretShopper logged in to the forum within minutes of your post above No hate! Just looking for full disclosure for those of us watching and evaluating.

No, just the professional one. He's clearly moved on and I feel like it would be disrespectful to even inquire at this point. But that won't stop me from wishful thinking

His current website says most of his business is from "repeat clients." *sighhhhhhhh*

On January 4th you said:

You said it was months ago. Now this policy change is as of a few days ago?

http://www.thelifestream.net/forums/images/smilies/TripleFacePalm.jpg

Because you kept defending the practice! And, no, you didn't say you would take the existing ads down. You said you would use that idea, to ask before making ads public, in the future. Anyway, I'm glad you are now saying you will take them down. I look forward to comparing the provider list in a few days and seeing what has gone away.

By your own admission, you still have profiles up on the site that you created, where you have not gotten a "sure, go ahead" from the provider in question. This is unethical, misleading, and problematic for all the reasons explained in this thread. One action that would immediately get me to take you seriously: take all those profiles down. Including the one that a forum member has specifically called out, and also including all the rest. When we see that has happened, that will be evidence of change. Instead, you keep defending your choice to put them up in the first place. Just take them down!

Actions speak louder than words.

You keep repeating the same ridiculous deflections. The thing is -- the people reading this thread will make up their own mind based on what they see here. All you are doing is missing an opportunity to course correct. Instead you keep digging a hole by defending your choice to implement an egregious practice, and blaming the people advocating for providers' autonomy for disparaging your name. *shakes head sadly*

What I don't understand about the whole "Rentmen does it too" thing is that your main selling point, in all your posts here, has been that you are better than Rentmen and specifically that you will treat providers better. The proof is in the pudding.

No, the problem is that you decided you did not care about industry members' autonomy and control over their information online. The problem with that member's age only happened because you did not care about ANY industry members' autonomy.

Does this mean that you do not make those profiles publicly available until you receive an affirmative response from the provider in question? If not, you don't know that they all "received the keys" -- and in all likelihood, given the reality of email today, many did not.

Yeah, this is a good attempt, but unless they get a reply from that escort, they don't know the escort knows. What if it goes into their spam folder? What if it's an old email address? This is why, when you sign up for almost any web site these days -- even discussion forums -- you have to actually click a link in an email they send you to confirm that you got the email. Sending an email to an address you find on another web site doesn't mean anything in and of itself.

This. Posting ads without the escorts' consent doesn't just show lack of judgment. It shows that the site is willing to put its own growth ahead of industry members' autonomy and control over their information online. Frankly, that should scare providers and clients alike. I too want you guys to succeed, but defending this practice when the problems with it are respectfully brought up seems hard to get past. (It's also an incredibly misleading way to advertise -- implying that some providers have decided to trust you and use your services, when in fact they have not.)

Not more expensive than either of those, but definitely one of the next on the list, probably fighting with DC over the #3 and #4 spots.

I'm not the most trusting person out there, so perhaps I'm alone in this, but I am only feeling more uneasy now. "Love for everyone" -- except your former colleagues. People don't usually "hate" each other just because their opinions "differ" -- let alone publicly criticizing their colleagues on the internet years after they are no longer working together. This is not the kind of thing that kicks a new business off to a good start. I have no idea what the whole story is, but this "secret" doesn't give me confidence. No doubt this is intended to be a nice gesture -- and I can't think of anyone more deserving of it -- but, nonetheless, this seems sort of emblematic of the problems with this review/verification system, where providers are handled opaquely (and, inevitably, inconsistently), at the discretion of the site operators.

ROFL. Now there's a crossover.

I thought he looked familiar. Thanks for the quick reply!