What questions do we want to ask for the new review site?

[Luv2play]

1 hour ago, RadioRob said:

How do we differentiate it?  There needs to be something that is clear as people interpret things very differently. Imagine getting somewhere and saying “I wanted VERY hairy!  He’s just basic hairy!”

I guess I know hairy when I see it in person. There's a provider from Oregon named Dustin (who has done some porn) who I 've met and he qualifies as very hairy, believe me. He has hair on every body part except his dick, which is incidentally very large. I guess God knew where to stop. 😆 

[RadioRob]

18 minutes ago, Luv2play said:

I guess I know hairy when I see it in person. There's a provider from Oregon named Dustin (who has done some porn) who I 've met and he qualifies as very hairy, believe me. He has hair on every body part except his dick, which is incidentally very large. I guess God knew where to stop. 😆 

That sounds like something that is perfect to include in the free-form ("Your Review" below) space!    

[Whippoorwill]

How will providers be listed?...I hope by home location. If I'm going to, say, Chicago, I am only interested in reading reviews of Chicago providers. And even if providers are traveling, you can usually pick up their home location from RM/Rentmasseur. And for my home city, I might want to know who is new and hot. And within the location, by reverse date...latest first. 

[Whippoorwill]

How are Spas defined? How are Strip Clubs defined? It seems to me there are Sex Venues (sex clubs, back rooms, video arcades, play parties, bathhouses, strip clubs, etc.) the purpose of which is a location to get down and dirty one way or another. And then there are legitimate (or mostly legitimate) Spas, the purpose of which is some kind of luxurious body treatment. There could be other ways to categorize venues also. I think what I am looking for on COM is info on places to get down and dirty. 

[Whippoorwill]

I also think it would be helpful if the reviewer could provide some self-description. We often read that "mileage may vary by..." so this might give some indication if the provider has a pattern of acting differently with different ages/body types etc. 

[RadioRob]

3 minutes ago, Whippoorwill said:

How will providers be listed?...I hope by home location. If I'm going to, say, Chicago, I am only interested in reading reviews of Chicago providers. And even if providers are traveling, you can usually pick up their home location from RM/Rentmasseur. And for my home city, I might want to know who is new and hot. And within the location, by reverse date...latest first. 

DAY 1...  Alphabetical order.  

But with that said, we're tracking location.  To make it easier to match up locations, they'll use Google's auto-suggest for cities.  

So we won't have to worry about issues like "Ft Lauderdale, FL" vs "Fort Lauderdale, FL" vs "Ft. Lauderdale, FL" (with the period in Fort). 

Very shortly after the initial release, there will be a map view to see items based on location.  Below is a screenshot "stock map" that has not been integrated yet.

The idea is that you could pick a state and see all of the items that are associated with that location.  In addition, where the squares are would be pins link to reviews for cities that have more than XX reviews.  We would not be able to have THOUSANDS of pins, but the idea is that our top 10-20 cities might get pins.

I'm also working to create a location filter where someone would just be able to search for a city and get those results as well.  That would look/feel somewhat like Rent.men's location system.  My goal is to leverage that same Google location suggestion to power it where you start typing a city or a state...  when you submit it, you get results for just that area.

[RadioRob]

7 minutes ago, Whippoorwill said:

I also think it would be helpful if the reviewer could provide some self-description. We often read that "mileage may vary by..." so this might give some indication if the provider has a pattern of acting differently with different ages/body types etc. 

See this post...

We can add multiple fields to a person's profile page on the site to capture any sort of self description.  For example...  this is mine:

https://www.companyofmen.org/profile/3085-radiorob/?tab=field_core_pfield_1

The "About Me" field is literally just a text box that I made pretty.  You could just enter a few words there if you like.  To set your own "About Me", go to your profile (see below) and choose edit.  

and click the button to edit profile.

I can add additional fields as well. 

Later on, I'll be able to do things such as add a tab that shows all of your submitted reviews, etc.  

 

 

[RadioRob]

15 minutes ago, Whippoorwill said:

How are Spas defined? How are Strip Clubs defined? It seems to me there are Sex Venues (sex clubs, back rooms, video arcades, play parties, bathhouses, strip clubs, etc.) the purpose of which is a location to get down and dirty one way or another. And then there are legitimate (or mostly legitimate) Spas, the purpose of which is some kind of luxurious body treatment. There could be other ways to categorize venues also. I think what I am looking for on COM is info on places to get down and dirty. 

Spas = Venues that offer massage services that have a set of employees.  These places are the ones that would be covered under the "don't jeopardize a license" thing.  Think about the physical places that are talked about in the "Spa & Masseurs" forum.  
Bars = Regular gay bars (Stonewall in NYC, Freddie's Beach Bar in DC, The Manor or Hunter's in FLL, etc)
Strip Clubs = Venues that have male strippers on a regular basis.  (Adonis, Buffboys, Johnsons, etc). Under this category will be a question that asks if the dancers are nude, etc.  

We could look at other categories such as bath houses, etc.  We can create as many categories as we want technically...  the bigger challenge is just identifying all of the info to be collected, what questions should be in the review itself, etc.  We can look at tackling more beyond what is planned post-launch.  I don't want to bite off more than we can chew.   

[Luv2play]

46 minutes ago, RadioRob said:

DAY 1...  Alphabetical order.  

But with that said, we're tracking location.  To make it easier to match up locations, they'll use Google's auto-suggest for cities.  

So we won't have to worry about issues like "Ft Lauderdale, FL" vs "Fort Lauderdale, FL" vs "Ft. Lauderdale, FL" (with the period in Fort). 

Very shortly after the initial release, there will be a map view to see items based on location.  Below is a screenshot "stock map" that has not been integrated yet.

The idea is that you could pick a state and see all of the items that are associated with that location.  In addition, where the squares are would be pins link to reviews for cities that have more than XX reviews.  We would not be able to have THOUSANDS of pins, but the idea is that our top 10-20 cities might get pins.

I'm also working to create a location filter where someone would just be able to search for a city and get those results as well.  That would look/feel somewhat like Rent.men's location system.  My goal is to leverage that same Google location suggestion to power it where you start typing a city or a state...  when you submit it, you get results for just that area.

It would be nice if you included the major cities in Canada, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. Otherwise I guess I won't be using rhe site. 

[Beancounter]

Would it be possible to include a field where reviewers could also input prior names a provider might have used.  There are several “name changers” out there and it’s difficult to keep up with those providers.  I’m not sure it would be possible to cross reference such information but I thought I’d through it out there for consideration.

 

And thank you for the great job you do.  It’s very much appreciated.  

[RadioRob]

8 minutes ago, Luv2play said:

It would be nice if you included the major cities in Canada, Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. Otherwise I guess I won't be using rhe site. 

There are two maps...  

HTML5/JavaScript Interactive USA Map | Simplemaps.com

SIMPLEMAPS.COM

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An HTML5, JavaScript-powered, interactive United States map. This mobile-compatible, responsive map...

HTML5/JavaScript Interactive World Map | Simplemaps.com

SIMPLEMAPS.COM

---

An HTML5, JavaScript-powered, interactive world map. This mobile-compatible, responsive map includes...

In addition, if you don't like using maps, you'll be able to find locations a search field (similar to how Rent.Men works).

You would simply start typing in a city to find results.

 

[RadioRob]

3 minutes ago, Beancounter said:

Would it be possible to include a field where reviewers could also input prior names a provider might have used.  There are several “name changers” out there and it’s difficult to keep up with those providers.  I’m not sure it would be possible to cross reference such information but I thought I’d through it out there for consideration.

One step ahead of you on that specific issue!   

If someone already exists, but under a different name... you would simply report that record and give us the new name. 

A moderator will update it and even be able show the history of the change.  We're not going to allow members to update the fields directly because we have had situations where certain providers might try to manipulate the record to provide bad data or remove info about them.  

I talked about this a little more in the "Master Threads" topic I posted yesterday.  Check out the following post for more detail:

I don't want people trying to think about former names when they create the record.  Once the record is there, if it changes, that record can be updated and the history tracked.  BUT...  I think this system will get to the heart of what you're asking for!

[Guest]

I suppose there are legal reasons to avoid listing the fee? Although you may wish to consult a lawyer, I'm pretty sure that non healthcare-related organizations don't have to comply with HIPAA regulations, and escorts should be free to disclose what they wish. One item I would find extremely useful would be an indication of the age of any photographs used. Also, I know a lot of escorts would bristle at this, but as a paying customer, I would certainly give preference for any escort whose age was verified, so I would be extremely grateful for any such notation (such as "Age: 29 [verified]", or "Age: 29 [unverified]"). 

Edited April 20, 2023 by Unicorn

[RadioRob]

3 hours ago, Unicorn said:

I suppose there are legal reasons to avoid listing the fee?

I don't see a value in listing a rate in the item record itself.  Too many people have different rates depending on the alignment of the moons and the stars, what their zodiac says for the day, etc.  Instead the rate is included in the review.

On 4/18/2023 at 7:01 PM, RadioRob said:

REVIEW FIELDS

• Location
• Date
• Session Type (In, Out, etc)
• Session Length
• Rate Paid
• Would You Hire Again?  (Rate 1-5 stars)
• Match Description?  (Rate 1-5 stars)
• Lived Up to Expectations?  (Rate 1-5 stars)

So already planned to be included.  

3 hours ago, Unicorn said:

I'm pretty sure that non healthcare-related organizations don't have to comply with HIPAA regulations, and escorts should be free to disclose what they wish.

I absolutely agree that an escort should be able to disclose what they want.  However that does not allow me to take it from a different source and speak for someone else.  If the provider were to come to this website and create their item record, there would be zero problems.  But we're basically having a 3rd party take info from a different 3rd party where the info was disclosed to share.  For now until I can get legal guidance on it, I'm not going to risk problems.

3 hours ago, Unicorn said:

. One item I would find extremely useful would be an indication of the age of any photographs used.

Do you have any idea about how we would go about doing this?  We don't have a provider submitting photos to us directly.  As a result we're getting info again from someone who got them from somewhere else in most cases.  I'm actually expecting when someone adds a new item for an escort, they most likely won't submit a photo at all.  (Rent.men does not make it easy to save photos.  You can't just right click and save the image.  It wants to save the entire webpage.)  I'm expecting editors who have been shown how to use the browser's "Inspect" will have to add the photos after the fact.  In that case, I don't know of a way to validate how old the photos actually are.  

3 hours ago, Unicorn said:

Also, I know a lot of escorts would bristle at this, but as a paying customer, I would certainly give preference for any escort whose age was verified, so I would be extremely grateful for any such notation (such as "Age: 29 [verified]", or "Age: 29 [unverified]"). 

Love the idea...  but again, any idea of how can I get this info?  The only way I can think of doing so would be to require the person to provide a copy of their driver's license/passport/birth certificate to me to confirm.  That requires storing PII information, which would mean a whole different level of security needed for us to even temporarily store those while it's being reviewed.  (This is also why I don't store credit cards or other personal info.  That is kept directly with the merchant gateway so that I don't have to deal with that data!  One less thing that I have to protect from a potential data breach.)

[Guest]

1 hour ago, RadioRob said:

...

Love the idea...  but again, any idea of how can I get this info?  The only way I can think of doing so would be to require the person to provide a copy of their driver's license/passport/birth certificate to me to confirm.  That requires storing PII information, which would mean a whole different level of security needed for us to even temporarily store those while it's being reviewed.  (This is also why I don't store credit cards or other personal info.  That is kept directly with the merchant gateway so that I don't have to deal with that data!  One less thing that I have to protect from a potential data breach.)

I don't see a reason to store the information (such as DL/passport copy) after you've verified the age. After all, you're not making X-rated movies, so you don't have to prove to anyone for legal reasons that you've verified the age. If you feel you must store the information somewhere (which, again, I feel is unnecessary), just store the copies in a safe, so you won't have to worry about a data breach. As a customer, I'll say that there's nothing more embarrassing than turning someone away because he's obviously lied about his age and/or used photos which are 5+ years old (I know one escort who uses photos which are literally decades old). Having a verified age would be a huge selling point for me. Seeking arrangements does this. 

[RadioRob]

8 minutes ago, Unicorn said:

I don't see a reason to store the information (such as DL/passport copy)

That PII has to be gotten to me to verify.  That means even if I only store it for a few days, I have to have sufficient controls in place to upload, store securely, and a way to securely wipe the data.  

Since text messaging is not secure, I would have to build a secure system where someone would be able to register an account and store that data.  I would then have to store and encrypt that data at rest (meaning where it lives on the server) until it can be reviewed/approved.   Once approved, I could delete it.  But just because I don't store it long term does not mean I don't have a responsibility to ensuring sensitive data is protected while in our custody.  If a data breach were to occur, it could open the door to huge liabilities.  Even with donations for the site, I don't get info such as your address, city, state, zip, phone, or credit card number.  I get the email address and depending on the gateway, only the first/last name.  

But let's say I could even do all do this...  would you send your driver's license to a random site that reaches out to you to "provide verification of who you are"?  

The idea is "Rob Test Account 2" creates a new record in the "Escorts" category for "John Doe".  That review either had no images or those images were copied from the person's RM account.  So now RadioRob (the site admin) reaches out to "John Doe" via text message (because there is no other contact info typically such as email)....

"Hi.. Company of Men here!  Someone is trying to add you to our database!  We need to verify your age and the pictures of you to make sure you did not lie on Rent.men.  Click here to send us a copy of your drivers license or passport so we can confirm!"

I would be flagged as spam or phishing almost instantly!  (And rightfully so!  I'm a random stranger that they don't have any sort of business relationship with and asking for that kind of info!)

Organizations like Rent.men could potentially do this if the escort directly reached out to them.  They could do some sort of verification by saying "if you don't do this, we won't approve your ad".  I don't have that ability unfortunately.  I don't hold leverage and they don't in most cases even know us to trust them with their most sensitive personal info.  Seeking Arrangments could do this as well because the person is entering into an agreement with that site.  In this case, it's not the escort coming to us.  It's the escort's customer!   

So this boils down to two issues:

1) Trust - I don't have trust from escorts to ask for that sort of sensitive info.
2) Protection - I don't have the ability to securely transmit, encrypt, and store the data provided even on a short term basis if they did trust me.  

Until I can get something to address those issues, I can't even start to do something like this.  

 

 

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, RadioRob said:

..."Hi.. Company of Men here!  Someone is trying to add you to our database!  We need to verify your age and the pictures of you to make sure you did not lie on Rent.men.  Click here to send us a copy of your drivers license or passport so we can confirm!"...

Obviously, that would not be the best way to obtain the data. The simplest would be to simply put on the website a button which states "Escorts wishing to verify their ages may do so HERE." That way the escort doesn't have to worry this is spam. It's his option. As for problem #2, you could simply make a statement such as "Your data will be deleted in X days. We cannot 100% guarantee the data won't be compromised during those X days, but the data will not be stored in our system after such time." How long could it possibly take to simply look at the info, then delete it? How many escorts could have sent their info during that short period of time? The risk appears minimal. 

[RadioRob]

Now...  something I could do (which is already on my radar for somewhere down the road) is have something an award system where there could be various types of recognization could be granted to an item.  If it was someone I personally hired and recommend, I could add a "Rob's Favorite" award.  (Or other trusted people who could grant that award.). There could be a new version of the "Escort of the Year" award, etc.

Those are all things that can help build trust about an escort/masseur, etc.    

[RadioRob]

Another idea that MIGHT be possible would be to look at “crowdsourcing” verification. For example adding reactions to photos like a check/X.

It might with some crazy voodoo magic even be possible to do that with specific fields where things like age could have people in the community confirm. 

I don’t know if it’s possible to do all of this, but trying to come up with ideas that can be vetted later.

[Thomas_Belgium]

In my opinion, tightness is as important as dick size.

[RadioRob]

2 minutes ago, Thomas_Belgium said:

In my opinion, tightness is as important as dick size.

Any thoughts on how to measure that?  What sort of fields would users select from if there were to be a question on it?  

[Boink]

I'm not sure if this has been addressed, but it would be great if providers' phone numbers were searchable.

[MikeBiDude]

22 hours ago, RadioRob said:

I could add a "Rob's Favorite" award.  (Or other trusted people who could grant that award.).

Waaaaay back when there was the “Hooboy seal of approval” with a sea lion icon!

[Thomas_Belgium]

23 hours ago, RadioRob said:

Any thoughts on how to measure that?  What sort of fields would users select from if there were to be a question on it?  

Very tight, tight, medium, loose, very loose.

[muscmtl]

As long as I can find " muscle AND kiss AND rim AND suck AND bottoms bareback"  you're fine

For me the more questions, the better. It would be nice to have  give/ receive option for oral, rimming, etc...

PS. Thanks for rentmen