Atkol Forums

[Gar1eth]

When I first started looking at escorts 13 years ago--notice I didn't say hiring, that took another 8 years-- somehow I found the Atkol Forums. They had a topic on pornstar escorts--people would write in their experiences and sometimes a few escorts would chime in as well.

 

Then all of a sudden probably at least 8 or 9 years ago they stopped--anyone know why?

 

Here is the address for those not familiar with Atkol

 

http://atkol.com/forums/forums.asp

 

Gman

[Gar1eth]

>When I first started looking at escorts 13 years ago--notice

>I didn't say hiring, that took another 8 years-- somehow I

>found the Atkol Forums. They had a topic on pornstar

>escorts--people would write in their experiences and sometimes

>a few escorts would chime in as well.

>

>Then all of a sudden probably at least 8 or 9 years ago they

>stopped--anyone know why?

>

>Here is the address for those not familiar with Atkol

>

>http://atkol.com/forums/forums.asp>

>Gman

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Ok I answered my own question--when I was looking for the URL for Atkol, I found out that the forum was just reopened in April of this year--the reopening announcement is copied below.

 

("Posted 3/31/2007 6:09:00 PM)

It is the eighth anniversary of the closing of the sex escorts forum. I have re-opened it. Let's see if people can now play nice and follow the rules. No free ads."

 

 

 

By the way I am shocked--no not just shocked, but also appalled that there was no announcement of this earth-shakingly, nay EARTH-SHATTERINGLY, momentous news made mention of in this sacred Message Center (or did I just miss it?).

 

Appallingly Yours,

 

Gman :+ :+ :+

[Guest EuropTravl]

I'll give you the Cliff Notes version:

 

I used to read it, and it was quite popular in the late 90s with many porn stars and industry people posting there. And ATKOL had a Classified Section and they were charging money for ads, including escort/massage ads. Some escorts used the free section of the forum (sex/escorts thread) to "introduce themselves" or advertize for free, and this pissed off the moderators/owners who closed that thread in 1999.

 

In 2007 it was re-opened, I assume, to re-generate some interest in the ATKOL forums as the industry and any "porn star" (except creepy "manager" David Forest) have long since fled that place and it's now more stale than mayonaisse left in the sun for a week. I'm suprised they're still wanting to be paid. ("no free ads")

[Gar1eth]

>I'll give you the Cliff Notes version:

>

>I used to read it, and it was quite popular in the late 90s

>with many porn stars and industry people posting there. And

>ATKOL had a Classified Section and they were charging money

>for ads, including escort/massage ads. Some escorts used the

>free section of the forum (sex/escorts thread) to "introduce

>themselves" or advertize for free, and this pissed off the

>moderators/owners who closed that thread in 1999.

>

>In 2007 it was re-opened, I assume, to re-generate some

>interest in the ATKOL forums as the industry and any "porn

>star" (except creepy "manager" David Forest) have long since

>fled that place and it's now more stale than mayonaisse left

>in the sun for a week. I'm suprised they're still wanting to

>be paid. ("no free ads")

 

 

I wonder if they shot themselves in the foot--so to speak. Frontiers Magazine Classified ads have never recovered from the hit they took when they tried to make people pay for viewing the classifieds about 3 years ago.

 

It also happened to American Male Escorts (http://www.americanmale.net/) when they tried to make it a paying site. It was a pretty good listing site until then-after they reverted to a free site--it's never been as good--then unfortunatley they had that guy using it for that Cupcake Escort Agency scam (or whatever the name of it was).

 

Gman

[Guest EuropTravl]

>>I wonder if they shot themselves in the foot--so to speak.

 

Well, I just checked and even after they "re-opened" the thread 3 months ago, ther've been only 3 or 4 posts so it hasn't been a wildfire to put it mildly.

What I never understood is that "ATKOL" itself is a place to order video/DVDs and they've never ever bothered to concentrate on customer service in THAT department - you could never see the back of the box or even a cast listing! So there are better sites to order from. And when it came to posting pics they always had a "copyright" or "pay to view" issue - if you mentioned another site that required you to join that site, the post was removed. Lots of nanny-rules. ("Queerclick.com" is a good place to visit daily - it's all pics from various sites like Randy Blue and Sean Cody and others (even many European/Latin sites) - I guess those sites use the free Queerclick to advertize quite openly what they offer.)

[+ deej]

Many of the pics you see around the net from Sean Cody and Randy Blue are flat-out stolen.

 

The Internet itself has morphed considerably from what it was when ATKOL started their web site. They were one of the first, and certainly one of the first "adult" discussion boards. And they still use the custom software created for that purpose instead of one of the many more fully-featured options available around the net. When they started, they did not have any option other than rolling their own and they deserve credit for investing the effort.

 

When ATKOL started, it was the only place people could really go to read about, and talk about, porn. And there were darned few discussion boards for *any* gay content because it wasn't easy to set them up.

 

The rest of the world caught up.

 

Everybody and his brother has a personal website. Instead of visiting message boards, people have their say on their blogs. This site siphoned off much of the escort talk even before ATKOL experienced their bouts of abuse and closed that section.

 

It's just a different world today. Internet use is in transition. Traffic is down on almost every "message board" (and that crosses a wide swath of technology) that I frequent. Blogs and "social" sites like Myspace are siphoning traffic from message boards, and there are just more of 'em which divides interest.

 

The porn industry is also in transition, adding to the decline of traffic at ATKOL. Traditional market leaders are losing market to upstarts as well as to amateur "producers". More content is being delivered online, as either rental or outright purchase. As the industry has spread and fractured, so has the fan base (the typical ATKOL participant). People who like a certain studio's product are more likely to hang out on that studio's own message board/website/whatever.

 

More options for a fixed market means lower participation for everyone. Competition is good, but it does have a downside. Offer 10 people one option and they'll likely all make the same decision. Offer them 10 options and all bets are off. Right now, we have the 10-for-10 option on the net until someone invents The Next Big Thing.

[Guest EuropTravl]

>>Many of the pics you see around the net from Sean Cody and Randy Blue are flat-out stolen.

 

Not on Queerclick. Take a look. They use the site as an advertisement - which is nice because you can see plenty of eye-candy (and know who's who when it comes to amateur porn) without joining any sites. And they link directly to the sites if you're totally enthralled and have to join immediately. Plus, Queerclick has a nice search engine. (I met a model in Brazil who goes by the stage name "Igor Fernandes" and he had done some modeling, typed his name in their search engine and up came a spread he did from months ago). "JustUsBoys.com" also has the same type relationship with other amateur (and non-amateur web sites that are pay-per-view) but the pics are bigger at Queerclick.

 

"JustUsBoys" has a new layout from a new Falcon movie that "the folks at Falcon sent us". I think I recognize a Ft. Lauderdale (?) escort named "Jonathan Lowe" that I've seen reviewed here in it.