@NewHobby: I happen to one of the few who seems to agree that the sweeping changes are not all related to the recent law.
However, I also believe it's a little naive to assume that the law had nothing to do with the changes, or that the law doesn't relate to sites sich as this.
Clearly, there is a connection for both. To what extent...anyone's guess.
Tramp
I propose this... refinements/criticism are welcome...
Any new member registering would have to provide a plain-clothes, largely complete of themselves, including face, picture of themselves (both together if a couple) holding a piece of paper with their proposed username and the date on it. Perhaps users would need to re-submit every, say, 3 years. This picture would be retained by SLS ONLY and used as a reference picture should a profile be flagged as fake.
So if you want to set up a single female profile using a pic of a Catherine Zeta-Jones (which I found once), you're going to have to convince Catherine Zeta-Jones to hold up a picture of your fake unicorn profile.
This would do little to stop cheaters, I think, but would probably stop the vast majority of creepy basement dudes posing as hotties to collect pics. It would also stop any prostitutes which used other pictures stolen from the web as their "bait" pictures.
Pic collectors with fake unicorn pictures stolen from the web rarely last more than a week or two before they are found out anyway. I don't think putting a time limit on them would change anything.
But I do think 95+% of them would give up if faced with having to cough up even $10....
NewHobby I don’t understand your point. I believe most would agree that SLS would be a little better if they limited free members to a limited time and then the accounts were scrubbed. This site is strewn with few accounts created by fakes, cheaters and who knows what. A night or two at a club will cost about the same as a lifetime membership so make the inveetment.
Honestly, a free Sinhle Female account is screaming fake or working girl to me.
The influx off new members can be seen . As lifetime members we get to approve profiles and also disapprove or flag which l can say a small percentage were obviously for the sex trade . These are flagged as problem and SLS staff review them.
Anyone that doesn’t agree with anything happening on the site is quiet welcome to move on .
This isn't about whether or not we should have free members, trials, etc. That is a whole other discussion. This is about SLS using FOSTA as an excuse to eliminate them. Yeah, like there is a ton of sex trafficking going down here at SLS, a somewhere obscure swinger site.
What they don't realize is that many members start out as free and many others block them already! It's largely a self-policed issued. Free single guys are basically ignored, but a free single unicorn is gold. I have introduced a couple who became members and was about to introduce a 3rd when we saw what SLS did.
This has nothing to do with FOSTA or the SLS user experience and everything to do with believing they can make more money by eliminating them. The $149 most of us spent is long gone, membership growth is down, so here was the window. At least be open about it, as I'd respect you more for it then. Don't hide behind an absurd law that has no correlation to anything on this website.
I have always thought that free membership should be a trial membership with limited access for, say a week and then you either pay for a membership or your profile is deleted.
I truly believe it would enhance the site for legitimate members, reduce fakes and cheaters and maybe SLS would use the added revenue to update the platform.
BWAHAHAHA....
~S~
Ncal.....i can email a free member but they cant see it...on my free ID. I get IMs and i cannot respond
Agree with VA. This site cleans up considerably with the demise of free. I would love to see it be pay only.
Free members could only view 25 profiles per day.
Can a paid member email a free member?
true but now all the previous limited communications is gone.... if a paid member contacts a free member by IM they cannot return the IM
I'm sure that some fakes would remain.
Cheaters I would think would drop somewhat, since a financial transaction greatly increases their chances of being caught by their spouse.
I honestly doubt that all that many pic collectors would pony up the money for a membership just to collect pics. Some might, and might already be doing that, but I'm certain that many would hit the paywall and just say "fuck it".
VaBeach, am thinking that there will probably be a bunch of fakes and pic collectors that pay now, yet still retaining their status as fakes and pic collectors.
"will there be a decline of them even signing on"
I've thought for some time that a great many of the problems with cheaters and fake profiles would be solved if Free Members were done away with entirely.
I agree... its plain silly.. what will happen with the free members now?
will there be a decline of them even signing on ...since they can't do crap
Free members can no longer participate because of FOSTA? Could you be anymore over the top? The whole world is becoming ridiculous and I can't believe SLS is participating in the nonsense.
