I think free members should be able to reply and send emails. I met a few wonderful couples that were free. without it its the same old people posting. chatting and replying.
Perhaps more review on what they are emailing or chatting about is needed. but I have only seen a few free members that where annoying.. Most are nice folks looking to connect and try out the site before they buy in.. Like I did all those years ago when I was told to check out SLS..
Like most things, you get what you pay for. Be it business networking, dating sites, BP or CL. Charging a few shillings eliminates a ton of crap for everyone involved. Also, there is a big difference between consenting adults and sex trafficking. BP, CL and MP's were filled with it.
Not in favor of the concept at all.......we find it hard to believe that there was ever an example of "sex slavery" ever here except for perhaps some of the BDSM crowd. Did not believe this when CL starting doing this either for the reasons they posted. Concerning the "free members" let them get their "training wheels" on for a bit as they become more comfortable with working the site.
Hopefully its still all about the fun, and less regulation overall.
I wasn’t blaming conservatives, i know that this was shitty bill supported by both liberals and conservatives. I think that liberals went along with this because it was framed as an attempt to stop “human trafficking”, and it is very Politically risky to be perceived as soft on human trafficking.
The point was that conservatives pretend to be opposed to government regulations, unless they are regulating things they dont like. (Like same sex marriage, marijuana, consensual sex acts, free speech, the internet, etc.)
"All life is compromise"
If the goal is to attract new "paid" members and promote the lifestyle to those who may be timid or unsure, then "free" members should have some access to forums and receiving/sending emails even if very limited. Regardless of the reason(s) that led to the most recent change, the effect has been to make "free" membership worthless. Rather than making "free" members go colt turkey there should have been some sort of interim step.
Also, there are many "paid" and "lifetime" members who have not been/signed on for literally years. There should be a way to hide profiles of members who do not sign on after say 90 days until they are signed on so bandwidth can be saved.
Errrr, you should take a look at who voted for, and who co-sponsored FOSTA. It's all online and easy to find.
A lot of conservative, moderate, and liberal politicians on both lists. Which makes it one of the more bipartisan goat-fucks in recent history. The REASONS that each group bought into it might be different, but the effect is still the same. This is one of those laws that really can't be blamed on any one group.
Oh, and by the way, why would the conservatives, who claim to be in favor of small government let this slide? This bullshit bill represents MORE regulation, not less.
(*answer: they dont really believe in less regulation, they believe in DIFFERENT regulation.)
VERY STUPID.
Marketing professor here.
Free members dont tend to just be “Looky loos.” We have been free memebrs for four years. We have temporarily paid for membership on more than one occasion, most recently because we are moving to a new region and want increased access.
By having the limited access to free members you increased the active members that use the site for the “hot date” function only. That is the ONLY feature many members use. If they leave you cant advertise to them. If you cant advertise to them you will lose far more revenues in advertising swingers cruises and parties.
That’s why facebook is free, dum dums.
I think it's a good thing. Free members are all looky loo's. If they really want to play, I think it's a good idea to make then join the site. It's the best way to show a real interest in the lifestyle
Wan side IPs (upstream from the modem) from most companies will be assigned to the client as a static IP that only changes on a set time period, such as monthly or quarterly periods, making a release and renew ineffective.
Your connection to the upstream will have a singular IP, then downstream will have another piece of equipment (usually a router) assign an internal (LAN) IP to each piece of hardware connected to it. A release and renew would change this set of numbers, only if dynamic assignments are made, but the IP from the ISP remain the same, identifying you as a single point client, regardless of what and how many are beyond that point.
~Allen
“An phone and computer IP address is readable so creating multiple profiles would be impossible.”
Not so. IP Spoofing.
~Allen
Should allow for a 30 day free fully functional trial and then lock it up. Its simple programing. An phone and computer IP address is readable so creating multiple profiles would be impossible.
All of this put down on free members?? Remember we all were free members at one time unfortunately and I hate to say this but my block list is mainly paying members not free since I am a single female Working on becoming a couple with my boyfriend at this point- I get couples that block me because I am a single female and the unusual part is that these couples are both straight in which they are purveying through my photos unfortunately I am not able to block those that have blocked me but yet they look at my photos over and over again as a paying member I should be able to block those that block me because of their preferences...
Why in the world do we want free members using up our (paying members) space. Necessitating us to make sacrifices.
ie: Deleting emails over a year old.
They are freeloaders and trolls.
Explain to me their contribution to the website. Maybe just "bragging rights" for the administration to say,
"We got a gazillion members".
Since a paid member’s membership allows the paid member to freely email anyone, how about charging an extra fee to paid members for the ability for free members to contact back and view the sender’s profile, so the website can recoupe what the free members aren’t willing to put forth.
I agree that free members should be restricted as to what they can actually view, and from making initial contact with paid members. However, if a paid member contacts them first, then they should not only have the ability to respond, but to also view that paid profile, if given access. Just like we have to grant others access to view our individual private albums, there should also be a button, so that we, the paid members, can grant access to free members, to view our profiles, for a specified amount of time.
I don't mind if free members can't contact other members, but if you're a paid member you should be able to contact a free member and allow them to respond.
Most of the free members are just desparate pic collectors anyway...cmon, its 15 bucks
I am all for a trial period for free member but that’s all. I say that because most of the free members just want to pic collect. I also think they should also be required to have a face pic. It’s really annoying when they don’t have face pics but want you to send yours to their kik account or to text them directly. I paid for a membership to not have to do that. Then they get mad when you won’t.
i would suggest giving a free member a limited number of times they can reply to mail..
i would also suggest giving them full use of the site maybe for 48 hours. unless a person is familiar with the site the cost does not matter its wether or not the site is any good.
just my opinion.
This site is cheap enough for a lifetime membership that it shouldn't have a free section. I have thought many times about building an adult site with no free members but really cheap, like three 5 dollars a month plus the transaction fee. Great money if you have a few hundred thousand active members. But with the new laws.... no chance of it. Kudos to SLS, do what you have to do.
"We as paying members should be able to send mail to anyone, Including Free Members. And as that goes those free members should be able to reply to mail sent by paying members. "
yup - bad move... and without telling us either. Paid members should be able to have their messages read by the free members. And the free members should be able to reply to them.... even if you aren't going to allow the free members to send the first message to start things off.
I am actually a little annoyed because before I saw this thread I had just sent off a couple first contact messages to free members.
If you can't afford to pay for at least a month, we certainly don't want to pick up the tab for a meet and greet for appetizers and drinks
Okay, coming from a "part-time free member", I'm okay with the changes. We both don't always have time to check out the site, read profiles, etc. and so we just don't renew for a few months. (Yes, I know we're probably spending more ultimately than if did a Lifetime, but there's always a reason we haven't bitten that bullet.)
Anyway - the point: when we are using the site, we pay. Because limitations are a burden and counter-productive. And we have noticed that the free users always give us the most headaches. Suddenly we have to jump through hoops to have conversations and they eventually flake out anyhow. Hope I'm not insulting anyone but not being able to pony up 15 bucks for the site is a red flag to us. It makes me question if the site is being visited on the "down-low" by one member of the couple and is not really sincere. At best, it's just a waste of time.
I (male half) am all for the restrictions. Like others have said, they should just get rid of "free" and just allow a short trial.
"We as paying members should be able to send mail to anyone, Including Free Members. And as that goes those free members should be able to reply to mail sent by paying members. Just my thought, Hope more feel the same "
@ Magnum:
Are we not allowed to send webmail to everyone, currently? From a business standpoint there are two things happening if they are allowed such privileges. IMHO, If they wish to communicate in any degree, they should have to become a paid member to reply; it will cut back on those who are just lurking and SLS makes a sale.
~Allen
