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LadyPact -> RE: Collarme needs to do a better job of policing its userbase (6/13/2013 1:41:35 PM)
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ORIGINAL: handonyourneck
Certainly. I will share the reasons/complaints I've encountered from clients I've done similar work for in the past.
OK. I'm going to go through these and apply them to this site.
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1) Advertisers want accurate member counts. Artificially inflating your member base can cost you money and your sites credibility.
Yes, advertisers do want that because lower numbers reduce advertising rates. Considering it is not CM itself that is behind those profiles, it's not going to do much with the business leverage. However, you're skipping a very important part of what *kind* of businesses these are and specifically the target audience for the products. I'll get to that in a sec.
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2) Fake accounts that upload images use up valuable storage and bandwidth, which cost you money.
And yet, those are the very same images that can draw people to the site in the first place. Generally males with at least some disposable income. THAT is where the advertisers make their money. Who do you think is buying the products? It's the men who get attracted to the site *because* of exactly what you are complaining about. Hot chicks.
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3) If the object of a personals site (even a BDSM one) is to grow its member base (which it is), ensuring the accounts on your site are actual people should be an integral part of your business practice. Nobody wants to invest time wading through fake accounts and fake emails.
The point of this place isn't a charity for the users. It's a business to make money both for the site and the advertisers that get customers from the ads. I can tell you that, if I owned the joint, I can already see the growth that it has experienced and experiences every single day. The new members steadily flow into this joint. The target customer base is there and comes in on a continual basis. I think you're talking ethics and I'm talking profit margin.
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4) Exposing your members to these fake accounts leaves them vulnerable to phishing and other online scams will eventually lead to site abandonment. Not everyone is savvy enough to spot them. Being party to someone getting ripped off, even unintentionally, can hurt a site's reputation.
Nah. Really not. The site doesn't particularly have a 'good' reputation in some areas and yet, it's something like the 114th on google's popularity score for the U.S. I'm going to remind you, I'm looking at this from the business aspect. Not the aspect of the users of the site.
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5) It hurts your credibility with the internet at large. I don't know any business owner who would enjoy googling his business only to find entire sites devoted to exposing the very fake accounts we're discussing here. I also don't know many business owners who would want to network their site with a site that can't keep a handle on this kind of activity. Circulation of traffic is the lifeblood of this business. I direct to you, you direct to me, we all make money.
Great in theory. Lousy in this particular practice. I've been here since 2007. Since that time, there have been several folks who thought this would be true and put up their own sites about discrediting "fakes" here. (About half of the regulars here can name at least one of them.) Hasn't even pinged the armor. Some of the major advertisers here have been here for the six years that I've been a member. The complaints about "fakes" have been around for the same time period. (Before, actually, if you search the threads from the first year.) It hasn't stopped the advertisers from buying spots because they know they get customers from this joint all the same.
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6) Fake accounts can get you blacklisted with search engines and toolbars.
Hasn't happened in ten years and it's unlikely to happen.
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Those are just off the top of my head.
OK, here's what's off of the top of My head. Most of the advertisers that are here are on venues that are specifically marketing products/sites to kinky folks, or folks who would like to be kinky. The *last* thing that I'd want to do as a business person would be to reduce the number of female profiles here unless it was a blatant attempt to drive those horny guys off to another site. That's where the revenue is generated for this place. If anything, I'd probably want *more* hot chicks because that's what gets guys here. That's where the pay off is for the advertisers. The guys buying the porn, the restraints, etc, etc. The profiles that are fake don't stop the guys from opening their wallet and buying the stuff, so until it actually impacts that, as a business, I highly doubt any of your reasons apply. They haven't in the last ten years and I'd put money on the bet that it won't in the next ten, either.
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