EDITOR’S LETTER

What a week this has been. I’m pooped mentally and physically. It’s been one incident after another, and certainly one hell of a roller coaster ride. But hey… life in the adult Internet should never be boring, right? Oh, I should clarify one thing right away… I’ve also been trying to get back into shape, because sitting at a computer all day doesn’t do a body good, so needless to say… this editor is sore.EDITOR’S LETTER

What a week this has been. I’m pooped mentally and physically. It’s been one incident after another, and certainly one hell of a roller coaster ride. But hey… life in the adult Internet should never be boring, right? Oh, I should clarify one thing right away… I’ve also been trying to get back into shape, because sitting at a computer all day doesn’t do a body good, so needless to say… this editor is sore. That’s the physical part. Now for the mental…

Well, for those of you who come around to YNOT regularly, you can probably figure out what I’m talking about in my snappy title to this week’s Editor’s Letter. For those that don’t, I’ll help you out here… PBS Frontline, ynotcash and Gtxcash… in that order (no relation to each other). Each individual incident is, in and of itself, enough to turn most stomachs. But we had a trifecta going on here.

For starters, the PBS Frontline show entitled “American Porn” aired last Thursday and caused quite a stir on our boards. The general consensus was the aim of this program was to make our industry look bad, plain and simple, and to leave a long-lasting and negative indelible mark on the minds of everyone in the mainstream. I unfortunately missed the special, but was able to read some of the transcript. Of course it is not an equal substitution, as nuances, music, emotions and attitudes are much easier to convey on television. Nonetheless, it would appear that this special attempted to push our industry several steps back. When they ask the question (regarding the adult industry), “It’s a multibillion dollar business – and growing. In a wired world, can anything stop it?” It’s quite obvious which way they want to sway the audience. In Connor Young’s article this week he answers this question quite eloquently. He was also kind enough to post a link to the PBS Frontline questionnaire on our General Chat board last week. Take the quiz and see how you fare. But also be sure to check out some of the board discussion that occurred on the YNOTMasters General chat board, which is included in this very issue of YNOTNews in the Posts of the Week section.

Then, over the weekend, a dialer program spammed many in the industry calling themselves “ynotcash.” Not only did this cause confusion amongst many of you who thought it was us who was spamming you, but also blind anger amongst many of us. Before these people were able to say “boo,” our fearless leader Otto was “politely” explaining to them how they were infringing upon the intellectual property rights of YNOT Network, LP. The end result? Otto had them shut down in two days, and they, for the most part set the record straight, but not after at least some damage had been done. You can also check out some of the conversation on this very topic from the YNOTMasters General chat board in this week’s Posts of the Week.

Gtxcash… hmmm… I won’t even go there. Well not for more than a few seconds anyway. For those of you who tuned in to the YNOT Bob Humpday Lunch Radio show on Wednesday, February 13, my anger with Gtxcash was quite apparent. Long story short… I posted something in haste at YNOT, they threatened legal action against me, I did what I needed to do within the legal boundaries to clear everything up, they threatened legal action once again, and insisted that I publicly lie for them. I won’t go into any more details. For those of you that know how that company operates, and has operated in the past, I’ll let you draw your own inferences. Bottom line is, I’m known to go with my gut and be impulsive sometimes, but I never lie. Certainly not for spammers who IN MY OPINION have a mediocre reputation at best in our industry. And that’s me being generous. Again, Otto jumped in and took the proverbial bull by the horns here and set these people straight. Well, as of this writing I haven’t heard back from them, so we shall see.

At this point, all I have to say is something I’ve known all along – Otto is the man. He gets the job done. He is one fiercely on-the-ball lawyer. When he talks, people listen. ‘Nuff said there…

All right, time to move onto some high praise for our great contributors this week! For goodness sake, it’s Valentine’s Day, and I should be spreading some happiness here!

In this week’s issue:

A great friend to YNOT, Connor Young, Editor-in-Chief at The Adult Webmaster gets things going with “Quest for Public Opinion: Standing on the Edge of a Knife” in Headline News. Connor gives us his take on the PBS Frontline show“American Porn.” Does he ever! This is a fantastic read.

Judith Silver from Coollawyer.com is back this week with another great legal article titled, “Compliance With 18 USC 2257 and Model Releases: Reducing Risk to Your Adult Business” in Legal Briefs. Judith will be providing a series of articles like these over the next several months, so stay tuned for more.

Next we have David from GreatGirls.com with “How to Find Unethical Webmasters When They Try to Hide” in Webmaster Info. Some very useful info here to help you track down that elusive spammer or thief or whoever it is that is bringing you down. This is David’s first article for YNOTNews, and we are glad to have him.

Kim Nielsen, President/CEO of Kingdom Worldwide Web Operations, Inc, is this week’s In The Spotlight guest. Be prepared to be blown away, as this interview is jam-packed with information. Also, be sure to check out Kim as our guest on the YNOT Bob Humpday Lunch Radio show on February 20, at 6 PM (PST). Please note the time change for this week only!

Then we have Erik “The Producer” from SoBeGirl with his contribution this week, “Are You a Compressionist?” in Tech Talk. Erik has written many articles in the past in the industry, and we are excited to have him throwing some exclusives our way. Don’t forget to check out his SoBeGirl content… it’s Hot!

Last, but certainly not least, Scott G. from Vivid gives us his personal experience with “The eSTARbids Launch Party and Charity Auction” in Industry News. Not only is Scott a great all around guy, his writing is pretty humorous too.

Hope you have been enjoying the diversity of the issues lately, as we continue to add more and more webmasters to the family of YNOTNews contributors, as well as the brand new sections and icons we have been adding to our article category base. Stay tuned for more changes and improvements yet to come, and as always please let us know how we are doing, and how we may serve the webmaster community even better.

Happy Valentine’s Day! (Yes, even those of you who hate the holiday.)

Jay “LAJ” Kopita is the Executive Editor for YNOTNews and the Communications Director for YNOTMasters and can be reached at editor@ynotnews.com and jay@ynotmasters.com.