After a much-needed one-week hiatus from writing an editorial last week, I’m back in the saddle again. On March 25th we officially re-launched our website, improving upon and adding extra services, and giving the site quite the facelift! Not quite as extreme as say the artwork done on Cher or Michael Jackson, but I’m sure you get the idea.After a much-needed one-week hiatus from writing an editorial last week, I’m back in the saddle again. On March 25th we officially re-launched our website, improving upon and adding extra services, and giving the site quite the facelift! Not quite as extreme as say the artwork done on Cher or Michael Jackson, but I’m sure you get the idea. If you haven’t seen our eight new threaded chatboards and met our over two dozen awesome hand-picked moderators, I suggest you hop on by and say hello.

Things are definitely cookin’!

Here in the YNOTNEWS section, you also may have noticed some subtle changes with how everything looks and functions. The writer-submitted articles are still top notch as always, but now there are added bonuses for exposure for authors on our site and in our weekly emailed newsletter. For example, our homepage now features a different author and his/her current published article every day right at the top. The layout on the YNOTNEWS Index page looks cleaner than ever and is even easier to navigate than before. Our redesign allows incredible exposure for our writers, is easier for Webmasters to locate articles, and promotes better brand recognition and higher return potential for our advertisers. Everybody wins.

I think I can speak on behalf of the entire team here at YNOT that made this happen, in that we are all extremely pleased with the results. Our heartfelt thanks goes out to all the Webmasters who have given us your support and have helped promote us in the community. We owe a lot to our Webmasters who have in turn relied on us for years, as well as to the newer Webmasters sprouting up online all over the place and discovering the wealth of resources and community that YNOT has to offer. You all should demand the best and settle for nothing less, which is why this latest re-launch will be ongoing over the next several months, tweaking this and improving that. Whether the adult Internet is your hobby, or your entire livelihood, please keep all of the feedback coming whether to praise or condemn. Nothing will be brushed aside without thought or consideration. It all matters!

In other industry news this week, I’d like to once again touch on PayPal’s Mature Audiences Policy which is due to take effect on May 12, 2003.

PayPal was acquired by eBay in July 2002, and after several months of consideration, decided to impose this policy. Many in our industry would argue that PayPal’s definitions of what is “adult” and “sexually oriented” material in the above link are ridiculous and one could certainly try to find ways to circumnavigate the system. The fact remains, be as mad as you want to be at them, it’s their business and they can choose to run it as they like.

Now granted I am not defending PayPal’s decision per se, and am actually quite strongly opposed to any kind of censorship or discrimination, but after being put in touch with PayPal’s Senior Director of Communications last week, it became much clearer to me as to the reasons behind their actions. Our phone conversation could have ended abruptly as I grilled leading question after leading question. They certainly were prepared for interviews!

I also learned that about three years ago (after being in operations for five) eBay had dropped firearms listings from their site largely due to firearms legislation and too many contradictory laws. Now even though eBay owns PayPal, PayPal is still an independent company and it was their management team that made this decision regarding “adult.” The point I’m getting at is that in addition to confusing and contradictory state laws and a large “outwardly public” distaste for porn, their latest decision to instill a Mature Audiences Policy (which they claim is strictly for business and financial reasons), all stems from the facts that:

PayPal wanted to find the right balance of customer needs across the board;

Doing “adult” business proved to be a financial risk, mostly due to a higher chargeback ratio in our industry than any other;

Their “adult” business fulfilled only a small percentage of PayPal’s gross merchandise sales.

Sound familiar? I seem to remember a few very popular credit card companies harboring strikingly similar beliefs. When does it stop being a conspiracy against our industry and start being a stand against unethical business practices?

Sure PayPal was making money off our industry (just HOW much will always be in question), but obviously not enough for corporate greed to be a factor taking their gross sales, customer needs and risk tolerance into consideration. I think it mostly boils down to abuse. It’s amazing just how much damage a few bad apples can cause for the rest of us. I do believe that in our industry we can and will rise up above a situation like this and treat it more like an uncomfortable bump in the road as opposed to a wild ride, as alternative measures and innovative ideas will no doubt surface.

PayPal assured me that they will be implementing safety measures to ensure that people aren’t circumnavigating or cheating the system once it takes full effect. Since I feel that the mainstream often follows adult by way of technology, it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

In closing, be sure to catch YNOTBob, Otto and myself at the Phoenix Forum this week! It should prove to be a great time… and of course you can expect to read all about it in next week’s issue of YNOT NEWS.

Enjoy this issue! — LAJ

Jay “LAJ” Kopita is the Executive Editor for YNOT NEWS and the Communications Director for YNOTMASTERS, and feels that Webmasters who cheat and rip off from others REALLY suck. He can be reached at editor@ynotnews.com and jay@ynotmasters.com.