Happy Halloween to you as well! I have a quick question for you. Do you see yourself going live before the end of the year or sooner? I know that you mentioned that you don't have a date but, is there an estimate?
In addition, I'm simply curious, what have you guys done to try and get more views on your website? This forum is the first time I have ever heard of it.
Supermila,
3) The transgender models are a new addition and very recently addition in the scheme of this process. This is something we will keep our eye on and continue to work with. I chose to add transgenders to give the website a different identity from MFC. I very much like the idea of being a website that only allows female and trans models. The way the site is setup, there should be no accidental viewing of a transgender page unless the Member wants that. There is no mixing of females and transgenders. A Member cannot hover over the Model image and get a peek into the page. I HATE that feature. I want Members interested in a Model to have to enter the page, then it is up to the Model to get them to stay. This way they cannot hover and make a decision and move onto the next Model to hover over.
I have a question regarding the bolded section.
Do you mean you won't have any cam previews of the room as it is? Such as only the models name and their chosen avatar? Because I don't know if you've looked at, say, MFC's homepage with it set up with the avatars; but it's a cluster and a half trying to find anything that's representative of the model, if it's even a picture of the model, or a human to begin with.
I can understand not wanting a pop-up with a slideshow of the last few moments of the room, but I would hope you have an option for a static image of the room as it has been in the past few minutes.
I know for me that's a vastly larger draw personally than just an avatar.
I just don't think that an avatar system will work unless it's very strictly screened to be sure that it shows the model, and isn't some other model or picture someone found online. Especially once you've grown beyond a few dozen models.
Thank you for taking the time to reply, I really appreciate it. On anouther note, I tried to pull up your website to show it to a friend of mine this past weekend and the website was down. Curious as to why this is the case. Also when will registration be open?
Like I said before, that works when you are a small site, but if you are successful and start getting more and more models on the site, you're going to have to expend more and more resources to make sure the avatar is an accurate representation.
It just seems like too much effort, unless you are going to provide the model with some glamour shoots to use as the avatar, there's just to much variation.
Besides, with a brief cam preview of the room, I know if the model is actually there, because sometimes the models will wander off and just leave the cam going for several minutes. Even if they really aren't supposed to do that.
I disagree with you.
Streamate by default has a models avatar set as a static image of what her room looks like when they take a snapshot.
However, the VERY FIRST thing most models do is to message support and have them disable the snapshot and replace it with a static avatar instead.
It's too much of a bother to make sure you're in a flattering position and not taking a sip of water/leaning over/blinking/whatever the hell else when the snapshot goes off.
Also, you expect a girl to turn her cam off and lose her room counts/momentum just because she has to go off cam for a few to refill her water and pee?
No, I don't expect a model to turn her cam off and lose momentum if they have to step out to get a drink, or go to the bathroom. On the other hand, I've seen many models who have gone off to fix food or do other things and be off cam for 10+ minutes at a time, does that really keep viewers and momentum?
I'm not gonna stick around in a new room if I join and the model's not there. Likewise, I'm not going to stick around if I join a room simply based off an avatar and the model looks nothing like what's represented. I'm also not going to join a room if the avatar doesn't even show someone, or if you can barely see anyone in it. Both are things I've noticed on avatar-based setups.
MFC's cam preview periodically refreshes anywhere from every 30 seconds to every 5 minutes based on user settings, so you don't have to hold yourself in a position for a snapshot, just do what you would usually be doing. I know I've gone into several rooms just because I saw that the model was doing something that might've been interesting and/or amusing, not even bringing up anything sexual. I otherwise might not have been interested in going into her room before that.
This all looks really interesting... I'm thinking I'd rather see everything in action before I sign up, unless I'd be able to split-cam (which you've said you'd rather us not do... even if we don't mention site names? I just find it a little difficult to trust that I'd get traffic when I spend time and energy on a new site instead of going somewhere I at least vaguely know)
No camscore would be a godsend for models like me though =p I've had a lucky break just recently but for the most part I've hovered around 1500 which means I've not had traffic blah blah blah. But I've seen non-nude models say on here that they like the camscore system as the 'most viewed' system favours more explicit models; I hadn't thought of it that way. I do think alphabetical sorting would generate some silly usernames an ultimately become somewhat useless, so imo, a random first page with different sorting tabs sounds great!
From a member's point of view though, if I log onto a website and I see a model I kind of like and then the page refreshes and she's been shuffled into the abyss, I might have no idea how to find her again. So perhaps a custom refresh rate for the reshuffling?
I'm also curious about your avatar displays. Personally I've always liked MFC's way of having one 'posed' avatar and then a preview when you hover. As a member that gives you a way of looking at the model's personality a bit (the avatar) and also seeing what's going on in the room at the time and if she actually looks like the avatar. But you seem fairly adamant not to have something like this =p so would we as models be able to choose a screencap to use as an avatar? Or just choose a 'profile picture'? I think choosing a profile picture could be a bit of an issue - we don't always look the same way we do in our avatars, for various reasons, and this is annoying to members. when you go into a room and the model doesn't actually look like her avatar. I've seen models who look like completely different people, and I know I can look different depending on how I've done my makeup that day. And (someone said this earlier as well) it is annoying as a model to see usernames flitting in and out of your room. We can't be sure what the reason is - are we driving them away with something we're doing? Is it a glitch? For me I like to know that if people have entered my room they're at least vaguely considering staying, which is more likely to be the case if they've come into the room after seeing a preview. Sorry if this has been answered already...
Re trans models I think it's awesome to have them allowed as well, and makes sense from a member's point of view to just have them sorted separately (perhaps with tickboxes? Not sure what people would want there). But what is your definition of transgender? A trans woman who has had hormone treatments and reassignment surgery etc is not likely to want to still be classed as transgender. You will also need to have very good support in place for dealing with transphobia - there are sure to be some members who will go to the trans section just to be assholes and you'll lose models if you can't deal with those issues.
Also there's been talk about banning and silencing etc but I don't think I saw I clarified exactly what happens with the cam... on MFC, if you ban someone, they can still view the cam but not chat. That to me isn't really a ban, just a mute. I personally think it'd be nice if there were both options - for example, if I think someone is screencapping me or might be someone I know in real life or something, I'd really like to be able to turn my cam feed off for them as well. In fact it's almost another way for them to freeload - someone can come to my room and be a total butt and I can ban them, but if they can still see everything then there's almost no point.
Just a small thing and just my opinion but your Twitter avatar no longer stands out...the butterfly did.
For Transgenders, we will only accept post-op transgenders (no penis). This is how we are defining Transgender for the site. This was an area we were open to and will monitor closely to support every Model. We do not feel mixing Transgenders and Female Models is the best direction for the website. We respect everyone's beliefs and lifestyles, but Transgenders will remain under their own tab to help avoid confusion.
I've already said my piece on the Trans subject, which amounts to basically: "not my cuppa, but fair play to others".
There is something that I haven't seen mentioned, which isn't really a large thing, but it is something that can make or break your site, on a personal basis at least.
Sound. I don't mean sound quality, because I view that as more of an individual model issue to be resolved. I mean sound control, one thing I loathe about going into new rooms on many sites is sound levels and how varying they can be based on how the model has their settings configured. So I can go from one room where I have to amp the site sound to 100% as well as cranking my speakers up, to another model where I have to drop the site sound to 1% and minimize my speakers. Again, I know this is largely down to individual settings, but I hope you can factor in a global sound control system. i.e. MFC has a global mute, which I have it set to default, which means whenever I go into a new room, it's always muted; then I can edge the volume up to a comfortable level, instead of blowing my eardrums out.
Another sound byte, (yes, I had to) would be your tip sound, is it going to be just a single sound no matter the size of tip, like a lot of sites; or will you have variable sounds depending on the amount of tokens tipped? As minor as this may seem, it can be a large consideration, since ideally you want it to be played a lot. So you don't really want an annoying sound. On the other hand, you want it to be distinctive, so that if a model does happen to be split-camming, they know where to look to thank whoever tipped without flipping through screens. Or if it's not noticeable enough, it might get lost in ambient noise/music/activities.
One last thing on tip sounds, and this is my personal opinion that may or may not be shared by others, but I hate how Chaturbate has their tip sounds play on both the members side as well as the models side with no way to deactivate it that I have been able to find. So I'd hope that if you do go that route, to make it easily disabled I like to listen to models while they chat, I like to listen to their music sometimes, as well as other activities, but with how CB has it set, if I have my sound on I get inundated with tip sounds and I either say screw it and go back to mute, or just go back to MFC or another site.
That last bit reminded me of another thing that I bothers me about websites, in general, ease-of-use. Make things easy to navigate. Have a clear and concise F.A.Q. and that manner of things, it just makes things easier. On members, models and administrators who don't have to spend extra time detailing how to go about doing something that should be simple, but due to poor design can be a bit labyrinthine.
Whew, that's a lot more words over a simple thing than I initially set out to type up; but like I said, this is all just my observations, like the bit about the Avatars/Previews conversation earlier, you are free to disregard whatever doesn't fit your vision for the site. I'll check it out when you launch, and if it doesn't gel right off the bat, I'll periodically check it out as you add new features/tweaks.
I wish you luck on this venture, given the histories of camsites, you might very well need it good sir.
For the record I really do appreciate what you are doing here HHC, you seem a lot more focused on the model's needs than the other overlords- which is obviously a big positive regardless of who ends up camming for you and who doesn't. I do a have a few things I'd like to add, sorry if any of these have been repeated:
And I do understand that your goal here may not align with what I'm looking for both as a model and a potential customer, but I thought you might like to know that the amount of porn out there for queer women (and women in general) is soooo lacking, having a section FOR women would be lovely.
- How are you planning on protecting model's privacy? What are your geoblocking features like? Do you have an easy way to send DMCA reports without including any of our real information? When a model permabans a member does that person no longer have access to any of her videos/profile or are they just kicked out of chat?
- What is your payment system like? Do you allow direct deposit/payoneer/wire transfer? Do any of these options come with fees?
- Do members have the ability to use search terms (I'm just thinking your standard co-ed, bbw, asian, fetish, etc) to find models?
- What type of traffic are you projecting? I mean, you can have the best site in the world but if you don't have paying customers... well that's not exactly a good deal on the models end. In addition, are you planning on having any incentives for girls who sign up for HHC before/when it first goes online?