For those of you who haven't seen the thread, Boce brought up this link http://www.jadata.dk/fairness.htm that talks about how certain models win Miss MFC due to 4chan spam. As someone who is relatively in the know, I can tell you that mostly everything posted in that link is factually true. Unfortunately it's presented in poor context, with false conclusions, and doesn't explain the real reasons why models consistently score well in Miss MFC even though they don't seem like they should. That real reason is outside the scope of this post, which is to explain a little bit about the history behind everything.
Let's look at some facts about the BAF program.
1) The MFC member "btarded" is an asshole. More on that later.
2) The "Bring-A-Friend" (BAF for short) program on MFC is an excellent way to advertise models you like. Since MFC takes a cut out of all tokens purchased, MFC benefits from said advertising, and that's why they reward this advertising with tokens. It benefits the model, the member, and MFC. Details on the program are here http://wiki.myfreecams.com/wiki/Bring_a_Friend
3) The awarded tokens are essentially a payment for advertising for MFC. They're not free, they take work. In fact, out of everyone who clicks on a BAF link, only about 10% of them sign up for basic accounts, and from there only about 10% of those sign up for premium accounts. That means you need a lot of fucking clicks to get some premium referrals.
4) 4chan /b/. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. That being said, 4chan /b/ is extremely popular, and has a lot of people looking for porn. Perfect audience for advertising MFC. That's why there was so much BAF action there.
5) Some people decided to "cheat" a little bit and use automated "robo" tools to help them spam said advertisements. Ethical or not, MFC didn't mind because the more advertising the better. This robo-spam generated LOTS of tokens, definitely on the order of magnitude that Boce's link talks about.
6) Unfortunately the admins of 4chan did care about all the spam, and made attempts to block it. When the most organized spammers kept finding ways to post on 4chan, the admins of 4chan talked to the MFC admins and had MFC change the rules of the BAF program to prohibit posting BAF links on 4chan. This was around late December 2009. Now if MFC catches wind of anyone posting BAF on 4chan, even if they are not using robotic spam tools, they shut down their MFC account. This marked the end of the crazy BAF incomes from 4chan spam.
7) Back in the prime-time of the BAF party, the big BAF spammers were spending their fortunes on the models they liked, which helped some models rise through the ranks. This pissed off people who did not feel it was fair that models were getting inflated ranks with these tokens.
This is my history with the BAF program. First, I used to do BAF posting on 4chan before the party ended. I was open about it, I didn't hide who I was, and I *never* used automated robo-tools. A couple nights a week, I would spend about 3 hours making a good /b/ thread (usually about Amber, my favorite) with my BAF link, and ended up making about 500 tokens for said 3 hours. Just to put that in context, I make a better hourly rate at my day job.
Anyways, I wasn't using unethical spam-bots, and most of my earnings went right back into making more fun for everyone (anyone remember the crazy shit we used to make GoldieLoxxx do?). Unfortunately the party came crashing to a halt in January when my MFC account was closed for making one such thread. After begging, I was able to get my account back, but that was the end of the BAF party for me.
Now, there were bigger BAF players out there, namely the ones who used automated tools. The MFC member "btarded" was one of them. That guy was a prick. He used to sabotage other people's /b/ threads by putting his own BAF link in them and trying to steal clicks. But, despite the fact that the guy was a douche, he and a bunch of other robo-spammers were bringing MFC shitloads of business, and were being paid handsomely for it in the form of tokens. Some of the BAF spammers were nice guys too. Actually I think btarded was the only jackass of the bunch.
Given all of this information, you might be pretty convinced by this point that these robo-spammers were causing shitty models to rise to #1. Which is partially true. But it ignores two very important points.
1) Just because a token comes from BAF, doesn't mean it's less legitimate. Imagine a hypothetical situation where some guy runs an advertising campaign for MFC, gets paid in cash, uses that cash to buy tokens, and tips the hell out of his favorite model, causing her to rise to #1. Is it annoying that some guy is spending a shitload of money on a model that you maybe don't like? Probably. Is it legitimate? Yes. People tipping models you don't like is a fact of life. Bring-A-Friend tokens are the same thing. They're a payment for advertising, just in tokens instead of cash, and if a model earns them, they're the same as any other token. The only thing that you should be mad about is the unethical way in which the advertising was done (using robo-tools), and this anger should be directed at the spammer, and NOT the models who still had to be like-able enough to get tipped these tokens. GoldenLady, Mellanny, and to a lesser extent AmberCutie, are all models who got a taste of BAF-earned tokens, but they are all smoking-hot, friendly, hard-working, legitimate models.
2) BAF is not the only source of huge amounts of tokens on MFC. Ever wonder why ShyTeenn, who is perhaps the most boring model ever to exist, still consistently ranks highly even though the BAF party ended in December? The truth of the matter is that while BAF spammers did bring in lots of tokens, they can't compete with alternate, truly illegitimate sources of funding that I won't go into detail about here.
The tl;dr of the story is that BAF in itself is not a bad thing, a lot of models who get BAF tokens are still legit, and the only anger (if any) should be directed at people who use unethical advertising methods. And even with these BAF tokens floating around, there are more sinister forces at work making shitty models #1.
Pic related, it's Amber asking for /b/lackup
Let's look at some facts about the BAF program.
1) The MFC member "btarded" is an asshole. More on that later.
2) The "Bring-A-Friend" (BAF for short) program on MFC is an excellent way to advertise models you like. Since MFC takes a cut out of all tokens purchased, MFC benefits from said advertising, and that's why they reward this advertising with tokens. It benefits the model, the member, and MFC. Details on the program are here http://wiki.myfreecams.com/wiki/Bring_a_Friend
3) The awarded tokens are essentially a payment for advertising for MFC. They're not free, they take work. In fact, out of everyone who clicks on a BAF link, only about 10% of them sign up for basic accounts, and from there only about 10% of those sign up for premium accounts. That means you need a lot of fucking clicks to get some premium referrals.
4) 4chan /b/. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. That being said, 4chan /b/ is extremely popular, and has a lot of people looking for porn. Perfect audience for advertising MFC. That's why there was so much BAF action there.
5) Some people decided to "cheat" a little bit and use automated "robo" tools to help them spam said advertisements. Ethical or not, MFC didn't mind because the more advertising the better. This robo-spam generated LOTS of tokens, definitely on the order of magnitude that Boce's link talks about.
6) Unfortunately the admins of 4chan did care about all the spam, and made attempts to block it. When the most organized spammers kept finding ways to post on 4chan, the admins of 4chan talked to the MFC admins and had MFC change the rules of the BAF program to prohibit posting BAF links on 4chan. This was around late December 2009. Now if MFC catches wind of anyone posting BAF on 4chan, even if they are not using robotic spam tools, they shut down their MFC account. This marked the end of the crazy BAF incomes from 4chan spam.
7) Back in the prime-time of the BAF party, the big BAF spammers were spending their fortunes on the models they liked, which helped some models rise through the ranks. This pissed off people who did not feel it was fair that models were getting inflated ranks with these tokens.
This is my history with the BAF program. First, I used to do BAF posting on 4chan before the party ended. I was open about it, I didn't hide who I was, and I *never* used automated robo-tools. A couple nights a week, I would spend about 3 hours making a good /b/ thread (usually about Amber, my favorite) with my BAF link, and ended up making about 500 tokens for said 3 hours. Just to put that in context, I make a better hourly rate at my day job.
Anyways, I wasn't using unethical spam-bots, and most of my earnings went right back into making more fun for everyone (anyone remember the crazy shit we used to make GoldieLoxxx do?). Unfortunately the party came crashing to a halt in January when my MFC account was closed for making one such thread. After begging, I was able to get my account back, but that was the end of the BAF party for me.
Now, there were bigger BAF players out there, namely the ones who used automated tools. The MFC member "btarded" was one of them. That guy was a prick. He used to sabotage other people's /b/ threads by putting his own BAF link in them and trying to steal clicks. But, despite the fact that the guy was a douche, he and a bunch of other robo-spammers were bringing MFC shitloads of business, and were being paid handsomely for it in the form of tokens. Some of the BAF spammers were nice guys too. Actually I think btarded was the only jackass of the bunch.
Given all of this information, you might be pretty convinced by this point that these robo-spammers were causing shitty models to rise to #1. Which is partially true. But it ignores two very important points.
1) Just because a token comes from BAF, doesn't mean it's less legitimate. Imagine a hypothetical situation where some guy runs an advertising campaign for MFC, gets paid in cash, uses that cash to buy tokens, and tips the hell out of his favorite model, causing her to rise to #1. Is it annoying that some guy is spending a shitload of money on a model that you maybe don't like? Probably. Is it legitimate? Yes. People tipping models you don't like is a fact of life. Bring-A-Friend tokens are the same thing. They're a payment for advertising, just in tokens instead of cash, and if a model earns them, they're the same as any other token. The only thing that you should be mad about is the unethical way in which the advertising was done (using robo-tools), and this anger should be directed at the spammer, and NOT the models who still had to be like-able enough to get tipped these tokens. GoldenLady, Mellanny, and to a lesser extent AmberCutie, are all models who got a taste of BAF-earned tokens, but they are all smoking-hot, friendly, hard-working, legitimate models.
2) BAF is not the only source of huge amounts of tokens on MFC. Ever wonder why ShyTeenn, who is perhaps the most boring model ever to exist, still consistently ranks highly even though the BAF party ended in December? The truth of the matter is that while BAF spammers did bring in lots of tokens, they can't compete with alternate, truly illegitimate sources of funding that I won't go into detail about here.
The tl;dr of the story is that BAF in itself is not a bad thing, a lot of models who get BAF tokens are still legit, and the only anger (if any) should be directed at people who use unethical advertising methods. And even with these BAF tokens floating around, there are more sinister forces at work making shitty models #1.
Pic related, it's Amber asking for /b/lackup
