AVNADS.COM and Adbrite: Fusker buddies
 

I was hoping that someone from AVN, avn online, avn.com teddy communications or whoever like aly or whoever might want to drop in and discuss this program. I would like to know if avn is involved in this project, and if so, why do they support and pay "webmasters" who use the hotlink model as the basis of thier business?

Avn, fusker, Philip Kaplan, fuckedcompany.com, adbrite.com... all sleeping in the same bed, I am starting to think.

Hello, AVN? Hello?

Alex

Just got fuskerd last night for the second time, last time they removed us when I asked them in a few hours after I sent the email. It's been about a year since it happen, so the “black list” I was told my URL was going to be on must have expired.

So far no reply from last night.

My question is, if they have so much traffic that is burning the fuck out of my BW, why not join my affiliate site and make some $?

Because there isn't any money in it for them... Fusker's clients are mostly either total sponges (won't ever pay for porn), people without credit cards, or minors. In all of those cases, links to a program that needs them to pay is worthless.

Fusker is the sort of thing that makes TGP traffic look good.

Why AVNads would want to be involved in this is beyond me. I hope someone from AVN can pop over and explain it a little better - or explain that it isn't their program at all.

Alex

I am also very curious about this relationsip between AVN and these Fusker thiefs. The "Your Ad Here" links on http://fusker.lewww.com/ all redirect to AVNads.com (same admin contact as AVNonline.com).

WTF is going on here??

And yet, there are still a lot of people that are going to put money in their pockets for the honor of sweating this summer in Florida.

Hey guys... AVNADs is a relatively new project where we're working in partnership with AdBrite. The people involved are still ironing out the kinks and allowing fusker.com in the network is, in my opinion, one of those kinks. I'm meeting with the publisher later today to sort this out. Please do email me aly@avn.com if you have other concerns with anything AVN is involved in. Thanks!

I have to run to a meeting... keep posting and I'll be back in a bit!

I must be the dumbest clod on the block. I still dont understand what is going on with this fusker thing.

Will someone explain what they are doing, how they are doing it and why I dont want to be "fuskered".

Hi Aly |waves|

Barron - if you don't have htaccess in place, fusker (and others) can basically load your images on their site, costing them nothing & you pay all the bandwidth.

Hey Sweetheart! |smooch|

Yes, Barron, what GreenGuy said... It's not good, and I certainly don't want to see anyone I'm involved with 'endorsing' this type of thing.

It truly saddens me to see a legitmate program get itself entangled with the likes of Fusker. Fusker is criminal. It is raw, unadulterated thievery. Those who host fuskers, advertise on fuskers, or simply ignore the impact that fuskers have on the common webmaster should have their little hairy assholes fuskered with an antique Kirby vacuum. You could strip paint with one of those babies.

Perhaps someone from AVN can explain on tonight's radio show what is going on? It doesn't look good.

I am curious, when AVN penned the deal, did they not know about adbrite and fusker? And if they didn't, they really didn't do their homework. That is assuming that this practice is not condoned by AVN. To me, that is a huge assumption.

Aly, I trust that someone within AVN will not only look at the situation specific to fusker, but also look at the the way that adbrite has responded whent he subject of fusker and similar sites have come up:

(as posted by JenC in this thread: http://www.greenguysboard.com/board/...ad.php?t=17640 )

it would seem that AVN's business partner in this deal doesn't have any problem making money from people willing to steal, which maked me wonder how long it will be before he finds some way to stiff AVN as well.

If they aren't honest on the surface, they aren't honest where you can't see them.

Alex

You're absolutely right... whoever penned this deal didn't do enough homework. I agree.

That said, implying that this sort of behaviour might be condoned by AVN is a little over-the-top, darling.

Aly, condoned and turning a blind eye are two shades of the same thing. AVN's partner in this project (Philip Kaplan, aka PUD) is well known for less than honest ways to grow his business and make money. His response to the issue as quoted above shows that he truly doesn't give a rat's ass about anything than making money.

I think it truly funny that some of the biggest AVN supporters are getting "fuskered" at this very minute... and AVN appears to be paying for it to happen.

Alex

I don't think anyone turned a blind eye; I just think they didn't know.

Yeah, it's really funny... I'm laughing my ass off.

Aly, never to give you a rough time, but the business partner (pud) was obviously VERY aware that this was happening, and had a nice little prepared piece of advice for people who have been fuskered. That should tell you everything you need to know about how he does business.

Alex

Indeed, it does.

Is it???
AVN has shown that money is the only thing that counts when making business decisions time and time again. You are probably too young in this business to remember but, when AVN took over the shows, everyone was pissed. They just knew that the shows were going to become "only" about money. And I'll be damned if they didn't. Damn, Aly, it was a lot easier when you were with Python. Why the hell would you ever crawl into bed with these people? To me, you and AVN are like oil and water.

I guess AVN can prove me wrong by not doing business with the likes of Philip Kaplan. When do you suppose that announcement will be made?

oooops...one more thing. So far, AVN has condoned that behavior. Or did they end the partnership and I don't know about it.

Please note that I am not stirring up shit & that I have all the confidence in the world that Aly will rectify this problem :)

Pussy :)

|bus|

I have no doubt that if Aly can do anything, she will. She is like that. And I have all the respect in the world for her. I am just afraid that the money is going to cloud other people's involved, judgment.

I'm doing my best!

And Jim, I do remember when AVN took over the shows (I started with Python at the beginning of '99) The reason I'm here at all is that, like you, I recognized where AVN needed serious improvement. This is a good (at times) challenge for me. I see great potential in turning this negative perception around, but it requires the time to educate people on both sides. AVN/ Internext once had the luxury of sitting back and taking orders; of course that not only isn't the case anymore, but also left some people with a bad taste in their mouth. The funny thing is, people tend to give the folks at AVN far too much credit for being evil, malicious or aggressively complacent in some way... I actually came in here facing the possibility of that reality... but as it turns out, they're all really very nice, just rather cut-off from their audience on the marketing/ PR side of things.

What ISN'T so funny is suddenly facing a PR fiasco like this...! However, I do actually like the fact that I'm in a position to do something about it... 1 step at a time...

Aly
I really am sure you will do your best. And, I really don't think AVN is dishonest. They just have to come to a balance between having everything about money and maybe, caring a little for the webmasters and show a little good faith. It's this fusker thing now but even before that, and I sound like a broken record, but...Florida in August. Is there any cheaper venue in the US than Florida in August?

Fukser
 

Hi,

Pud here, the owner and founder of AdBrite, which also powers AVN Ads.

We are removing the site in question, http://fusker.lewww.com/

Neither AVN nor I was aware of the Fusker problem until we found this thread.

One of the features of AdBrite is that anyone can use it as a tool to sell ads. There are currently 3,600+ sites using AdBrite. In much the same way that Ebay doesn't review each auction before it goes live, we don’t review each site.

That said, thanks for bringing this to our attention. I have informed our customer service rep who wrote the quoted response above that he should inform me immediately next time something like this happens, so we can manually review any site in question. If that still doesn’t do the trick, perhaps we will start reviewing each site before allowing them to use AdBrite.

Rock on,
Philip (pud)
www.pud.com

Good news!

Hey Aly - feel free to reference this thread in tomorrow's AVN newsletter :D

... and what about the other 50 fusker clones ???

DD

Oh that will happen too
Once we catch them, report them, complain about them, and finally raise a stink on the boards...etc

Aly, having the power to fix (or at least influence the fix) to an issue is a good feeling. Similarly, I can tell you it is as good a feeling to be able to know WHO to ask to find the person who has the power to make the fix. I call you out here because, well, I know that if you can't fix it, you will know who can fix it.

Pud, it is also good to see you here, if for no other reason that you now know that there are many angles to the adult side of the internet that you haven't considered before. Hotlinking, stealing content, and misrepresentation is a major issue that needs you constant attention, and your customer service and pr people need to be WAY more sensitive to the issues at hand. If someone is willing to screw someone else out of money, trust me, they will screw you out of it too.

I would suggest that you start your people on a quest looking for refering pages with things like "fusker" and "fukser" and similar in the names to see who else is taking you for a ride... and I would highly recommend that with only 3600 sites, that you take the time to look at the bigger accounts to be sure you aren't paying people to steal from others.

thanks to everyone for making an effort... now I hope that other major programs take similar actions where needed.

Alex

There is a feature you can add to htaccess that shows an alternate image if you try to hotlink the file.

You can use this to show goatse, tubgirl or the most disgusting image I can find

You could also use a image with the writing "visit www.xyz.com for more"

http://www.htaccesstools.com/hotlink-protection/
It's under Blocked Image URL

I use this sometimes to fuck the users of fusker.lewww.com, so they get a picture of a penis cut in half rather than my pics :)

fireorange, the problem with that solution (if you block all accesses to images) is that you also block yahoo and google image systems, which can be good sources of traffic. I have been much more selective in blocking fusker sites, rather than blocking all access.

Pictures of tubgirl, sexually transmitted diseases, and such are all good ones to keep their productivity up....

I am hoping that content producers start taking action for copyright violation and shut this crap down once and for all.

Alex

Reading the result of this has given me a warm fuzzy glow :)

RawAlex, don't forget you can code your htaccess to allow yahoo & google to hotlink your images, which is what I do, and at the same time block all others. I do as fireorange suggested, and have an image with a url written on it :)

Yep, nice to see such a positive result so far. Congrats on bringing this to the relevant people's attention RawAlex, fusker and it's clones are a leech we'd all be well rid of.

Looks like fusker has a new adbrite account.

http://www.avnads.com/mb/commerce/pu...1270&rdfrom=ab

assume this one will get banned too?


hrm, nm. looks like that's the same old one? not sure.

Boogie, interesting stuff... most interesting that fusker is ranked fairly highly on alexa... they would appear to be getting a ton of traffic. Amazing how many leeches there are out there.

If anyone doesn't think this is bad for the adult online industry, you need to check your pulse. Imagine what this teaches surfers... that stealing is the way to go. Just another nail in the coffin.

Alex

Interesting thread.

I just went to adbrite.com and skimmed through their TOS and found this..

Have their TOS always read this way, or is this something new due to fusker?


pud - perhaps reviewing the sites is a good idea. If anybody and everybody can get an account and nobody checks anything then what's to stop CP, warez, beastiality, etc.. type sites from flying your ads and making money too?

In any case, I glad to see that you've agreed to take a stand against these thieves.