The ADULT CHECK - OFFICIAL NOTIFICATION letter
 

Is everyone getting this letter? I assume so. I only have a few sites in adultcheck, just enough to keep me in their system.

Sounds like the real beginning-of-the-end for avs.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
3:15 PST, November 10, 2003

Webmaster:

Because of new credit card processing regulations, Adult Check has been forced to make some changes.

Effective as of November 15, 2003 your sites will be removed from the Adult Check System.

The sites affected by this notice will be removed from the links list on November 10, 2003.

On or about November 16, 2003, all the sites affected by this notice will be deactivated. AC Customers will no longer be able to access the site through the ID authentication process and no new sales will be processed through the apply link.

Final payments will be paid out pursuant to existing accounting policies for any sums due and payable prior to November 16, 2003.

This email is intended to serve as our official notification to you, that as of November 15, 2003, any limited use license to use any Adult Check registered service marks is revoked and all agreements and obligations of Adult Check to you are terminated.

We realize that this announcement may come as a surprise, and it is with regret that we must take the steps outlined above. Adult Check has always strived to be an industry leader in regards to current and future trends, and thus we have reevaluated our entire business model. We want you to know that these decisions were not made hastily. We believe they are necessary for the continued viability of our business. Everyone at Adult Check has appreciated the opportunity to work with you in the past and we wish you the very best of luck in your future endeavors.

For more information, you may call our information hotline at 818-464-0735.

Yeah I got the notice too.

I haven't built any sites for them in years so it doesn't affect me, but still…

I've actually been thinking of removing the AVS category from my link list. :(

Fuckin' Thieves! |pcsucks|

I one swift move they steal 1000's of rebills from legitimate webmasters.

Fuk you AdultCheck!

DD

yeah I got that one. was dropping in to post it and seemed everyone else got it.

Glad I left them years ago

regards
garv

Same here Cleo..:(

DD

i have them but didnt use them, but i know alot of webmasters are yelling right now, and on this momemt i dont think i will make any avs till i exactly know whats is going to happen because i dont think adultcheck will be the only one|angry|

Oh fuck, I havent used them for 2 years but what about all you guys that have 1000's of rebills with them?? those of ya that have many rebills to 1 or a few big sites I would recomend to tell the surfers what is happening and tell them to signup for thsi other avs "gold" program and they can access the same sites and more blablabla from there......

Right now I'm very glad we never really messed with AVS's... but I am sincerely sorry for those of you who do and are effected by this.

5 days notice for something that may put many people out of business and into serious debt? |swear|

Perhaps I am just slow (No affirmations needed here!) but they are still selling memberships from their site. So if I am Joe Surfer and I sign up today, I get access to ziltch within the week or what?

This is a touchy subject for me - partly because I did sign a NDA & partly because I knew this backlash was gonna happen & effect my friends & webmasters here on the board.

Without going into too many details (I don't want to be sued) I had to make a very tough decision about 5 weeks ago & after speaking to the few people that I could legally speak to, I decided that, for the benefit of myself, my company & my employees, I would sign a contract with AC for a future project.

There are a lot of things that I'd like to say at this time, but I am legally bound by the NDA & thus, I have to keep my mouth shut.

Please do not hold my decision against me - even if I did say no, I was still bound by the NDA & could not have said anything here on the board.

I will go on the record & say that the decision to terminate almost everyone was a very bad one on AC's part (I, as well as others, have expressed our feelings on this subject to them already) but like I said before, after speaking to a few people & factoring in that the project would have gone forward regardless of my decision, I decided to take advantage of the opportunity.

I am very sorry that I was forced to withold this info from everyone.

Those that were kept in the dark may get a little more info from..

http://www.aclounge.com/viewtopic.php?t=1224

For Adultcheck! -> |swear| http://www.dangerdave.com/fuk-you-adultcheck.wav


DD

Greenguy,

While I obviously can't speak for everyone, I personally think that business is business, and if there was an opportunity for you (and whomever else) to continue to profit in some manner from whatever the hell it is that Adult Check is doing, then by all means, it's a no brainer....you needed to do it.

I wish you and the rest that have ventured into a biz arrangement with AC all the best and I hope it turns into something stable for you.

That's infuckingsane. I got the letter as well. |2up

I don't know all the details but I'm sure (as with some of the other avs companies) they did not need to drop and screw all the webmasters. I haven't built a new avs site in over a year but I do still make sales each month from SE listings plus rebills that have built up. Thankfully it's not much money.

Bugger them. May their chook eggs hatch into emus and kick their dunny down.

I have only 3 gold sites with them. Any suggestions as to which AVS I could move them to, or what else can be done with a site that has 300 pics and stories?

I have a couple of OneVerify sites and they have already covered the Visa changes. Check them out.

Funny thing is I just tried to check my AdultCheck stats and I can't get in. |angry|

After reading the link that DD posted I'm left with the understanding that 100 people will be building sites that an additional 250 people will send traffic to.

Hmmm… closed system of paysites that will have to compete against all the all affiliate programs in an open market.

Either way it doesn't really affect me one way or the other. I've already moved on from the Cyberage mess and really I stopped building real AVS sites a few years ago. I can't even remember the name of the AVS service that I did build for and closed its doors some years ago.

Sucks, looks like a lot of folks are going to get hurt bad on this one. :(

So what's interesting is that AdultCheck is not going anywhere. So a surfer with an ID will still have access to the system and the sites that are still in there from the new Tier 1 webmasters.

So...I guess that means they will still be rebilling those surfers and not paying it out to the original webmaster that made the sale.

I wonder what the processors will have to say about doing re bills for what is now a different program?

For that matter what are the surfers going to think about the new program?

Must be nice to know that in a month you don't have to pay out no more…

Already done here

Same here with the last drama.

while this may be the end of AC for everyone except the chosen 350, it is for sure not the end of AVS. Far from it.

Not to be too spammy here, but SPP recently implemented a filtering system that has litterally made each pay period better than the previous.

We are welcoming all AC wemasters that did not make the cut, with open arms.

This kind of explains why AC chose to not participate in the AVS showdown that AVS Lounge is conducting right now.

His impartial study is showing we are converting 1:25 for him.

Oh, and in case no one's noticed yet, access to the stats page for the terminated webmasters has already been removed, even though the sites won't be deactivated until the 15th. Hope everyone affected knows how much they're owed for the pay period that ends on the 15th, 'cause there's no longer any way to check.
|angry|

Right on Baddog.

Just in case you guys don't know, I use SPP for selling pictures of "Marissa" on my link list, and I'm consistently seeing conversions of under 1:50

And to really show that SPP is my top choic for AVS, I won't even post a ref code. So if you're looking for an alternative solution, I'd suggest putting http://www.sexpicturespass.com on your list

thank you kind sir, we always like sending you checks BTW |bananna|

I noticed that. |angry|

While this isn't an entirely surprising development, I wish that AC would have been a little more forthright in spelling out what the future held for them. Just terminating a bunch of people and then still carrying on business like nothing happened ain't a godo way to do thing, IMHO.

At this point, unless I can find at least 10 valid and functional AVS systems in the next couple of days, I will also be blowing AVS sites off of my link sites. Within an hour, FINDPICS and such will no longer accept new AVS sites until I am able to prove that there are still valid systems out there.

I feel sorry for the people who have built hundreds and thousands of AVS sites, and that have used the AVS link site for sources of traffic for their traffic pumps and such. I also feel for people who have built numerous "gold" an platinum sites, only to find themselves on the outside looking in. I know some people that are going to take a major shit kicking on this one.

My AVS sites with them will be toast by the stale date.

Greenie, your deal and your business choices are yours to make, and I wish you luck with them. I am sure you are going there for good reasons, and I know that this situation isn't something you would want to see for others. Good luck with it. |shake|

Alex

Ok... I can understand if they do what they have to do and cut out the builders and just have the certain people sending traffic.

But I don't see any reason for not paying out the recurring income that they will still be receiving. Maybe there is some legal reason but on the surface it looks like pure greed.

Anyway it is problably a good thing to be rid of such a beast.

I'm one of the tier two webmasters (oh lucky me!). With over 300 Gold sites deactivated, what do I do? Move them to another avs and watch the same thing happen in a few months time? Is it only a matter of time before all avs's have the same fate? To be fair, I knew something was going on as I watched my AC checks get smaller and smaller over the last year as I worked harder and harder. I'm just really bitter right now. I've been working for months on updating my gold sites with the new scripts, making them more SE friendly, etc. in the hopes that I could recapture some of my lost revenue.

Ok, so Adult Check closed up shop. That's all fine. We all should be able to adapt and move on in this business. What pisses me off is the rebill issue. I can't keep MY rebills unless I get them 10+ sales a payperiod? Has anyone seen some of the sites they want us to promote?! I don't want to insult anyone here who may have built them but please.... my two year old could have done a better job!! Really! On top of all that, my design business has been based almost 90% on making premium avs designs for clients who no longer require the gold sites. Nice.

Sorry, just very frustrated and trying to get ready to move to Texas in 3 days from California and wondering what I'm going to do with such a loss of income. |sad|

Oh yeah, when I think it couldn't get any worse, I open my e-mail this morning to find an e-mail from my lovely friends at Acacia Media telling me I really MUST pay the licensing fee to use their streaming media technology right now.

ladydesigner,

I did find that amusing..."you can continue to receive youre rebills IF you send us 10 sales per pay period." While I wish all the best to the people that choose to continue to do biz with them, I hope they don't put too much faith in it, as this should prove that if it's to AC's benefit, they will screw webmasters in a heartbeat

While the AC matter is something you will need to pay heed to, and if you ask me, it is hard to find a silver lining when leaving CA to go to TX (although Oroville is as Texan as anywhere I have been |couch| ) on the upside moving to TX makes it even less likely that Acacia is going to be serving you with a S&C, so don't sweat that.

Besides, a court date has been set, and I don't think we are going to have to deal with them much longer.

In the meantime, as stated on page one, we are welcoming all AC webmasters. While we will not be having rebills, we do convert much easier than they do/did, and we are not going anywhere but up.

When is the court date?

Which part of Texas?

Wow! I can't believe someone actually knows where Oroville, CA is (and admits it)!! You're right though, it is about as Texan as you can get in California! It's a gross little town with absolutely not growth or industry.

We've just had a house built in Missouri City, TX (right outside of Houston).

I have a few sites with SPP but because you don't offer a premium program of some sorts with rebills I haven't done much about sending more sites your way. I might though once I get settled in at the new house. I have to reevaluate my whole business plan.

On the upside, I just found out one of my avs design clients is a tier 1 webmaster with AC so maybe my design services won't completely dry up like I had earlier thought.

Back to packing....

Oh, ok cool - I used to live in Sugar Land, which is right in your area. It's a nice part of the state, I think you'll like i there ;)

ladydesigner,

Don't know if you have ever checked them out but OneVerify has a premium site payout and they offer recurring. They convert relatively well :-)

ladydesigner - I'd try to move your sites over to another system as a band-aid fix until your move is finished & you can figure out your long term strategy. I didn't use AC much, but there would be tears in my beers if Pro Adult closed up today. I'm slowly moving my stuff over to paysites...but it's a long process not helped by the fact that I abhor doing traffic work. I feel ya!

*hugs*

I think I'm going to split the sites between Pro Adult and OneVerify for now. I have a handful of premium sites with each one already so I know those company's are stable (at least for the moment). Thanks for everyone's suggestions. :-)

Don't ya just love the stability of this biz??? |jester|

Mark's will be removing the AVS page in the next day or so and redirecting to the main page, I had stopped taking AVS submits for a couple of weeks already, waiting to see the fall out.

AC/ACMP |eatme| Actually Go Straight to Fucking Hell - Do Not Pass Go and Keep my Fucking Recurrings I don't give shit anymore you bastards - To me, this was the poorest treatment to webmasters of any program out there. Will love to meet you in Vegas |samauri|

GG and those lucky few, doesn't seem a bit like redecorating the Titanic before hitting the iceberg?

Actually I'm way more pissed than this, just didn't want to decorate this board with it all.

LL Owners - All of my AC Gold sites will be 404 within a couple of days - I'm not even going to bother changing them to another AVS - done, finished, finito with AVS.

Ok, Rant over -
Back to work

I like Austin, Houston sucks though if you ask me (I know you didn't).

And yes, I have been thru Oroville when it was even smaller than it is now, I would leave too

Badddog is a good dude ... im getting ready for a trip to bum fuck europe but im gonna look for ya on icq sometime today ... have some biz to discuss with ya might be good for both of us :)

Mikey