Anyone here feel best qualified to be point man with the FSC?
 

Before we start another round of discussing political action, I thought it would be a good idea to see if anyone here wants the role of being an "official" liason with the Free Speech Coalition?

I can't do it, I want my anonymity, I live in redneck country, if I become publicly known in the media as an adult webmaster I'll probably start getting bullets thru the windows.

And, I have a bit of a history of drug use, so I'm pretty much useless as a political face person.

I'm happy to do the grunt work in the background, writing and fundraising and what have you, but I can't be a public face.

Since that's the case, it might be good if someone who does have political ambitions stepped up and took the role of being our representative to the FSC.

Anybody want the job?

I nominate Greenguy. :)

Greenguy would get my vote too

The motion has been seconded & carried. I gladly accept this position....WHOA! Slow down a bit :D

What am I being nominated for?

From what Bill says, I don't think I want it either :D

Besides, if you threw me up there, I'd recommend that everything have a legit warning page, thus squashing every TGP & gallery maker's business model |couch|

This just popped into my head...it might not be the best idea in the eyes of a lot of you, but XXXJay does already work with the FSC on some things & he is a Link List owner....I'd have to ask him how he felt on a couple of the ideas that we've bounced around in the last few clusterfuck threads, but it's an idea.

What about Tommy? After all, he started this whole mess with the political influence thing :D

I'm really okay with anyone that's high profile, that knows more than one avenue of the biz, and who's willing to take the shit that might get tossed at him. So, Tommy, GG, or any other person from New York (what? I can't help it if NYers are born to argue and perfectly suited for the task at hand).

UW would be a possible dark horse candidate because the pure entertainment value of him pulling a Howard Dean would be priceless

Let's clarify here...are we talking about someone to work point with the FSC or someone to work point for the media/politicians? If we're talking media/politicians I think a female voice would be best...performer, webmaster, whatever...I think it should be a female voice.

I also think XXXJay would be an excellent candidate to work with the FSC...He's already close to their HQ, and beyond the fact that he's a dirty bastard (I know because I've read lots of his editorials and he's so proud of it :D) he's one articulate motherfucker who knows how to form a point and get it across. He'd get my vote to work with the FSC. |thumb

I, myself, have a past that's a bit too colorful. I would have to decline an invitation to meet in public with any politician that I wanted to keep their office :D I'm happy to help in any non-spotlight manner that I can, including cold calling industry peeps who might be able to help us :)

And what is wrong with that? :D

I agree, anyone like Jay, Tommy, GG would get my vote. |thumb

Bill, why does being a liason between us and the FSC require public exposure?

As I understand what we need is someone to simply educate the FSC so they're not in front of the Senate telling them silly stuff like we support an impossible technology such as AVS and that adult webmasters don't label their pages.

I love Jay and I think he could do a good job but he's not around here much so I'm not sure how regular communications would go.

I would recommend someone that's around here often, already is using the labeling at hand and (sorry GG) understands that warning pages are always bypassed. Tommy would be great but I think it's the longest shot :)

Bill - Why not if it's just to educate the FSC there is no public exposure.

Sir Moby - no need to apologize - I know warning pages are being bypassed - been that way since the 1st sites linked to a page of pics :)

But I've become a bit brainwashed with the "Good Faith Effort" theory that was brought up at this seminar - and I know it's only because I've always been a free-site link-list warning-page kinda guy :)

That's a good question SirMoby. It's not so much that it's inevitable that a political point man would have to face exposure, it's just that it's a real risk, and one that we should be aware of.

Political action has it's own wierd mementum that tends to go like this:

Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Minor shitstorm. Nothing happens. Nothing happens. Major Shitstorm. 60 Minutes Investigates.

I don't think GG or Tommy or Jay are the best choices, altho they are natural choices. We tend to naturally suggest them here because we trust and respect them, each in their own ways.

But, they are our big guns, and it would probably be better to hold them in reserve. Unless they want the job, then we should roll with them.

The ideal person would have political ambitions, would want to work with or in the sponsor companies and other adult organizations and become well known, would be articulate and good looking, a fair writer, and especially, especially, be able to listen.

The ideal person probably doesn't exist, actually.

I bring it up because I know I don't want the job, I'm not suitable for it. But somebody here might want the job. So I thought it might be worth starting to talk about at least.

I think the ideal person does exist, we just have to look hard. Do you have a more detailed description of what you expect of this individual?

Regards,

Mike B

I am sorry guys

I would love to do it but I am to busy with the twins
I barely get any work done

I really like Bill for the idea Sir Moby and Raw Alex also
and would be happy to help who ever you guys pick

I am really gifted in debating/arguing this sort of stuff
(at least I think so)

Bill, I am sure we could find a way to keep you under the radar

The ideal person should not be self-serving.

Don't get me wrong, as a newbie, JayXXX is my super idol but.... did you see his last Top Bucks spotlight interview. Don't know if that |pokefun| "made a deal with satan" stuff is where we want to go exactly.

HA hahahahahahahahahahahaha, hohohohohohho, heheheeheh

First let's define the role of the "Official Liaison To The FSC". If we can agree on that then we can focus the qualifications and start to nail down the right person.

Bill, what exactly do you think this person should do?

My vision is that this person would have 3 major responsibilities.

1. Understand the current technology issues with labeling, AVS, etc .... that are in use and can actually be used to help keep minors out without infringing on Free Speech and keeping an eye on International issues.

2. Listen well enough to understand all or at least most webmaster's concerns and know the difference between their own beliefs and the majorities beliefs.

3. Educate and communicate the above information to the FSC to ensure that they have the knowledge to stay on track, speak accurately on issues and move in the right direction.

The "issues" points you're emphasizing in your list, SirMoby, are a part of the task that a FSC pointman would face, but I'm thinking those requirements are the easy part.

The FSC is an older style organization. They do most of their business in face to face meetings and phone calls.

So, the ideal point man would be able to attend meetings. I guess that means they should live in california. Or at least be able to go to some of the conventions and meet with the FSC folks there, because I gather that the FSC hopes to have a presence at the conventions.

(I think maybe we should start calling this job the "FSC Contact" - point man is a military term - all politics is 'slow war' but we should soften it a bit...)

The ideal FSC Contact would be good on the phone and in email. The job would involve stuff like talking to sponsors, content producers, other board owners, other organizations, and by talking I mean mostly listening and occasionally making suggestions and asking leading questions.

Talking to sponsors would be a critical part of the role.

The ideal FSC contact would be able to run boardtracker campaigns to keep an eye on the topic of the FSC and other political issues.

The ideal FSC contact would be willing to post on other boards, become a bit of a personality on other boards, because we would need the co-operation of the other communities to get anything real happening, and to do any serious fund raising.

The FSC contact doesn't have to do all these things, actually. Really, their most important job would be to attend some meetings and do phone work with the existing FSC organization. Their second most important job would be working the other boards.

I could do some - a lot, I suppose - of the 'secretarial' type stuff, and I'm willing to do that, or at least try to do it. Or some of it.

Ultimately, the FSC Contact would have to be paid, something, somehow. But we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

So, to sum up:

1. The FSC Contact needs to be able to attend some meetings in California.

2. The FSC Contact needs to be able to become something of a board personality.

3. The FSC Contact needs to be able to do well on the phone.

I like the summary that Bill created; I would add that we want the point person that can have credibility with the webmasters and have an understanding of the issues we face, so they should have been involved (at one time) in the internet side of the business. So having an already established board personality would go a long way to accomplishing that.

Ps. I vote for point man, it is the army brat in me. :D

My partner Spike is an excellent liasion. We are FSC members, have a long history of being proactive in political and financial issues that impact our industry. ( I was part of a lobby group that defeated a porn tax in California among other issues, like Acacia for example)

We have an excellent relationship with Tom Hymes and would be happy to help coordinate communication.

Let's meet Spike and hear his views. I'd love to chat with him and I don't think we have a lot of time to start educating the FSC.

With all due respect the FSC will always need to be educated on the issues so that they can be more proactive on our behalf. That is the purpose of the trade organization.

I will be happy to have Spike jump in here to share his views.

I smell another Radio Show conference call using Home Grown's phone lines :D

Well all you ever have to do is ask my friend and we are there!

Spike has certainly shown in the past to be good at this sort of thing, and homegrown certainly does bridge the gap between the walmarts and the indies.

Alex

Sadly, it looks like other people are on the move on this issue, and we are barely even talking:

http://www.avnonline.com/index.php?P...tent_ID=259202

Can someone get to cambria before he goes and volunteers us to have complicated and mostly overblown labels all over our sites?

Alex

Eeeek!
*Runs around in circles screaming*
Spike! Spiiiiiiike!
Perhaps we can whip up a statement to send them?

OK, I stopped running in circles and threw together this draft statement-type-thing.

Feel free to say it's shite, if necessary. I just thought it might be a start. Now I have to get back to work.
-----------------

We, as adult webmasters are eager to prevent minors from accessing our material.

We believe that a rating system, rather than an AVS, is the best way to do this.

The results of a poll reveal that a majority of webmasters favor a simple meta tag as the best way to prevent children from accessing sites that are obviously adult. This is a simple self-rating system that can be easily adopted by adult webmasters and can, we believe, be used in addition to the existing ICRA PICS rating system.

The ICRA system can be used to rate “borderline” sites that may need more specific labeling, as an alternative to, or in addition to, the simple meta tag.

We are prepared to lobby other webmasters to take up labeling and will encourage the use of labels through rules on linklists and TGPs.

-------------

I also had the idea about affiliate programs asking affiliates to label their sites, but that's just another vague thought...

Edit: Maybe this post belongs in the label poll thread. And maybe ICRA doesn't want statements sent to their "invitation only" meetings. My apologies if this post is kind of off topic.

So the rep has to be a west coast webmaster?
They cuts out 90% of the link list view you are looking for

If so, then they are not the ones to represent webmasters. We need an organization that is in the 21st century.

No, we should choose the best person to represent our concerns, not one that is most convenient for the FSC


No, the most important job would be as a liason between webmasters and the FCS

Why?


2. The FSC Contact needs to be able to become something of a board personality.

3. The FSC Contact needs to be able to do well on the phone.[/quote]

I guess we had best start to examine the Adult Freedom Foundation:

Which at my first quick view seems to be mostly Paul Cambria himself.

http://www.adultfreedomfoundation.org/

Their statement has a bit of potential, despite being all caps.

---------------------------------------------
NEW GROUP FIGHTS FOR FREEDOMS

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. PROTECTING FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS AND COUNTERING ATTACKS ON THE ADULT ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY IS THE MISSION OF THE NEWLY CREATED “ADULT FREEDOM FOUNDATION.”

“ALL TOO OFTEN THE ADULT ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY HAS BEEN THE TARGET OF MISINFORMATION AND UNFOUNDED CRITICISM,” SAID ATTY. PAUL CAMBRIA, GENERAL COUNSEL.

“THE ADULT FREEDOM FOUNDATION WILL SPEAK WITH A NEW VOICE. WE PLAN TO SUPPLY ACCURATE AND POSITIVE INFORMATION TO THE PUBLIC FOR A CHANGE,” HE SAID.

FIRST AND FOREMOST, THE GROUP WANTS TO WORK WITH THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA IN GETTING OUR MESSAGE OUT.

THE GROUP WILL PROVIDE MEDIA AND GOVERNMENT ACCESS TO LEGAL, SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRY EXECUTIVES TO COUNTER BALANCE BOGUS CLAIMS BY AMBITIOUS POLITICANS, RIGHT WING GROUPS AND OTHERS.

THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY AND NOW IT’S TIME FOR OUR SIDE TO BE TOLD TOO.

AFF IS GOING TO BE A WATCH DOG ORGANIZATION FOR THE ADULT ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY.

OUR STAFF WILL SOUND OFF LOUD AND CLEAR WHEN WE SPOT MISINFORMATION OR ATTACKS ON LAWFUL ADULT ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY ACTIVITIES.

FREQUENTLY RIGHT WING GROUPS ATTEMPT TO CO MINGLE ILLEGAL CHILD PORNORGRAPHY WITH LAWFUL ADULT ENTERTAINMENT IN AN ATTEMPT TO OUTLAW BOTH.

THE AFF FORMED BY SEVERAL MAJOR NATIONAL COMPANIES, INCLUDING THOSE FROM THE ADULT ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY, IS DEDICATED TO FIGHTING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY.

WHILE ADMANTLY AGAINST CHILD PORNOGRAPHY, AFF BELIEVES ADULTS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO ENJOY EROTIC ENTERTAINMENT.

AND, THAT THE AVERAGE ADULT ACCEPTS THAT RIGHT FOR OTHER ADULTS TO CHOOSE LAWFUL EROTIC ENTERTAINMENT.
---------------------

LOL
“THE ADULT FREEDOM FOUNDATION WILL SPEAK WITH A NEW VOICE," he shouted.

Damn, it's hard to read things in capital letters.

Even so, it's a decent enough mission statement.

Meatpounder, we can't know yet if the FSC is the right organization to ally with, we're still in the stage of gathering information.

However, our choices of which organizations to ally with are not large. We've already made an impact on the FSC because of the rush of webmaster memberships related to 2257. Thats a kind of investment on our part. Before we throw away that investment I would say we should try to give the FSC some new tasks and see how well they can carry out our political wishes.

I'm open to suggestions as to other organizations that could be of use.

An older face&phone organization might be exactly what we need. Congress is all about connections, who you know, and Congress is an even older school face&phone system.

So having some old school face&phone types as 'hired guns' might be exactly what we need.

It's possible that everything we need could be done without going to meetings.

Far-L, when can Spike come here and talk to us a bit about this?

It would be good to have him start a thread about the FSC, so he can tell us what his impressions of the FSC are, and we can ask him questions.

Where does Spike usually hang out on the net, what board does he post at most?

Thanks!

I like to think that we bridge the gap between the old brick and mortar and the online worlds too...|thumb

No but it is a good idea... Obviously if you want to lobby at the federal level you need to have lobbyists in Washington. Similarly, if you want the best FSC representation then you want to have not just a voice but a face too at the FSC meetings - which are generally in California.

The only people that really should concern themselves with what the FSC can do for them are FSC members.

The FSC, first and foremost, is a trade organization that works on behalf of its membership. They are not the ACLU and it is a lucky coincidence that much of their work goes on to benefit all the others that are not members.

When you all are asking this representation let me ask in return - are you all members? I seriously don't think it is fair to demand something of an organization that you are not making a commitment to in return.

It's thinking like this that reaffirms my position that independent webmasters hold the keys to their own destiny. Collective representation is more monotheistic than most people realize. I will never support the FSC.

No problem. If you think indie webmasters can do what a professional organization can that is made up of many with similar interests then have at it. To the best of my recollection, no indie company stepped up to dealing with the feds alone in the 2257 proceedings.

A trade organization like FSC is not "monotheistic". It is democratic and all paying members have voting privileges.

I have been assuming that everyone seriously involved in this discussion so far are members.

One of the big questions, or perhaps positions is a better word, has been "Should we renew our memberships when they come up this summer, and can we use the power of those renewals (or choosing not to renew) to get the FSC to communicate with us more and take some of the actions we want to see.".

If there isn't more communication between the FSC and onliners I think a large number of webmasters who joined over 2257 will let their memberships lapse.

And if the FSC doesn't add an online CC processor for memberships and donations, I think a lot of webmasters will also let their memberships lapse.

Great points, thanks.

I think the success so far of the 2257 rebuttal is reason to stay with the organization - and like I have said in other threads, the are many other successes the FSC has achieved on behalf of its members that make it worthwhile.

The online join is a great idea and I will bring that to Tom Hymes personally, find out the status, and come back to this thread with an update.