opinion

.$$$

For those that have been following webmaster resource board discussions in my threads about asking for questions to present at the .XXX Panel, the #1 question is "who in the adult industry supported .XXX and what are they getting out of it?"

While alot of people want to see this list of .XXX supporters, and I do believe there is such a list, I am troubled in general by the separation and divide.

Same thing happened with Acacia.. webmasters wanted to know which companies sold out.. and talked about boycotting those companies.

While that boycotting talk was going on, I repeatedly and consistantly said, boycotting is not the answer.. the better answer is to support those that are in the fight.. those that are spending lots of money to knock down an issue that affects all webmasters.

While there were some that did help to support financially and to send traffic, it wasn't the response that anyone would have like to have seen, that showed the adult community did support those that were in the fight on their behalf... it showed, much like with PBS fundraiser drives, a few will support and the rest will just coast on the benefits.

Funding for FSC is in the same boat.. it's the one organization that has adult webmasters interest at heart, but the financial support isn't as strong as it should be.

So all of this talk of getting upset with .XXX is all well and good, but the reality is as a whole, this industry has not stepped up.

Sponsors could have emailed their affiliates last year to get them to email into the comment period..

ICM has over 1,000 adult webmasters from around the world that submitted support for .XXX that he presented to ICANN (this was published in an interview with him in avnonline article).

We couldn't get 1,000 webmasters to post up against. There hasn't been 1,000 different nicks posting up against .XXX even in keyboard warrior mode.

Affiliate webmasters have the most to lose in all of this, and only a few sponsors have been stepping up, as you can see from the public stance taken a year ago at my website: https://www.FightTheDotXXX.com.

I would hope that what the 2257 issue has awaken people to the fact that "united we stand, divided we fall" rings so true.. that there are outside forces that challenges people's livelihoods..and to take action when called for.

The path of public debate over .XXX good vs bad was over years ago when those that gave their support helped to demonstrate that the adult industry wants .XXX, and the lack of large demonstrations last year, and its gone to a higher level of policy and politics.

What can be addressed is what does it mean to get a .XXX domain, what are its impacts and implications upon businesses. These are the kinds of questions that I am looking to target for answers, because purchasing a .XXX domain, means agreeing to a set of terms and conditions that doesn't exist for .COM names

With Acacia, 2257, and .XXX, and whatever future things that come, I can only hope that someday, the adult webmaster industry will stop being cats.

Fight the herding!

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