The Mystery Hands crawl out from under their rock and speak 😉
Wow... quite a thread... eh?
Ok... here is my one yearly, long winded reply... figured I'd just comment on a few things touched on by others in this thread
First... I may be wrong... but perhaps Tickle Central was saying that it's because of trading of "for sale" clips that their upset... not clip trading of the free clips.
If not... that's still certainly up to him and I respect his decision but I'm not sure I understand it.
As with some of the other producers who have chimed in, BleuFetish Videos is happy for you (the potential consumer) to trade our FREE clips as you like and put them where you like. (If you are a commercial venture using our free clips as content it's a little different and we'd at least like to have permission asked.)
FREE CLIPS
We at BleuFetish happen to create some of the most labor-intensive free clips. They take HOURS of time and a lot of effort on our part. We do this for several reasons.
1. We obviously believe that it is good for business.
2. We are tickling fetishists and I have been part of this community since before it was a community and will be part of it long after I'm done making videos. I ENJOY making the free clips, it's very creative for me and it's my small way of giving back.
3. ummmm... did I mention... We obviously believe that it is good for business.
In other words... if Tickle Central doesn't think it's worth his time... that's just a business decision on his part. Frankly, in many ways I see his point. In the time it takes me to make a good free clip and post it on the boards etc... I could have edited another pay clip.
Many times I've thought of stopping the free clips... but evidently I still think it's worth the time... because for now... we still do them. Either that or I'm just a obsessive compulsive maniac who tries to make quick free clips that take him 10 minutes to do, but always ends up looking at the clock 3 hours later and going.... "damn... I did it again" 😉
As far as frustration...
As with any business... there is a lot of it. And a lot of it for different reasons...
The whole concept of trading clips is unbelievably frustrating. I'm not going to rehash the whole argument about this; it's been discussed a million times. But suffice to say, I don't care what you do; make tickle clips, pick up the garbage, work in an office, etc etc... EVERYONE would like to be paid fairly for the work they do! Amazingly, some people still try to defend stealing, by trying to explain how trading clips or music is ok. I think it would be a lot more correct if the people who trade clips just owned up and said "yes I know it's stealing but I still do it anyway".
It also doesn't help that now everyone and their grandmother is making tickling videos, the serious people, the people who love this and make good videos that are actually worth paying for, are finding it harder and harder to make money. Fly-by-niters do eventually drop to the wayside, but the sheer number of them take a big chunk out of our profit. Competition is the American Way and there is nothing wrong with that. But it is tough to know you make a good product and see people getting ripped off by people who make shit. This is one of the good arguments why one would want to make free previews, to show that they make quality clips.
The actual making of a clip is surprisingly frustrating too... it tends to rob you of your love of tickling. Could you as a tickling fetishist imagine EVER thinking that someday you'd say to yourself "oh no... I have to tickle torture a girl today on camera" LOL... but that's exactly how it feels sometimes. As one producer put it... it's STRESSFUL!! Will the model show up, will the camera person do a good job and get what you need, will the model actually be ticklish or was she lying, will the models actually do a decent job tickling each other (that's why we don't have a lot of models tickling each other... they usually suck at it) etc etc
That said, I NEVER have and never would, ask someone to feel sorry for me LOL, it's a really fun job most of the time, it's great in many ways and I'm blessed to be able to do something I love!
BUT... just like anything else. Once you start taking money, it becomes a business and every business has its stresses. So the very act of trying to straddle the line between business and doing something you love is frustrating too. I think the tone of Tickle Central's post is a perfect example of this. This is a guy who LOVES TICKLING, and got into it for ALL THE RIGHT REASONS, and MAKES GREAT PRODUCT... just being... F R U S T R A T E D.
So... for what it's worth... there are some of my thoughts on all of this.
Since I don't post that often, let me take a scond to thank you for supporting us all these years, thanks for all your kind words, thanks for voting us Tickling company of the year, for 3 years in a row... Thanks for allowing Skye and I to do something we love!
Best regards
MJ
aka The Mystery Hands
