Rocking's site is gone - are we better off?

[sceej56]

Not looking to get into a blame game, but Rocking closed his site, apparently in a huff over people complaining about his seeking donations to offset cost and producers complaining about copyrighted material being on his site. Are we better off for it as a group?

I don't claim to have the statistics to back this up but I'm betting that a majority on this forum sample the freely posted material and a small minority also buys material from commercial producers. Now, I understand that it pisses producers off to have to police the free sites for their copyrighted material, but if copyright trumps all - shouldn't they/we be clamoring to remove the illegal posts of that 25 seconds from "North to Alaska" or 3 minutes from the Howard Stern show? Or should copyright only be respected prospectively for the small producer of tickling videos? I can understand that it's annoying to play cat and mouse but my understanding is that free sites do comply when asked to remove. Should they also remove all the mainstream stuff being shown w/o copyright and relegate us all to haunting video stores or setting VCRs for late nights hoping to catch the Popeye where they show "Shiver Me Timbers" (since it violates copyright to post the clip on the Internet)?

What happens if all of the talented writers and artists who post here decide they deserve to be compensated for their efforts? My own guess is what happens is this forum and forums like it are dimnished, possibly to irrelevance. Look at the hits, it's simple math - what brings people to this forum most?

The Internet is still very much an evolving thing. Plainly, some producers are very tenacious and their lawyers ensure that their stuff rarely if ever sees a free site; others don't have lawyers per se but are eternally vigilant; still others are lenient; some don't appear to have any problem with it at all. I understand that how they choose to "police" the Internet for copyright infringement is their choice but I don't think the issue is nearly as black and white as some would think. What about mainstream? What about the overwhelming majority of quality material produced without seeking copyright protection? Without that, this fetish would have a much smaller profile on the Internet and they'd have a smaller audience to sell to ... and with absolutely free advertising.

I think this issue is important, maybe others do to. Free providers of all kinds are getting scarcer and scarcer; anyone else think this is a bad thing? I've tried to keep this civil and hopefully I have. Just to let people know where I'm coming from, over nearly 20 years I've probably purchased close to a hundred videos (including customs which can cost an arm and a leg), I've never belonged to a paysite and have probably written and published over fifty stories; none of which qualifies me as an expert in anything but I want to establish that I'm not a stranger to paying for material or giving it away for free. Obviously, in posting this, I'm interested in hearing opinions, including strong opinions, and trust that whatever those opinions people will keep the discourse civil.

 

[Lazarus]

Pardon my language....

But WHAT THE FUCK?

That site was AWESOME; there were clips I hadn't seen in ages, and clips I had no idea existed....

BRAH....

Don't close your site down for a few "Nay-sayers"....the Hell with 'em....

It matters not what others think....do what YOU feel is right, and if running your site makes ya happy, DO IT!

I for one, enjoyed your site, and hopes it comes back in the near future....

But don't even do it for me; do what you feel is best....

Just my 2 cents worth....

And NO, this post is NOT intended to start a flame war, so don't even.

Wil

 

[nenezinho]

Speaking on the business side, as a young graduate, I believe companies should go for it and allow many free stuff here on the net, after all it´s marketing!!!!

From what I knew from rocking site, he allways shared clips, some of them large but never did I saw there an entire movie....soooooo....what´s the matter???

To stop custommers from getting free clips is like movie companies stoping the making of teasers and trailers. Tickling producers should understand that every custommer who has the money to by their material, will feel even more tempted to buy it after seing some nice clip! After all, we´re speaking of a fetish and when we speak of these things....who the hell will be happy with seing just a bit of the fantasy without buying the whole (assuming they can aford it).

The problem here, if you feel clips are stealling too many customers, then you must ask yourselfs if you´re offering a good product or if the price is right considering your target. If all is well with price and quality, no one can go wrong with some free samples to tease the customer!!! By getting it all away from the custommer, we´ll be far more suspicious to buy something we have no clue what´s in it.

This market is clearly too small to sell the clips by themselves, only at a very low price...believe you could get a better deal giving clips for free and trying to get to more potencial custommers (full videos) this way.

Just my point as a business graduate!

 

[ghostcynic]

rockings site will be missed by 99% of the people on here...plain and simple.

 

[drummah2004]

I posted my comments in the original thread that started this whole downward spiral...but NO, we're not better off! Regardless, he promoted (whether he meant to or not) other companies, gave to the community unlike 99% of the people that come to this board do, and honestly seemed like a decent guy.

It's a shame because I read thread after thread of people just knocking other people and complaining. I'm always shocked when I would read, "rocking, your site sucks because downloads take so long!"

My response would be, "PUT UP YOUR OWN FUCKING SITE THEN!!!"

But he never, ever shot back like that. Not sure what else to say...I'm going to miss his updates.

 

[gila67]

I agree with drummah2004; no, we're not better off! Now that the Rocking's site is gone, what other sites might this vocal minority who were attacking him decide to complain about? I really can't say any more right now, but will try to post some more thoughts later.

 

[tabuzz]

rocking

i liked his site,because he had clips never before seen and best of all,they were free.
why all the fuss about copyrights anyway,before TC Video stopped making videos they had free previews of thier new movie,now he sell the same clips that were once free for profit.
the two best tickling site were TC's and Tickling Paradise until they stopped the free clips.
it's all about making money on a fetish.
next thing we find out is the TMF will be a pay site

 

[BDW]

Missed

Are you kidding ? Better off ? No way in the world. Rocking did a great job promoting some of the companies we buy clips or videos for.
And for the TFM, Rocking was about the only person out there making an effort to post numerous clips for the community to view. A couple years ago, several sample clips would get posted per day on this site.
Now, it's rare.

99% of the people in here will greatly miss his site and are bummed if it's not going to be there anymore. And for those who complained about the speed.....I agree....either....
1. Choose to go to another site OR
2. Create your own frickin site

But if anybody is nice enough to post free clips...stop your whining.

 

[MaxSpeer]

As a person who has provided free materials for years and years I can empathize with anyone who is upset when their efforts are criticized. I have been known to flee for periods of time when ungrateful people complain about any of my content. This Internet Community tends to EXPECT product from we who contribute and the appreciation is rarely expressed and even more rarely reciprocated.

If he left because people complained that he was trying to get a little compensation in the form of a donation, then good for him. I hope that people will think twice before complaining next time.

I am so sick of people expecting us to provide for them with no return for the favor.

I say power to anyone who can make a buck providing tk materials. That way, we all benefit. I'd rather pay someone for that, then anything else.

Think about it.

Max

 

[BDW]

From the looks of it he lest because he was being criticized by a select couple for his efforts. The issue of piracy...why he asks for donations was brought up..and it looks like a few beat him into frustration. The whole thread can be referred to in Video Clip forum if interested.

 

[Nige]

Yes sadly it is all about making money. I can see a time where all the quality sites will be on a pay basis. 🙁
Oh well, lets enjoy the free ones whilst we still can.

 

[kcantankerous]

seriously do you think these girls would be tickled for free come on now. But on a serious not I think it would be nice if there were a free site, or if the prices were more fair. Somewhat like TC videos site.

 

[theshire]

Personally, I feel rocking behaved childishly in taking down the site because of a few critics (of which I was one - makes me feel a tad guilty 😛) when most people here enjoyed his site. But I can live without him.

BTW, I remember there was a user called fro67 a while ago who was working on a free clip site, contacting all the companies and asking permission to use their preview clips. Whatever happened to it?

 

[fitnesstickle]

It will definitely be missed. Come back on your own terms rocking, you provided a great site and hope you reconsider.

 

[Myriads]

Is it a loss?

Sure, anytime a communuity member shuts down their site it's a loss.

But it should be remembered no one asked the Rocking to close his site. The most that was ever asked was that he not violate producers copyrights, and harm the legitimate sales of pay clips and videos. Talk to any producer and they will tell you how well sales are after a clip or publication is leaked to free distribution. They quickly zoom to zero.

After the last round of requests to remove copyrighted material, he decided to close, just as he did once before, under exactly the same circumstances. His toy, his call.

So it goes. I'm impressed that he managed to eat what had to be huge bandwidth costs for so long for free. That he was starting to seek donations tells me that perhaps those costs were catching up to him, and turing a friendly gift to the community into something that was starting to pinch a bit. But I don't know, I can only assume. I may well be wrong. Perhaps after some time off, and some cash saving he'll be back to share again.

Someone above said it's sad that it's all about the money.

Yes it is. The cold hard facts are that It's money that makes all this tickling stuff available for you at all in any form, free or pay. The businesses that produce the material you enjoy, foot the costs across the board for all your free tickle stuff. When their pay material is shared, they are hurt. When they are hurt we all loose.

The TMF is here because of those companies that produce material. They keep us here. They keep us free. Naturally we feel protective of their rights to protect their copyrights, and support them where and how we can.

Someone above worries that the TMF will become a pay site someday. No, that will not happen. As we offer nothing that you couldn't reproduce with a dot of effort elsewhere, what would be the point? We'd simply close. And we are no where near that point. No worries.

Another user above asks about the clip site that was announced but never happened. This is the second or third time that such an idea has been floated in the community. They never seem to happen for various reaons. The big one? It costs too damn much to do. You can't make up in advertising the cost of the bandwidth to share clips. It's a failed business model. The TMF is one of the most used and visited sites in our community. I have had producers marvel at the amount of traffic (and business) we can send their way, at almost any time of day 500 people are here on site. But if we had to live off our ad sales we would die in a month. There is no cash in it. So with no specific info about the site that never was, I'd say a good guess would be that someone did the math, turned pale at the cost, and quietly desided to shelve the idea. Few folks will shovel dollars into the void. Few can afford to,

Myriads

 

[jk666uk]

are we better of no we are not

as BDW said the rocking"s site help promoting the other tickling sites out there
and i would say it help other sites sales as well

 

[gila67]

After the last round of requests to remove copyrighted material, he decided to close, just as he did once before, under exactly the same circumstances. His toy, his call.

I wasn't on these boards the other time this happened, so I can't comment on that one. But about this time, I'd like to observe:

We can agree that video producers have a perfect right to request that their clips not be posted on sites like The Rocking's, or that they be removed if found there. But can't we, at the same time, question the way these producers go about it? I mean, are they unfamiliar with the use of PMs or other ways to privately resolve the situation?
Do they feel it necessary to make their requests on the forum for all to see and if so, why? Thirdly, why can't they come straight out and say "please remove this clip" instead of sneaking up on it by asking unrelated questiions?

Also, referring to the thread that started this all, there were a couple of posts (not from video producers as far as I know) which, this being a "Flame Free Forum", I can't understand why they are still up. One of them was even edited by one of the mods, but even after the editing, still was less than constructive. And one thing makes me wonder; it was right after this post that the video producers started in, in fact they quoted this post in their first post. I wouldn't go so far as to say there's a connection, but I do wonder.

 

[Myriads]

Some fast answers:


We can agree that video producers have a perfect right to request that their clips not be posted on sites like The Rocking's, or that they be removed if found there. But can't we, at the same time, question the way these producers go about it? I mean, are they unfamiliar with the use of PMs or other ways to privately resolve the situation?
Do they feel it necessary to make their requests on the forum for all to see and if so, why? Thirdly, why can't they come straight out and say "please remove this clip" instead of sneaking up on it by asking unrelated questiions?

Video producers did things this way when the forum started, and we continue to encourage them to do so. However, the people often would not respond to e-mails, or even have a working e-mail address. They often also did not allow PM's. (Heck when the forum started there was no PM function at all) So it became needful for them to be public about it. Now some skip the first part and just go direct to answering in thread where they have some assurence of beign seen by the clip poster.

As to the style they do this in, that's a matter beyond my ability to make a call upon. I prefer direct, but everyone does things their own may.

Also, referring to the thread that started this all, there were a couple of posts (not from video producers as far as I know) which, this being a "Flame Free Forum", I can't understand why they are still up. One of them was even edited by one of the mods, but even after the editing, still was less than constructive. And one thing makes me wonder; it was right after this post that the video producers started in, in fact they quoted this post in their first post. I wouldn't go so far as to say there's a connection, but I do wonder.

What we call flame free and you call flame free may differ. We strive to make the forum as clean of issues as possible, but what might be an issue to you, may not to us. If you feel a post is problimatic please report it via the report function, which allows you to tell us why you feel the post is in violation of the rules in you own words. There is a measure of subjectivity in running a place like this.

Can't speak to why the producers popped up at the same time, but no one tipped them off if that's what you mean. They found it on their own.

Myriads