Why UGAS Validation at Gayadult.com

[Contents] [Comment] [Up to Validation Page]

Validation does not affect memberships

If you are a paid member, simply click on the usual member's link. The validation requirement only applies to non-members. The free level is now an AVS level which ultimately will benefit free and paid members alike.

Why UGAS Validation is Now Necessary

Gayadult.com has been operating for many years. It has provided a range of free content. Originally it had a free level, an AVS level and a paid membership level. This made the site rather difficult to update and maintain in the long run. When we added the live cams and performances, it no longer made sense to have three areas and try to divide content between them. At that time the AVS level was eliminated.

However, now with the change of political climate together with other factors, we have decided to change the free area into an AVS level. The free level was always very tame, as anyone could look at it. The legal significance of a warning page is very debatable. Thus, we always kept the free level very g to r-rated. We could not hide behind fake registration information and the other tricks many adult sites have used to escape legal recourse. This site is owned by GLINN as part of the largest gay presence on the internet, offering a range of important resources and services for the gay community, so we could not hide if we wanted to. As a result, this is also one of the few gay adult sites you will find with a street address and customer service by telephone, fax and email. Although this is the responsible way to do things, it has put us at an economical disadvantage.

The tame nature of the free level had a number of negative side effects. First, it was very tame and did not accurately reflect the content of the entire site. It also was a poor sales tool for getting visitors to become members. While other sites ran x-rated hardcore material on their very first page, we tried to do things in a responsible manner, and have suffered economically.

The biggest problem has been with our free web cam. Because we never knew who was really watching, we could not present hardcore performances on the free cam. We had to be very careful. This again seriously interfered with our ability to sign up paid members. Lots of visitors were disappointed that they couldn't see much on the free cam. The free cam did get hot, sometimes by accident, but there was always the risk of a backlash if the wrong person was watching.

Now with the change of administrations, it is certainly not the time to put hardcore material out for anyone to access. Keeping the free level tame is not economically viable and even that low-key approach might result in legal problems.

Thus, there is no point in keeping the free level accessible by any visitor. The free level now becomes the AVS level. We will be able to show alot more there, and also show more on the free web cam which will be much more fun and entertaining. We can be more comfortable and confident that minors are not accessing the site. The AVS level will also hopefully generate some revenue which we can use to obtain and produce new content.