Demonitized Demonization

It is hard to watch some video sharing sites nowadays.

I don't know how to put it. Political videos are demonetized. Anything with a curse word is demonetized. Anything remotely resembling anything adult humor is demonetized. A lot of creators are reporting their videos are being in a state where they are still left up, but because of site policy, they won't get paid for a view.

Could you imagine that in the world of books?

Because we don't agree with your political opinion or book's content, we decide you won't get paid.

Writers know how to bitch, I can tell you that, and that is a great thing. Never pick a fight with someone trained to bang out tens of thousands of words per day because you are never going to hear the end of it.

Mind you, this is an ad-supported model and it is different than the world of books, it does show you how fragile the ad-supported world is. When you say "ad supported content" you really mean "advertiser controlled content" - I don't know of any other way to put this into words. You fall into this lowest common denominator world where nothing can be remotely upsetting to anybody, because someone is going to make a clickbait 'get rich quick' article (or even video) unfairly linking company X to video Y.

At least with Kindle Unlimited, it is clear you pay for the service and get access to all the books participating in the program. There are no ads or advertiser supported content here. You can have political books, mature works, and anything under the sun in the program because dammit, I am paying for this and if they pull entire categories of books out of the program for some reason I can complain and then I can quit the service. But they haven't, and I have found the Kindle Unlimited service is remarkably liberal, open, and diverse. This is why I have been in it since they started.

But it is a paid service. Big difference.

But watching video-sharing creators suffer is hard for me. People honestly out there trying to 'make it' in a very fickle and competitive world of video sharing, and you just see them lose ground just for being themselves. For what they say. For their beliefs. This isn't even just a 'mature content' thing, it feels like a policy of 'family friendly' or else leave. Quit what you love doing. Don't be yourself. Watch what you say. Fall in line. Don't upset the advertisers.

I see an ad on a video-sharing site and in the back of my mind I just get the feeling the company is silently supporting censorship. The fact the ad is here at all is limiting free speech. Having ads means I don't get to see what I want to see. That creators are punished for being who they are.

It feels like a partial collapse of the ad-supported model of content sharing, or at least the chickens coming home to roost after that 'gold rush' period where the rules were lax. You see this today on blogs with advertiser programs, and how hard it is to get mainstream ads on content that is marked as 'mature content.' Nobody wants to touch the stuff, even though, yes, mature content is ranked up there in the most popular search terms year after year.

But what if there was a better world to live in?

Would I pay $9.99 a month to watch videos where there were no rules, no ads, and creators got paid a share per view? A sort of an all-you-can-watch Video Unlimited service?

Yes.

Yes I would.

Would I care that there may be mature content on this service?

No.

In fact, this is part of the reason why I would pay.

Because I am paying for this service. If you want to put account settings to be able to turn off adult content, fine, do so - but I am paying for this service and I do not need a team of censors telling me what I can and cannot see (beyond the normal IP infringement and shady content stuff, which I agree should not be allowed to make money off other people's work or otherwise illicit content). But part of the reason why I would want to be there is because there aren't any silly rules telling people what they can and can not do.

I would pay because I support those people who are out there unafraid, being themselves, and looking to make a buck in this world which feels like it punishes people for speaking their minds.

And there is that bonus of never seeing an ad again.

But I would pay for that right.

But more importantly, I support the creators out there trying to make this silly and crazy business their lives.

Website Fixes, Time, and Blog Status

The remaining books in E-Read's queue will get reviewed - even if I have to put the reviews up on the store pages, they will get reviewed.

In the meantime, I am still working on getting the site back up. At this point I have no idea what happened, something went awry, and when I bring the site up it is a blank page. Most likely a theme isn't playing well with one of the updates or something like that. Fixing the site will be a longer term thing I feel, but this also highlights being able to support something like this when it goes up and when things naturally go wrong.

It is not unlike Windows or the Mac and knowing that - when you have a computer, things go wrong, and you need to develop skills in fixing things. Personally, with all the data collection going on as a part of Windows these days, my opinion of the platform is not so good. They think they have a right to pry in on my life, when they do not, and my choice is to walk away. I know this is the same thing that goes on with Chromebooks, so I am a little less enthused about them - but I do appreciate the security there so I still have one for the things I wish to share.

If I want privacy it's my Mac or one of my old computers and Ubuntu. The respect I give to your platform is the respect you give my privacy.

But work continues, and I am facing the real possibility that E-Read may not be recoverable. I have the data, but it is a challenge figuring out what went wrong and how to get things back the way they were. Wordpess, for me, is a challenge. I get this feeling if I can't figure this out I am in over my head and can't support the platform. If I can't do that, then I am done with Wordpress.

I am also facing the fact that the market has changed since I started four years ago. There is a lot to think about. I get this feeling indie review sites are really not as important, and social media channels have taken over the book-selling buzz. When I stated back then, the joke was blogs were a relic and it was all going to video. Today, the video bandwagon is showing signs of faltering (with the breakdown of ad-supported revenue) and we are likely on to something else. We are in this strange payment-processor, bank, and advertisement war for control of content - and entertainment for mature minds is getting crapped on by every side.

The byproduct of keeping the minds of adults in adolescence forever, I know. Everything is family-friendly. Comic books are 'for adults' but never show anything 'for adults.' Every conflict is solved with extreme violence and a hefty dose of computer-generated imagery. Nobody talks anymore. Nobody loves anymore. There is no subtle. There is no shame. There is no sense of right and wrong. There is no respect.

No wonder the world is the way it is. War is just a video-game we play, right? When is the next one coming out?

Right now, for my life, just updating this personal blog is enough.

Work continues.

The Post Everything World

Over on Youtube creators are enraged about something called the ad-pocalypse. Look it up for yourself, but basically it hurts people just starting out and those producing edgy content. It feels like another round of "we control the Internet" insanity by a big company, and we have been down this road before as writers with the three or four porn-pocolpyses writers have been through (and some of the yearly ones like when book stores clean up their shelves before the holidays).

You saw this before with banks giving adult performers hassle when opening up accounts - just because of the work they do. With advertisers on mainstream nude magazines and all the politics about where they were carried and what stores they could be in. With online payment processors shying away from mature content, and refusing to be a part of the payment methods of some sites. And now with advertisers complaining about what videos their products are seen on.

And here I just thought a view was a view.

I grew up in the world of late-night ads on cable TV hawking  all sorts of junk, and they didn't care if their videos were on some schlock 1950's B-grade monster movie, the late-late show, or some music-video show where the videos were basically ads for songs, and then they put ads around the videos to sell you more stuff.

Eyes were eyes back then. I guess our eyes are somehow different today.

Big companies want to control the content, because either the big companies are failing to product what the average person wants or there just is that much money to be made speaking your mind. I really get this feeling people are moving to Youtube and creator-driven content because they are so absolutely sick and tired of the garbage Hollywood and other big media companies produce. Look at TV news, if you can stand it, and then look at all the independent news sites people are really getting their information from today.

It is the old media sites that complain the loudest about "fake news" - from both sides right and left - because this isn't a legitimate argument, it is because people are walking away. People are getting their information directly from independent sources and using their brains to determine if the facts presented are right or wrong.

Same thing with entertainment. People would rather sit down and randomly watch Youtube videos where they can find things more relevant to their world than sit in front of the late show every night watching what entertainment companies think would appeal to the largest demographic.'

Jimmy Fallon can't drop an f-bomb. But Pewdiepie can.

And people flock towards the things which are not fake.

And those in the old guard and traditional media industries do what? Declare the new stuff is upsetting, controversial, and fake. Tear down the new stuff by using advertiser money, store policy, and hiding things from search. They implement policies to push "approved, family friendly" content while pushing the edgy, intelligent stuff to the back of the store.

It is a dam you cannot stop from breaking, honestly. It just feels like the more they try to keep people away from the things they want, the less effective it is at stopping the inevitable.

This is really all about money.

It is about money.

It is about the big studio who's movie flops and they blame bad Internet reviews. It is about the company that puts out a tone-deaf ad, gets raked over the coals for doing something stupid, and then blames the videos their ad plays on instead of admitting they "lost touch" there and are sorry. It is about the big book that comes out and doesn't meet expectations because indie authors are taking all the attention away. The game with millions of dollars in budget that gets bad reviews in comment videos. The TV show with the famous actors that pulls in less views than someone's Minecraft videos.

This is about the small people turning the old world on its head. About the billions of small people reaching out and finding things they enjoy with billions of other small people.

I am proudly a small person.

So the old guard uses money, payment processors, store policy, payment rates, and other games - using old fashioned currency - to control things.

What do you think is going to happen?

People are going to walk away from the old guard sites and platforms.

And people are going to walk away from the old-guard currency and payment processors used to control them.

If I could sell books directly using Bitcoin - and be my own payment processor - I would in a heartbeat. Here are my books, give me a tip, and I will keep on writing and doing what I do. Of course, I would still report it all as income, I am not stupid, but this is my business and I am not going to have some credit card company, store, or payment processor tell me what content should or should not be in my book - or video. Or anything I create.

I found an audience, and do not think you can use your money or policies to control either me or my followers. Seriously.

I become that guitar-player on the corner playing for tips. People throw their coins and dollar bills into my open guitar case, without having some payment company tell me "you can't play there" or "we don't like your music" and that next week the policy has changes and they aren't going to pay you.

Even though you play and people find what you do to be valuable to their lives and existence.

To be a part of their world, and to have them say "thank you" with a tip or two.

So I can keep on doing this, you know, the theory if enough people tip me I can buy that box of mac-and-cheese and eat another day? That I won't need a traditional job, and I can devote 100% of my life to what you love me doing - so you can have more? That sort of thing, where the big company is gone from the equation and it is just me and you, and you showing your appreciation every now and then with a coin or two.

An honest world is all I seek.

One where we reward each other based on our merits, directly, and there is little between us.

The benefit of a platform, be it a tablet, phone, e-reader, Youtube, Facebook, or any other content-delivery system - is size and exposure. When the policies of the platform begin to fight the audience's will and desire for content, the platform usually does not win.

And I feel the purpose of a platform is to not control the content, but to deliver it, invisibly and accurately, to those seeking that content. To enable people to find the things they wish to watch, instead of telling us what we should watch.

Welcome to the post-everything world.

Survive by supporting open standards and platforms, because you want to be able to take everything with you - your books, your movies, your music, and all your digital goods. A digital good has a lot more value if it is transferable to another device, and there have been music and media stores which have folded up and said "sorry, you don't own that anymore."

And find ways of rewarding creators directly, because the ad-supported world of dinosaurs wants to drag you down in the tar pits with it. Take the money that would go into cable TV bills and other old-guard services, cut those out of your life, and use that money to contribute directly to the people that bring value to your life.

It is a smarter play, and it supports the little people like you and me.

Still Working on Things

The website is still down.

It is like buying something you can't fix, honestly. I suppose this is the way it is nowadays, we are moving away from the old-fashioned "small fix-it shop" world where an average Jane or Joe with tools and a little know how can fix what we rely on to "send it back to the factory" and have it replaced by an identical something.

Either that, or go to these commoditized, somewhat less-freedom, mass-market solutions like this. But then again...this works. There is a team paid to maintain it. This is a service.

It's funny, in the last couple years I feel the dream of 'running your own site' is dying. Browsers require SSL connections or they warn people off your site saying "not secure" - and you need to pay to get a certificate. Why do you need the certificate and the secure connection? Well, for one, so what you do and read on a site won't be harvested and sold by your ISP or carrier - just check the news recently. Of course, they still know you went here, but what you do here is hidden if you are coming in via https:// and something verified secure.

Another nail in the coffin of "doing it yourself" is security. The world we live in. I keep my site up-to-date as soon as patches come out, and I keep up on all the problems old versions have. But when you get a patch that wrecks your site, it wrecks it. If you don't have an on-call IT team or really great knowledge of what you run, you are out of luck.

Plus, the world we live in today is more complex. You need themes and sites that are mobile friendly. You think of mobile first nowadays, and gone are the old sites built for the desktop on the desktop, and the whole notion of "who cares about phone and tablet users?" Mobile is only one example, there are hundreds of other subjects like this to think about - and again, if you do it yourself you need to worry about them.

The big problem about commoditized systems is freedom. A lot of places don't like to touch mature subjects. A lot of places hide you from search if you have any sort of mature content. You live in obscurity, invisible to search, and found by word of mouth only.

A marketing professor once told me, "if your business plan is word of mouth then you need a new plan."

This applies to books on stores as well. If people can't find them, why write them? This has been my struggle with writing mature works, they languish in no-search land, they aren't really recommended to most readers, and the early halcyon golden days where mature works would show up in general store searches is over. Now, stores know better, and they cracked down (and keep cracking down).

Everyone wants to be family friendly.

I do give some stores a lot of credit, at least the books are still sold. They can't be marketed as what they are, but they are still on the shelf. The old "word of mouth" thing applies here as well, and you are back to square one.

It is why we protect free speech for everybody. Even if we don't agree with what they say. The "chilling effect" is just as bad as outright censorship. I feel if you say "I am triggered" by something and expect "action" you are a proponent of censorship. Old-time liberals in the 1960's and 70's would have had a stroke over the trigger-and-censor games happening today.

You have the right to be triggered by something, but you take that away and you take away your freedoms. Don't think this will be used against you or something you like some day, as the other often larger and better organized side will push for their people to be "triggered" and all of a sudden things that offend them will go away.

You were triggered and had action taken, right? What happens when a religious or morality group organizes millions of people to be constantly and vocally 'triggered' by things that should be protected by free speech or even equal rights? Things that you like and appreciate being produced. And not just for one time on social media, but for campaigns lasting months or even years with a constant stream of anger and organized vocal proponents?

You are not going to win that fight.

And things trigger me all the time, but I know better to keep quiet. They have that right, as do I. I speak up from time to time, but in this day of the 'weaponized troll' age it is better to be the better person and let your actions define you instead of getting into fights.

I talk about this because companies want to avoid this sort of heat. When they get heat, they crack down. What we can sell is shrunk and hidden away in some back corner. What we can say about our books is reduced. We have to use secret code words for things we should be able to say. Someone would be triggered, after all.

And as we move to commoditized systems we need to obey the rules.

This blog is an example. I have never reviewed or discussed mature content here, and my warning flag is not set - since this is my mainstream blog. This gets better hits than something flagged 'mature content' because it can be searched and seen. I infrequently update it, and it still gets better hits than a lot of other sites.

Such is the power of the chilling effect. Just ask those on video-sharing sites about automatic age-restrictions and demonetization. I feel their glory days are coming to an end now, where they could drop a couple f-bombs while playing a game and get thousands of viewers of all ages to subscribe.

Again, big companies don't like that. Everyone wants to be family friendly. Someone was triggered. Let's solve this problem. Let's put age-restrictions in place for those commentary videos that should not be heard by those who should not hear them. Let's hide them from searches and related video lists.

But I have a right to say these words on a video! Free speech! Yes, just like us writers have a right to write them in our books. Free speech.

And welcome to the shadow-covered land of obscurity. We erotica writers have been here a while.

Yes, protecting people from things they don't like seeing is a noble goal. Stores want to serve the most people in the best way. But when the 'targeted content' methods used prevent those who should or want to see this mature or edgy content take away that opportunity? That is the chilling effect.

If I were smart, I would quit writing erotica. The smart thing to do is write things that can be found, appear in searches and 'related reader' recommendations, and can go out on social media without being flagged and advertisements denied. But honestly, my heart is stronger than my brain on these matters. But I still hear my head when times get tough, like this current situation.

It is that voice in the back of your head saying, "Walk the easy path and walk away."

I am not saying I am yet, but this is the fight I fight in my head every day.

Work on restoring the site continues.

Ereaderotica.com is Down

No idea when we will be back up since the site went down today, so here is my personal blog. It looks like a Wordpress update took everything out so it may be a while until things are back to normal. I have my data downloaded so all reviews and content is secured and safe.

It is times like this when you wonder if it is all worth bringing back up. Maybe a change is needed. Maybe I need to refocus my life.

I am working on it. More soon.

The Sickness of Constant Distraction

Even a cat with cancer will still chase a laser pointer.

I am probably a more horrible person having said that, but having cats and having had a cat with cancer I feel I can speak to this.

We do not have news channels anymore, we have opinion channels. We don't have newspapers anymore, we have opinion papers.

Whatever side you are on, we have a news channel for you and a news paper that conforms to your views. Step right up and be fed news and views which conform to your unique outlook upon the world. We don't inform you, we reinforce what you already think you know.

And we have our social media partners right alongside, each with their own tailored, carefully controlled point of view. What causes outrage there is going to be headlines tomorrow, and what will be in the headlines tomorrow will cause outrage the next day.

So where does the sick cat come in?

Like that laser pointer, each side distracts its audience with carefully chosen fluff stories and things tailor-made to distract and get our minds off of the headline we should honestly be angry about and demand change. Your typical news day, on both sides, goes like this:

First up is the 'breaking news outrage' story meant to get you angry and your blood pressure up a couple dozen points. Some politician said something stupid, or some scandal refuses to go away. The anchors hem and haw and tell you how incredibly awful this thing is, and  you are right there with them demanding blood and thinking 'this will be it'. This is something so bad that something has to be done, and you are probably right, if something was done this issue would probably go away and it would be solved. The world could move on. This something is so awful something needs to be done.

This is the sick cat.

We need to get it to the vet, to get some treatment, and to do something about this poor thing suffering. If something is done now-

And then bam, the news 'changes gears' and does a fluff piece. Something pulled from social media. Some athlete did something stupid. Some celebrity broke the Internet. Some nobody who cares anyways said something stupid on social media, and their social media partners hope you rush online right now to find out what. Here's a video you need to see. Here's something that will brighten your day pulled from a photo-sharing site. Cue the 'aww' sound effect!

The laser pointer.

We are distracted. The outrage is gone. On both sides you see this, they tease you with insane rantings and anger, and then they pull it away. Take your anger, if you still have any, and vent it on social media where nothing gets solved, thank you! At least social media will have your eyes for a while so you can respond to their advertisers, and then you can watch your flavor of news tomorrow to repeat the cycle.

Nothing gets done, the cat never gets taken to the vet, and tomorrow and the next week it is a new outrage followed by a new distraction. Those professing to keep you informed never want the outrage to be resolved, as they want to keep you outraged at a certain level and then pull it back so nothing gets done. Please come back tomorrow to get your view of the world reinforced, some anger fed to you, and no solutions acted upon.

We will even have plenty of paid talking heads that may or may not agree with you, but honestly they neither have the power to do anything or fix anything that we feed to you, day after day. They are just there to get you through the middle of the hour, fill in time, and argue like they have the power to get something but never will.

They are just paid to yell at each other for your entertainment.

Another distraction.

That's it.

We need to get the cat to the vet. I do not care about views and opinions anymore. I don't need anymore distractions. I know how I need to live and what I need to do. It frustrates me our sources of news are so biased and so beholden to the official line of each side. I pick through the news like I pick through garbage, just to find the few bits of truth that are facts and not opinions.

Because sooner or later, that cat will be so sick it won't chase.

I could end it there, but that is a negative ending to this without direction. To be hopeful, turn off shows which push views and opinion. Uninstall the 'news' apps from your phone that push viewpoints and not facts. Never watch those channels. Press those who can act for solutions. Act yourself and do your part for the issues and things in which you believe in. Vote. Make your voice heard. Never let those who would drag your outrage along get you into that addiction cycle of outrage and distraction.

Hold on to the issues in which you believe, and force others to do something.

Let yourself be heard.

Be that person who takes the cat to the vet.

Act.

Don't react.

Dear Internet, Your Internet Sucks

"Consider white-listing the site to help support us."

You know what, I am feeling very progressive and altruistic today, and I love the site and its content, so maybe I will white-list this one and take it off my ad-blocker.

WE HAVE DETECTED A VIRUS! CLICK HERE!

PLEASE DOWNLOAD THIS CRITICAL BROWSER UPDATE NOW.js!

 WINDOWS UPDATE NEEDS PERMISSION TO RUN A CRITICAL FILE!

You know what, fuck this. Fuck ads. Fuck me for trusting your site. Every time I try to help out, I get screwed while random and uncontrolled ad-networks randomly try to deliver malware to my computer.

Ad-revenue is really, really important, and I like to read them every once and a while and check out the things in them I am interested in. Ads serve a valid purpose in life, and they also help pay people for the hard work they put into blogs and review sites. Ads help support the things I do.

But lately?

No. I block ads like I block viruses, because within five minutes of white-listing a site I get attacked by one of their "partners." Just for trying to be nice and help out, you know, a be a part of the ecosystem thing.

Because ads help pay for my time when I write blog posts, and even someone seeing an ad helps support some of the things I do. But now, I am one of the blockers, and it scares me because it means the traditional ad-supported model of delivering free content is breaking down. People won't be able to share as much, the good stuff will be locked up behind paywalls, and the walled gardens of social media become the safe spaces where content is created and shared.

Which means we all lose because most social media is one of the most restrictive, regressive, censored, and anti-free speech zones ever created. Want to share a nude photograph, a mature book, or something which is defined as 'adult content'? Good luck with those filters and ever being seen in search. And even better luck running ads or boosting your posts for that 'adult content' that no one wants to see, and in most places will be reported and taken down by lynch-mobs of those easily offended.

So Internet, get your shit together. Ads do not need to run Javascript in my browser. I remember the days when an image and a link were good enough.

Fix this or I keep blocking everything.

I won't see ads, nor will I see things which may interest me. I won't be a part of the paying ecosystem for free content. Because I can't, my security is more important to me than giving my page view a fractional cent to the content creator. I know this will cause sites to close and fold up shop, but so be it. My security is more important to me than ad-supported free content and the things in which I enjoy. I can live without it and get by, trust me.

Maybe I will go back to reading books.

Offline.

And don't ever bug me to white-list your site, and then three minutes later let a partner I know you have no responsibility for deliver malware to me. You do have a responsibility to know who you are dealing with and what ads they are delivering to your visitors.

And especially the ones who trusted you enough to go through all the steps to white-list your site.

Dear Internet, fix your shit. Dear browser companies, fix these malware delivery routes and auto-download functions. Dear OS companies, fix your shit. Dear ad-networks, if you allow malware on your ad-networks, I certainly won't see any of the ads you serve - because I will be blocking them all. Good luck with that business model of attacking your best customers, all of you.

And the part that hurts the most is that the ad-supported system was one I believed in. I bought into the hype. I thought I could support my 'free' content with ad-supported revenue. Well, it is not going to work if ad-blockers are as needed as virus scanners, and everyone blocks everything by default. I am seriously reconsidering this whole 'free content' thing.

And I don't blame people that use ad blockers at all, because I am one of them.

I feel this is really a situation where we all lose.