Commission Deems Cybersocket Obscene

[Socket2Jake]

July 11, 2005
Commission deems Cybersocket obscene

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Los Angeles, Calif. (Cybersocket News) July 11, 2005: Affiliate manager Commission Junction has deemed Cybersocket.com obscene, removing it from its network and appropriating earnings generated through its system.

Cybersocket, which hosts no sexual adult content but instead serves as an Internet search engine similar to Yahoo! and Google, repeatedly sought clarification of Commission Junction‚s method for determining obscene material but was rebuffed at every attempt. Commission Junction ultimately broke off contact with Cybersocket, declining to explain its actions or make effort to pay Cybersocket money owed. Commission Junction refused to define "obscene" when contacted by phone.

The move is difficult to understand, with Commission Junction continuing to allow the membership of top adult sex sites featuring graphic material, including those affiliated with a major gay portal. "They're obviously going after the little guy because they think we won't fight back," said Cybersocket publisher Morgan Sommer. "One wonders if they make a pattern of kicking off smaller sites to pocket money that should be paid out."

Cybersocket, Inc., now in its ninth year of business, has continued to pioneer the forging of gay and lesbian Web site search tools into extremely useful publications. Continuing to introduce new products and services each year has led to its spectacular growth and expansion.

The company publishes the Cybersocket.com search engine; Cybersocket: The Gay Net Directory, an annual guide with over 2,000 gay and lesbian site reviews; the printed Cybersocket Web Magazine; and the Cybersocket E-Newsletters, targeting both Web professionals and Web surfers.

Cybersocket Web Magazine, in print since 1999, is the largest freely distributed gay and lesbian periodical keeping gay and lesbian Web surfers and webmasters up to date on the latest Web trends by featuring informative articles and new site reviews. With 70,000 audited copies printed per issue, the magazine has worldwide subscriptions and a readership of over 200,000.

For further information or interviews please contact Morgan Sommer at (323) 650-9906 or via email at morgan@cybersocket.com.



Please Die

[desslock]

Hmmmmm......

Newsy..... but vague. I guess I have to start spinning threads here like a spider.

I wonder if this means that you joined Commission Junction, signed up to gay.com's affiliate program. And then despite being approved by them....after you sent them business, CJ subsequently refused paying you for signups that you referred from your website. Pure speculation.

As an aside, I can tell you that one thing affiliate webmasters really dislike about CJ is that they keep merchants on board who support parasiteware like Ebates. A lot! Also their third party tracking cookies do not comply with IE's cookie security policies.

I think it would be interesting if the adult affiliate industry employed terms that spelled out full compliance with IE policy so they won't block cookies, and enforce anti an anti spyware policy to prevent sales from being hijacked. This would clearly demonstrate that the adult website industry has its ethical act better together then the mainstream affiliate programs like Commission Junction and Linkshare.

It that happened and it was clearly communicated, it would raise a lot of eyebrows with those on the mainstream side.

Steve
MircoWave

[MWSommer]

Hmmmmm......

Newsy..... but vague. I guess I have to start spinning threads here like a spider.

I wonder if this means that you joined Commission Junction, signed up to gay.com's affiliate program. And then despite being approved by them....after you sent them business, CJ subsequently refused paying you for signups that you referred from your website. Pure speculation.

As an aside, I can tell you that one thing affiliate webmasters really dislike about CJ is that they keep merchants on board who support parasiteware like Ebates. A lot! Also their third party tracking cookies do not comply with IE's cookie security policies.

I think it would be interesting if the adult affiliate industry employed terms that spelled out full compliance with IE policy so they won't block cookies, and enforce anti an anti spyware policy to prevent sales from being hijacked. This would clearly demonstrate that the adult website industry has its ethical act better together then the mainstream affiliate programs like Commission Junction and Linkshare.

It that happened and it was clearly communicated, it would raise a lot of eyebrows with those on the mainstream side.

Steve
MircoWave

hey Steve,

Here is the funny thing, I found out today after receiving about a dozen responses from webmasters by phone and email that CJ has been screwing a few a month for some time. Dumping them and holding the revenue and preventing you from accessing the db to check how much you lost. I have also discovered that a few companies like gay.date.com a subsidiary of date.com have an in house affiliate program to supplement the CJ program.

Of course we were their affiliate too. Your insight on this topic is interesting and relevant. My thought is that webmasters, and adult webmasters in particular should really rethink whether or not they support a company who feels that vague definitions and arbitrary enforcement are good business practices? Also, is it worth sending traffic to companies who endorse CJ's practices?

[IntenseMark]

I had the great honor of signing up for CJ 6 or so months ago. I hate to say it and be so blunt but CJ is the biggest piece of shit website there is. Their affiliate program is a piece of shit and like stated here they hold peoples account and then suspend them a couple of months later. I have never seen such a crappy affiliate program providing stats for so many different sites while ripping off sites and their support is non existant. This is CJ's loss totally.

Mark

[MWSommer]

http://xbiz.com/news_piece.php?id=9484

AVN Online is composing a piece now and got CJ on the phone.

[desslock]

I do pretty well with Commission Junction. They operate Ebay's affiliate program, which I use extensively on some of my other sites. [ http://www.frankomaland.com/ ] They actually have lots of programs, some good and some bad, and you can make good money with them.

I"m not surprised that CJ would behave in such an arbitrary manner. I don't specifically know their agreement terms, but most of them typically put in language saying you can't promote them on porn or gambling sites.

So enforcing that in a consistent manner by humans will ultimately be dicey.

Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewert's famous answer to best defining obsenity was "I know it when I see it."

I've wondered about the implications of CJ's polices as they pertain to gay.com, whose affiliate program they run. When I set up my www.underweargalore.com website, I made it a point to build a Chinese wall between it and Frisky Fans. I send a lot of FriskyFans traffic to UnderwearGalore, which is full of CJ links and where I am sure that eBay affiliate program policy prohibits promotion from a porn site.

There are ways, as I suggested earlier, which would best impress the entire affiliate community as to the behavior of the Adult Side if we actually better policied everything in the areas of cookies and parasites.

Steve

[MWSommer]

"1Relationship. As a Publisher, You agree not to:
(a) mislead others;
(b) operate or utilize a Web site or email Link(s) to Web sites that contain or promote, any of these types of content: libelous, defamatory, obscene, abusive, violent, bigoted, hate-oriented, illegal, cracking, hacking or warez, or the offer of any illegal good or service, or Link(s) to a Web site(s) that does so; and/or
(c) engage in spamming, indiscriminate advertising or unsolicited
commercial email. "

so under their terms no person or company who is sending traffic to their program sites may operate or utilize a website that contains links or promotes anything they deem obscene. Note, this is not the legal definition of obscene. This is their own corporate version of obscene. They have given us specific references now as to what they find offensive in our search engine. each one of these words is found in the same context in all search engines.

One example cited: BuyGay.com We carry thousands of male prducts including Sex Toys.

another: Hardcore Streaming Video Any Way You Want It!

another and perhaps the best one that is offensive, i think you will see why:
Gay Links

1. Dirty Boy Video

2. malefixx.tv

3. Big Cock Society

4. Gay.com

5. Jerk Off Boys

6. Naked Sword

All of the above are from conversations between their customer service people and our staff. These examples of obscene language are documented as coming from them and of course they also gave us links to these disgusting words.

Good Evil

[MWSommer]

Discussion Thread
---------------------------------------------------------------
Response (Eric) - 07/07/2005 10:57 AM
The links listed on your website are clearly of a pornographic nature and will not be allowed in the Commission Junction Network.

This issue is now closed.

ex. 1 Subway boy takes dildo up his virgin ass, straight boys auditioning for a porno, frat house sex parties

ex. 2 Get the hottest stars of the gay porn industry

ex. 3 Well-hung escorts from around the world! Monthly big cock contest featuring amateur men with big cocks! Photos of men with big dicks!

ex. 4 http://www.leatherboundsex.com

ex. 5 Adultgayshop.com

[andynyc]

When I heard our site was mentioned by CJ as an "obscene link" I of course assumed they were offended by "StraightBoysFucking.com" because it has the word 'fucking' in it.

What a surprise that it was DirtyBoyVideo that set them off!

They call this obscene: "Subway boy takes dildo up his virgin ass".

How can anything called 'virgin' be obscene?

[IntenseMark]

When I heard our site was mentioned by CJ as an "obscene link" I of course assumed they were offended by "StraightBoysFucking.com" because it has the word 'fucking' in it.

What a surprise that it was DirtyBoyVideo that set them off!

They call this obscene: "Subway boy takes dildo up his virgin ass".

How can anything called 'virgin' be obscene?

LMAO, that makes no sense at all Andy, what are they thinking. BTW I almost pissed myself to see you posting a message, lol.

Mark

[Socket2Jake]

When I heard our site was mentioned by CJ as an "obscene link" I of course assumed they were offended by "StraightBoysFucking.com" because it has the word 'fucking' in it.

What a surprise that it was DirtyBoyVideo that set them off!

They call this obscene: "Subway boy takes dildo up his virgin ass".

How can anything called 'virgin' be obscene?

HA HA! That is funny....being a 'dirty boy' is SO much less obscene than a 'boy fucking' haha - how ridiculous....

[MWSommer]

http://www.avnonline.com/index.php?Primary_Navigation=Web_Exclusive_News&Action=View_Article&Content_ID=233268

[Hammer]

I remember back when CJ first started back in the 90s. At that time I had a very large mainstream online shopping mall and companies either paid to be listed or we listed sites with affiliate programs.

When CJ came along a lot of sites that we had listed changed their affiliate programs over to CJ so we switched the codes as needed. At first it seemed like a good idea because even though we had hundreds of sites listed that were part of CJ, we could check the stats in one location and we'd get one check instead of hundreds.

But, like I said, it SEEMED like a good idea. In reality, it sucked and we eventually had to make a rule that we would only list sites that used CJ for their affiliate program if they paid for the listing.

p.s. I don't think has anything to do with obscentiy, I think it's a homophobic issue.

[MWSommer]

Commission Junction has apparently reversed their policy of claiming the earnings of companies who send them traffic once deemed obscene.

We recieved a check. It was a shock and pleasant surprise.

Of course we do not expect any more and are not promoting any site that is using CJ.
:heart: