TotallyOz

What happened? Is he redeveloping it?

I appreciate all the ideas and suggestions. The site has never made me money. It is a passion for me. Every penny I have made from it I put back into the site for advertising, contests, etc. The change is not for making more money (though that would be nice) it is for getting a bigger audience and more participation. Participation needs to come from escorts, clients, forum posters and other readers. You can’t run a successful site from some great forum members or just with some great escorts or just with good reviews. As we have seen, the reviews are not what they were years ago. Few come in and I refuse to go the route of writing 3 or 4 bullshit reviews of a few sentences myself every day just to make the escorts happy they got a review or to trick members into thinking a review was submitted. Yes, I know other sites do this but it has not happened here and it never will. Instead, we have tried to concentrate on high quality real reviews from real clients. We have been loosing that battle over the years. The site needs a shot of participants not just in the forums but also from escorts posting profiles and reviewers posting reviews. To do this, it will take more than just a rebuild of the site. I can do that and TY and I had talked about this for a while. But, we have also had ads on LA and NYC magazines, which a great deal of money was spent with limited if any results. If I thought that advertising would solve the problem, I would happily dip into my retirement fund to do this. It might work for a short time but at the rates the magazines charge; it won’t last long if the site doesn’t bring in revenue to pay for them. I can’t keep dipping into my own pocket for this site. Years ago, I wanted to change the name to Hooboy.com and one long time poster go very upset and thought I was defaming Daddy by doing this. (Something I thought was comical, as the two have nothing to do with each other.) Since then, we just tried to make some contests and we did advertise for a while in order to get more participation and it did not work. Very recently, I got an offer to buy boytoy.com and this was while TY and I were still discussing the direction for the site. Before that, we were going to name the site CList.com and make its primary focus on listing places and escorts. Ex. Top 10 bars in Rio or Top 10 Bottom Escorts in USA. When boytoy came open for purchase (not a cheap amount). I jumped at it. I will use the name to make money. It is easy to do with a name like boytoy and I honestly believed that everyone would love the name. The fact they don’t has really thrown me for a loop that I was not expecting. Does that mean I have abandoned the idea? No, it doesn’t. I will use the name for a site and it is such an amazing name that it will be successful. There is another site called houseboy.com that has tons of houseboys that I thought would be perfect to combine with this site. My thought was to make profiles for: escorts, houseboys, boytoys, clients and just forum users. So, yes, I wanted to greatly expand the base and make it a much more interactive site with many more users and posters and admirers of men. We had worked on incorporating a major addition to the forums, which would have listings for all cities around the world and let all gay owned or gay friendly business post their information. We also wanted to do reviews of other gay websites and have talked to professional writers and porn people that were willing to help us get started in this. So, basically I wanted to create a massive site that everyone on this forum would love, as the major complaint I get is that the forums are slow or not enough people are posting. Yet, whenever I try to do something to improve this, like the recent contest, I get people upset and threating to leave, quite posting, etc. It seems to be a cycle that is consistent every time I try to make some changes, which I think, will improve the site. I do not blame anyone for this. It is just the way it seems to be. Names are not as easy as many of you may think. I pay great amounts of money for good names and often times upwards of 100k for most great names. I do believe that this site really needs a good name. I am just not sure that Male Escort Review is a name that will bring in escorts (esp. those that don’t want to be reviewed) or escorts who don’t want to be associated with a site that has escort in its name. Yes, escorts have told me that both of the above are reasons they don’t want to be on the site. Suggestions like workingboys.com are great. But, it has been taken since 2003 as most domain names that have any meaning are. I know this as I buy names every day of the week. I have bought literally thousands of these names over the years and it is VERY rare to ever find a name that is a common term that is available. So, trying to use boytoy was simply for me a way to put more of my money into a site that I love and I want to be successful. It really saddens me that many think that the name brings up connotations of pedophilia. I just don’t understand and perhaps part of that is my belief in the sexual revolution of gay men being able to do what they want with other consenting adults without judgments. I do not judge a drag queen as less than an escort or a person that calls himself a twink less than someone that likes to get pissed on. I guess I am just too liberal and open-minded. I also guess part of my background in calling the boys that live with me in Thailand boyfriends and “boys” also makes some wonder why I use that term. Both of them are over 27 and some on this board don’t understand why I call them boys. As I met Lucky’s boyfriend a few times, I would also describe him as a boy and he is close to my age. The term for me is just something I use for someone younger than me or even sometimes someone older than me. I even use the term for my friend Firecat on occasion and he is a bit older than me. I guess I just don't relate the term "boy" in the way some of you do. I am not upset at all with this discussion and I do truly value and appreciate all comments and suggestions. I assure you, we will try our best not to hurt or offend anyone with anything we do and I am glad many of you are participating in this discussion. With that said, it seems like many do not want a change at all. If that is the case, please tell me a way that I can get the site to the next level without me spending more money that I won’t recover. I do not mind spending money if I think that somewhere down the line there is a possibility of recovery. We value each and every one of you! We appreciate all you do for the site and for this community! And, we appreciate your comments about this or anything else we do on the site. We are a community and we do not just willy-nilly make changes that will offend people and alienate the community. That is one of the main reasons I said in my first post, we are considering a name change but nothing has been decided. Please continue to give your input and advice.

Actually, I remember when the site first started and it was controversial. I went to one of their opening parties at an old bar called Stella's and the comments from the people there as well as the newsgroups back there was very negative and the same terms of pedophile was thrown out for that name as well.

Jim, if you think we are not listening, you don't know us very well. However, we must get more traffic to the site. It needs a chance to move to the next level. A name like boytoy is fabulous and will open the site up to a bigger audience. IMHO, for those that are offended by the use of boy, I wonder if they use rentboy? Or, do they avoid that site? What about a site called son's guys? If one would go to a site called Daddy's Review, why not Son's? Then, if you ok with Son's, why not boy? Just curious. Seriously, I am trying to understand the issue with the word boy. It is a pretty common term in the gay community from rentboys to boytoys to boysnextdoor etc.

Some new ones guys. Can you look at these?

Also, don't forget, the logo for the last 6 years has been this. We are just trying to improve upon it and not create a new Rembrandt. Just something that is fun and catchy.

The contest there is only in day 1. There are 2 more days of submissions and I'll put a few more poll's up as they get more designs that I like. I know everyone hates change. Hell, I do too. My housekeeper went on holiday yesterday and some other lady was folding my underwear. I about had a panic attack. But, sometimes change can be good and better for everyone. As I said, nothing is set in stone. TY and I are only considering some options to take the site to the next level. I don't mean to toy with you boys, but your vote on this is much appreciated!

Some people prefer to do it in the theaters as opposed to in private. Some like the "thrill" of the theater or public. IMHO, it is not indecent. What did they expect for him to watch the movie and then drive home and masturbate later? Come on!

As many of you know, we have many things in the skillet for MER in the coming months. I spent 4 weeks in India with the programming team to work on the site and we are getting close to a finished product. NOTHING has been decided yet but we are considering changing the name of the site to something a bit more catchy and spunky. I was thinking of calling it boytoy.com Of course we have considered other names as well but I jumped the gun and wanted a logo design for the site anyway. Please take a look at this contest by clicking the link and voting for your favorite logo. We have 3 more days where more submissions will be sent into us and will weed out many of the logos by a process of elimination. Thank you for helping with this!

Did you negotiate rates upfront? Or, did you just give them money at the end? I know how passionate the boys down there are. Did this passion turn on first thing in the AM?

I was always in love with with the swimmers and divers at the Olympics. I am sure my family wondered when I was a wee lad why I liked the summer games when no other sports got any enthusiasm from me. The simple truth is skin. I loved the skin on the swimmers and the divers. I love watching the runners in their skin tight shorts. I loved the Olympics. As the time of the year is approaching, here is a photo I saw today that reminded me of the swimmers.

I have only in the last few months discovered this place. PLEASE don't take it away from me so soon!

LOL Sorry! stripe

I learned that fat guys don't need to wear strip shirts unless they have a thick skin. I had at least 10 people ask me today if I have gained weight and I just saw them last Friday. No more strip shirts on me!

1. Girls that think they can change you. 2. Guys that think you will hit on them because they are guys. 3. Anyone talking to me as I try to pee!

I am sure most of you are on facebook, twitter or some other social media site. If you are, you most likely see lots of images with photos and words and motivational sayings. I get them all the time. Some I just love. I hope that many of you will post some of your favorites here. Post as many as you like but try to limit to one or two per day. Here is mine for the day.

James and Daniel are twins. What sets them apart is that one is white and one is black – and the differences don't end there, as Joanna Moorhead discovers http://www.guardian....P=FBCNETTXT9038 Great story above! Read it if you have time.

It is a very good show. I love the plot and the characters. I also love watch Jane Fonda. While she has a very minor role, I still enjoy it.

Was that not the gayest video ever? Love it! I watch the show as well. Mostly for the eye candy. But, admittedly, I love vampire and werewolf flicks!

From what CNN said, it is 96% effective. If that number is correct, that is pretty fucking amazing!

Isn't this his brother?

Wow. chilling video. Absolutely amazing.

Massive amounts are being spent early on this political season. Obama has been spending early trying to define Romney and has been successful in it. Romney has been playing catch up. If Romney picks the right VP, I am prediction that Biden gets sick and bows out and Hillary jumps into the ticket.

I have not had a land line in 15 years. I use Skype and Vonage for Internet communication and cell phones when overseas.

Adults who do not have HIV but are at risk of getting the disease will now be able to take a drug to reduce their chance of getting infected. For the first time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a drug for this use on Monday. The drug is Truvada, an antiretroviral medication made by Gilead Sciences, Inc., which was already approved by the FDA in 2004 to help control HIV infection. Truvada is a combination of two HIV medications - emtricitabine (Emtriva) and tenofovir (Viread) - into one pill that is taken once a day. As a treatment for HIV, it is always used in combination with other HIV drugs. Recent studiesshowed pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP can reduce transmission of the virus significantly–up to 96% - when uninfected partners of people infected with HIV took Truvada. Dr. Debra Birnkrant, M.D., director of the Division of Antiviral Products, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the FDA stressed Truvada alone should not be used to prevent HIV infection. It should be used in combination with other safe sex practices. http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/16/fda-approves-truvada-for-prevention-of-hivaids/?hpt=hp_t2