I do miss the old days quite a bit. I was quite personal about things back in the pre-internet days, but in the early days of the internet, things were better. Now, of course, social dynamics are bound to change over the course of time and with changes in technology.
Cliques did ruin a lot of things, but not as much as I once thought. In hindsight, it was more a matter of site owners and such creating cliques (mostly of young girls and those who'd follow them anywhere), then disavowing the very cliques that made their sites "interesting"...or at least got them cheap models or playmates.
I miss the days of great artists doing what they did for the community as a whole. Yeah sure, talented people deserve to make a buck, why not? But...there was very little in the way of "quality control". The truly great artists got scooped up and taken out of the greater whole...unless you paid for it. This is why I put all my stuff up for free after my contracts had run out. I realized I'd made a huge mistake in the matter of my own personal morals. Now, don't get me wrong...if selling their stuff is what people want to do, go for it. It's just not my bag.
Video...where do we start? In the classic days (or whatever you call them), the only people charging money for their sessions (or at least making anything off of them for the most part) were the ones investing something in it. Ok, most of the girls were models, but that's neither here nor there. Point is, you needed to put something into it to get something out of it. Production, lighting, location...even *gasp* storyline and dialog WAY back in the day. Then, the technology made it far too easy for any idiot to walk into Best Buy, pick out a cheap camera, tickle some chick he knew and call it a "production company". I even remember one fellow who proudly labeled himself as the "president" of his "production company". Not that hard a thing to be president of yourself and a hand-held camera, is it? The industry is watered-down to the point of ridicule. What were once freely-posted clips of "me tickling my girlfriend", those not-so-great-quality moments captured on film to be shared with the community at no loss or gain...are now stockpiled into sad little Clips4Sale "stores". There's good quality out there, on occasion...but not much. Most of it is crap that used to be considered a joke if one were to try and actually sell it.
Things have changed...and maybe some for the better in the long run. Most of the "attention *****" types and clique members have toddled off to Facebook because it suits that kind of personality more. Not a bad thing, just sayin' that's how it goes. Ironically, the very concept of the community splintering into "cliques" is only solidified by the various Facebook groupings where only people that are invited can be part of things. Smaller, more specific groupings. But, in the long run, this has left the online forums more streamlined, although less active. Time will tell if this is a good thing, but one thing's for sure, the times are changing and they always were destined to.
