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Just got a call from Girls Gone Wild.....called me gonzo and was to my new business Vonage line which I purposely put on my registration information at Internext. Ive suspected them of selling off my information after trade shows for a long time.
Dude wanted me to answer 30 questions so he could send me 2 FREE DVDs of Girls gone Wild.
The questions were to prequalify you for recurring billing to get more of the videos on a monthy recur. When I pushed him as to why he wanted my credit card information he asked me didnt I want some free porn? Of course when I told him I wasnt going to give him the CC #'s so then he wanted checking information.
I told him nice cascading billing and I wasnt giving him any information because the videos were for free. Of course he wanted to say that the information was used strictly just to verify my age.
I pressed him and said so I will never be billed and never be preshipped a video? He said no. So I told him I needed to ask him a few questions...
1. Whats your full name?
2. Whats the name of the business your working for?
3. Whats your street address?
This got me a long conversation with the supervisor who finally told me that the numbers and names come from an outsourced solution.
So thanks AVN. Now I get unsolicited phone calls because once again you prove that you have NONE of the best interests of webmasters in mind when you throw your conventions.
I paid you $150 for a pass and you sold off my personal information. Nice move so if your an attendee or an exhibitor guess what? Your more revenue for the greedy fucks at AVN.
Congradulations... you are now my new hobby!
__________________
We are putting the bastards of this world on notice; greed and corruption will always be met with "a voice made of ink and rage."
"Never try and be like anyone else" - Hunter S. Thompson
"The truth is the truth no matter how you try and package a lie" - Shellee Hale
Originally posted by gonzo@Aug 26 2004, 01:56 PM Congradulations... you are now my new hobby!
I have a feeling Gary and I may be joining you in this new hobby shortly too
We cant seem to get a (excuse the pun) straight answer on any of our questions about final costs for the Vegas show from either AVN or the Mandalay Bay
Originally posted by Bishop@Aug 26 2004, 02:04 PM Why in the world would Girls Gone Wild try to sell anything to people who have unlimited access to porn?
For the same reason that some affiliate programs spam webmasters with their pornsites? ......
Gonzo I would hate for you to accuse somebody of something if they did not do it are you sure you did not give your information out to somebody else ??
Just wondering, you know I would never want to think bad of somebody because of false information !
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Did not know what to do with some old domains.. wow Parked made them make a little money : )
Originally posted by Billy@Aug 26 2004, 05:05 PM Gonzo I would hate for you to accuse somebody of something if they did not do it are you sure you did not give your information out to somebody else ??
Just wondering, you know I would never want to think bad of somebody because of false information !
No doubt Billy.
I have suspected this a long time. I put down my magic Vonage number that gives me free long distance...Its not listed anywhere on anything I get. But the cincher is when the weasel asked for GonZo.
__________________
We are putting the bastards of this world on notice; greed and corruption will always be met with "a voice made of ink and rage."
"Never try and be like anyone else" - Hunter S. Thompson
"The truth is the truth no matter how you try and package a lie" - Shellee Hale
Gonzo you know what the REALLY crazy fucked up thing is?
The Mandalay Bay itself is holding 3 conventions of its own at the same time as Internext, this is what Gary and I were told by their catering people.
With this comes the fact they simply do not have enough room for hospitality suites to spread between all three shows.
We have been told we have a hospitality suite reservation but alas, that is only true if AVN manage to get back to us in time on Monday once they have had their meeting about the collosal fuckup they made by moving the venue.
One way or another though, we will be having our event in Vegas whether it is 'sanctioned' by AVN or not. The politics and bullshit surrounding something as simple as holding an invite only meal for 100 people each day of the show just astounds me.
Originally posted by Lee@Aug 26 2004, 05:28 PM Gonzo you know what the REALLY crazy fucked up thing is?
The Mandalay Bay itself is holding 3 conventions of its own at the same time as Internext, this is what Gary and I were told by their catering people.
With this comes the fact they simply do not have enough room for hospitality suites to spread between all three shows.
We have been told we have a hospitality suite reservation but alas, that is only true if AVN manage to get back to us in time on Monday once they have had their meeting about the collosal fuckup they made by moving the venue.
One way or another though, we will be having our event in Vegas whether it is 'sanctioned' by AVN or not. The politics and bullshit surrounding something as simple as holding an invite only meal for 100 people each day of the show just astounds me.
Regards,
Lee
Lee....you should know by now AVN doesnt give a shit about webmasters. You only need to look at the 2 examples they provide to affirm that. Make way for the porn royalty!
__________________
We are putting the bastards of this world on notice; greed and corruption will always be met with "a voice made of ink and rage."
"Never try and be like anyone else" - Hunter S. Thompson
"The truth is the truth no matter how you try and package a lie" - Shellee Hale
Originally posted by Lee@Aug 26 2004, 02:28 PM One way or another though, we will be having our event in Vegas whether it is 'sanctioned' by AVN or not. The politics and bullshit surrounding something as simple as holding an invite only meal for 100 people each day of the show just astounds me.
I was thinking about sponsoring one of those events, so hopefully they won't be too hard to get to.
__________________ Porn Site Pros - Custom Website Design, Turnkey Webcam and Pay Sites, SEO, and Consulting
Originally posted by Bishop@Aug 26 2004, 05:04 PM Why in the world would Girls Gone Wild try to sell anything to people who have unlimited access to porn?
I'll let you in on a trade secret I've always suspected but only have recently really spent the time to prove.....
If you head over to a certain large "webmaster" board, let's call it "go suck yourdog" and push affiliate programs for solo girl sites, quite often you'll get more signups from the link to the girl's site than you do affiliate signups.
Actually, and I'm not defending AVN here, since I would love nothing more than to stay at Mandalay by myself as usual during the January show and NOT see any of you fuckers when I'm creeping home to bed in the middle of the night...
The reason for the show move is more about timing. Had the Internext show been at the Venetian, everyone with a booth would have been spending New Years Day setting up their booth to make the timing work with the Sands. Which in turn would have meant a lot of people spending New Years Eve staying at Motel 6 since there's no way in hell that the Venetian, or any other casino, would be giving out decent rates on rooms for that night. Those with good host hookups, sure, but most companies don't send in their CEOs to do booth setup, and I can't imagine how bad the uproar would have been if you told a large program owner he was going to have to fork out 500+ per night for employee rooms.
Originally posted by *KK*@Aug 26 2004, 05:58 PM Actually, and I'm not defending AVN here, since I would love nothing more than to stay at Mandalay by myself as usual during the January show and NOT see any of you fuckers when I'm creeping home to bed in the middle of the night...
Kimmy..
You missed out a VITAL word from that paragraph
Ill give you a hint.. It starts with the letter 'D' and ends in 'RUNK'
Not that i am casting aspertions on your good name or anything like that
Kimmy, sorry, you missed the bigger picture. Mandalay Bay will, provided the show guarantees a certain number of room nights, give the show space for free. That means that 100% of the revenue from the booths on the show floor is profit. I don't have to do the math to show you how much money that represents. They won't move the video show because (1) they are always there, and (2) closer to CES, which is one of the biggest sources of visitors to the event. It is very hard to teach people who have been doing the same thing for years to go to another hotel for a public show. Webmasters are talented, we show up wherever we are told to go.
Gonzo, did you ever get your badge scanned? I put something in front of my badge so that it wasn't scanable, but I saw many people getting scanned repeatedly, which in each case is someone buying the info on your registration.
Alex
__________________
Let's go to the edge of disaster Push the pedal and go a little faster Let's slam into a wall at ramming speed Let's go to the edge of a mountain Jump off and lets start countin' Hit the ground and tell me if it bleeds
Originally posted by The Hammer@Aug 26 2004, 06:16 PM I'm feeling a little slighted here because I haven't had anyone try to sell me anything yet. Anyone besides Gonzo hear from Girls Gone Wild?
Nope, not me I never get contacted for crap. I never even got an Acacia letter.
Originally posted by RawAlex@Aug 26 2004, 09:58 PM Kimmy, sorry, you missed the bigger picture. Mandalay Bay will, provided the show guarantees a certain number of room nights, give the show space for free. That means that 100% of the revenue from the booths on the show floor is profit. I don't have to do the math to show you how much money that represents. They won't move the video show because (1) they are always there, and (2) closer to CES, which is one of the biggest sources of visitors to the event. It is very hard to teach people who have been doing the same thing for years to go to another hotel for a public show. Webmasters are talented, we show up wherever we are told to go.
Gonzo, did you ever get your badge scanned? I put something in front of my badge so that it wasn't scanable, but I saw many people getting scanned repeatedly, which in each case is someone buying the info on your registration.
Alex
First thing I did when I saw the bar code was make some extra lines!
h34r:
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Originally posted by RawAlex@Aug 26 2004, 06:58 PM Kimmy, sorry, you missed the bigger picture. Mandalay Bay will, provided the show guarantees a certain number of room nights, give the show space for free. That means that 100% of the revenue from the booths on the show floor is profit. I don't have to do the math to show you how much money that represents. They won't move the video show because (1) they are always there, and (2) closer to CES, which is one of the biggest sources of visitors to the event.
As I said to start with, I'd love to be at Mandalay by myself. I didn't stay at the Westin in Fla, I stayed at the country club, since I like to have time to chill out and not have to be "on" for meeting people before I've had my Starbucks in the morning or when I want to gamble at night, depending on the venue.
I stayed at the Venetian in January and not a thing has changed since the last time I stayed there two years ago. Service sucks, hotel staff hate us, the walk to the show floor is ridiculous. They need to put a monorail INSIDE that hallway
AVN is a business. You know, just like I do from Vancouver last year, that doing a show for fun isn't any fun at all. And it's hard to make a profit, especially on smaller shows. The amount of money CCBill ended up putting in the first year we took on the Phoenix Forum from Bigbear was nearly as much as we thought the whole thing would cost, and we had 80% of that figure covered in sponsorships.
Is AVN making a good name for themselves at the moment? Nope. Is someone else with the funding and the wherewithal going to come in and take over? I don't know, don't really care. I went to two big dinners in Miami, both of which were put on by companies that pay me to show up. I didn't go to the Gigaparty or the Carnival or anything else that was going to be full of people and out of control. Didn't see any real point in it, and I doubt in Vegas I'll go to anything like that.
I spent my time in the hotel, hanging out with the rest of the anti-socials and laughing at the damn video of Shok til my sides hurt.
I flew to Atlanta and spent one night there. I left San Diego a day early. I'm not going to the YP thingie, Quebec, etc. There's just not that much point in it. I can do my business by getting on a plane or in my car and going to see the people I do business with in person, in a business environment.
At this point alot of the shows are more for the GFY'ers and people that don't ever get out and see anyone else, than they are for me and alot of other people.
Maybe AVN will realize they need to make some changes or their business will start to, or continue to, suffer. Maybe not.
That doesn't change the fact that the show is at Mandalay and instead of bitching about it, the best thing is to just arrange things around it.
I don't really get why it's so important to have sanctioned or official events unless you're doing them for a large group of smaller or unknown webmasters. If I want to have dinner for 100 people, I'd invite 100 people and tell them where to go. If it's invite only, then why in the hell would I even want it sanctioned or publicized?
Originally posted by *KK*@Aug 26 2004, 07:10 PM Perhaps you should talk to one of the restaurants at Mandalay about helping you with your dilemna, they're not all owned by the hotel and I'm sure one of them would be more than happy to help you feed 100 people daily. The atmosphere might be an improvement over a banquet hall type deal or hospitality suite as well.
Yep that is our next line of approach once we have heard from a couple of people on Monday / Tuesday next week.
The only foreseeable (sp?) problems with that would be from the menu side of things at the restaurants in the hotel, unfortunately, not everyone likes Cajun, Meat, Fish or Italian.
We may end up having to take 2 of the meals off site and hopefully that wont disuade to many people from attending them
You might give a try to talking to the Luxor -- it's right next door, owned by the Mandalay Group, and there's a walkway over there in case of inclement weather if I remember right.
I was just flipping thru an airline vacations magazine yesterday on the plane back from Vegas, and surely with the so-called Mandalay Mile (their term, not mine), they should be able to accomodate you with something that works.
And if you're doing an invite only thing, you might want to really consider moving it to the Luxor, those things tend to grow totally out of hand if they are on property and it makes it hard to say no to people so you end up with 120 people showing up to eat and then no one's happy.
I learned that one the hard way a show or two ago as well
Lee, I suspect shuttle limo buses and an offsite location might do you many times better than trying to do thing in the hotel, if for no other reason because you can better control who is getting transport the the event. I am sure that, especially during a weekday after new years, there are any number of fine establishments that would be more than happy to have a group of 100 every night.
The monorail runs right over to NewYork NewYork and across from MGM, both of which give you options.
Alex
__________________
Let's go to the edge of disaster Push the pedal and go a little faster Let's slam into a wall at ramming speed Let's go to the edge of a mountain Jump off and lets start countin' Hit the ground and tell me if it bleeds
Originally posted by *KK*@Aug 26 2004, 07:26 PM You might give a try to talking to the Luxor -- it's right next door, owned by the Mandalay Group, and there's a walkway over there in case of inclement weather if I remember right.
I was just flipping thru an airline vacations magazine yesterday on the plane back from Vegas, and surely with the so-called Mandalay Mile (their term, not mine), they should be able to accomodate you with something that works.
And if you're doing an invite only thing, you might want to really consider moving it to the Luxor, those things tend to grow totally out of hand if they are on property and it makes it hard to say no to people so you end up with 120 people showing up to eat and then no one's happy.
I learned that one the hard way a show or two ago as well
Kimmy yep we are waiting on word about the Luxor on Monday / Tuesday from someone.
The unfortunate thing about the Luxor is they wont give any info out over the phone i beleive Gary mentioned to me.
Originally posted by RawAlex@Aug 26 2004, 07:38 PM Lee, I suspect shuttle limo buses and an offsite location might do you many times better than trying to do thing in the hotel, if for no other reason because you can better control who is getting transport the the event. I am sure that, especially during a weekday after new years, there are any number of fine establishments that would be more than happy to have a group of 100 every night.
The monorail runs right over to NewYork NewYork and across from MGM, both of which give you options.
Alex
Alex,
Thanks for the inf on the monorail.. i have never stayed at that end of the strip before so honestly have no clue what there is down there LOL
Ill start making enquiries about the locations you mentioned
Lee, new york new york and mgm grand are on the same intersection ... both have cheaper rooms and a variety of restaurants. personally i think mandalay is a better location because there are more hotels within walking distance which are varied pricing. The venetian only has treasure island, and even though its 'just across the road' its a fucking long distance to walk!
I should clarify ... Mandalay is better for webmasters, not for AVN. I think they finally made the key fuck up that will lose them webmasters and earn them a bigger audience for their video show. If webmasters don't *have to* stay in the hotel that the event is in, AVN aren't going to be given the same incentives as normal and this is what they rely on.
If I ever attend a show again, I'll be staying in a different hotel to the convention, having private parties that have nothing to do with avn and using someone else's ticket to get onto the show floor
Fuck 'em. All they are trying to do is take the industry mainstream and place themselves as the monopoly leaders ... fuck that, we can do that ourselves.
I agree with you about the location from a 'logistical' standpoint Mandalay certain does have more hotels closer to it than the V.
Actualy now you mention it, from our past attendance of the Vegas show i would certainly also have to agree that th best place to get 'business' done is in the private, non publicized dinners and such, thats what we did in Florida with a few people and i can honestly say if it wasnt for the fact we wanted to do something 'unique' so far as the gay market goes that didnt stick to the [half naked guys walking around giving everyone BJ's] then we would inevitably opt for that scenario again.
I guess ultimately for AVN especially, from what i gather this is going to be the show that makes or breaks them so far as the webmasters go, there are to many individuals and companies they have managed to aggrevate over the last 3 or 4 shows that my honest feeling is that its going to break them, if not that, itll certainly make them re-evaluate their stance on certain things.
Again thank you everyone for the help, its actually quite refreshing to get help from those industry leaders without the pressure of potential ridicule for asking business related questions
...yes Master the Jedi Mind trick has taken hold fully.
My this thread is going to be utterly delicious in about a week. If you listen really close you can hear it now...
__________________
We are putting the bastards of this world on notice; greed and corruption will always be met with "a voice made of ink and rage."
"Never try and be like anyone else" - Hunter S. Thompson
"The truth is the truth no matter how you try and package a lie" - Shellee Hale
Originally posted by gonzo@Aug 27 2004, 02:10 AM ...yes Master the Jedi Mind trick has taken hold fully.
My this thread is going to be utterly delicious in about a week. If you listen really close you can hear it now...
Gonzo, you sound more like Smeagol each passing day.
Originally posted by *KK*@Aug 26 2004, 11:21 PM At this point alot of the shows are more for the GFY'ers and people that don't ever get out and see anyone else, than they are for me and alot of other people.
I fully hear you on that one Kimmy. I attended only the first Miami show and have skipped the past two of them. Even the Vegas show of 2004 didn't measure up to January shows of years past. The feeling surrounding the shows has changed quite a bit.
Now maybe I am becoming a grumpy old man... lol... or maybe I'm just growing up. But now when I go to any tradeshow, I don't like to come home empty handed. And coming home from a major show with just a couple of deals in hand isn't worth it for me. My feeling is that doing Internext at Mandalay will be a good thing for the more serious minded webmasters out there... big or small.
PS I think that you did a fine job in Vancouver last October.
__________________ I will talk shit about you if I think you wont find out.
Originally posted by Evil Chris@Aug 27 2004, 09:37 AM And coming home from a major show with just a couple of deals in hand isn't worth it for me.
I think for many of us, here at least, convention success is based on ROI.
There are still many others, elsewhere, who seem to base their convention success on how many Tshirts they brought back, how much liquor they guzzled, and how many naked boobs they saw.
As for the Miami show, I got QUITE a bit out of it. Not at parties, or even at dinners, but by grabbing the people I needed to talk to whenever and wherever I could find them and setting up the followup for the rest of the month. I'm pretty much on track with where I wanted to be, especially since I don't mind getting on a plane to sit down in someone's office and put some ink on paper.
I guess that makes a definite argument for hanging out where the webmasters are that you can actually hear yourself think and talk.
Originally posted by RawAlex@Aug 26 2004, 06:58 PM Gonzo, did you ever get your badge scanned? I put something in front of my badge so that it wasn't scanable, but I saw many people getting scanned repeatedly, which in each case is someone buying the info on your registration.
Alex
mine was scanned at jupiter hosting they contacted my through email (although they fucked up my name) but they were kind enough to let me know where they got my addy from.
Originally posted by gonzo@Aug 26 2004, 01:56 PM Just got a call from Girls Gone Wild.....called me gonzo and was to my new business Vonage line which I purposely put on my registration information at Internext. Ive suspected them of selling off my information after trade shows for a long time.
Dude wanted me to answer 30 questions so he could send me 2 FREE DVDs of Girls gone Wild.
The questions were to prequalify you for recurring billing to get more of the videos on a monthy recur. When I pushed him as to why he wanted my credit card information he asked me didnt I want some free porn? Of course when I told him I wasnt going to give him the CC #'s so then he wanted checking information.
I told him nice cascading billing and I wasnt giving him any information because the videos were for free. Of course he wanted to say that the information was used strictly just to verify my age.
I pressed him and said so I will never be billed and never be preshipped a video? He said no. So I told him I needed to ask him a few questions...
1. Whats your full name?
2. Whats the name of the business your working for?
3. Whats your street address?
This got me a long conversation with the supervisor who finally told me that the numbers and names come from an outsourced solution.
So thanks AVN. Now I get unsolicited phone calls because once again you prove that you have NONE of the best interests of webmasters in mind when you throw your conventions.
I paid you $150 for a pass and you sold off my personal information. Nice move so if your an attendee or an exhibitor guess what? Your more revenue for the greedy fucks at AVN.
Location: BEIN GOOD ISNT ALWAYS EASY.. NO MATTER HOW HARD I TRY!
Posts: 99
Quote:
Originally posted by RawAlex@Aug 26 2004, 06:58 PM
Gonzo, did you ever get your badge scanned? I put something in front of my badge so that it wasn't scanable, but I saw many people getting scanned repeatedly, which in each case is someone buying the info on your registration.
Alex
This being my first show in Florida I had no idea why they were scanning my badge.
I am glad that I read your post.. I will not let anyone scan it in Vegas.
and another thing.. 3 conventions at the same time???? Good lord, what are they? Are they all adult conventions or not?? I would hate to be around a church convention while we are all at the porn convention.. What would they think on the night we all dressed as pimps and hos lol lol
In the week, there is Internext, AVN Video Show, CES, and I believe a Fetish show somewhere. Lifestyles was also wanting to do something at that time....
Originally posted by Sharpie@Aug 29 2004, 03:07 PM In the week, there is Internext, AVN Video Show, CES, and I believe a Fetish show somewhere. Lifestyles was also wanting to do something at that time....
Busy week.....
A very busy week
__________________
We are putting the bastards of this world on notice; greed and corruption will always be met with "a voice made of ink and rage."
"Never try and be like anyone else" - Hunter S. Thompson
"The truth is the truth no matter how you try and package a lie" - Shellee Hale
Originally posted by Billy@Aug 26 2004, 02:05 PM Gonzo I would hate for you to accuse somebody of something if they did not do it are you sure you did not give your information out to somebody else ??
Just wondering, you know I would never want to think bad of somebody because of false information !
Did anyone swipe your Badge with a reader ? That would contain all the info you registered with
08-26-2004
h34r:
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