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Edmond Part One

6/5/00

Andy Edmond - Messiah or Very Naughty Boy?

Warning: The following report was written while under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs prescribed by Andy Edmond's Lycaeum.org.

Cybernet Expo in New Orleans this past weekend was great say net porners. Every major player but Ron Levi was there.

It's a period of consolidation for the business. Lots of people, including about five of the biggest companies, want to sell.

Former YNOT marketing director Kevin Blatt is now president of Sundown Media. His partner is Jeff Miller, one of the oldest content providers around with Lee Noga.

Kev's gonna be the next Don LePree of the adult late night TV circuit. He'll be doing infomercials putting together adult webmasters around the world. He'll conduct hotel seminars every week. Learn how to be in your own business and be autonomous.

The Australian financial backer for this venture, the silent partner, DJ, has unlimited capital. He'll raise eyebrows with the biggest net porners like JoeE and RB because of his ability to raise money. Dave Cummings will be a content provider and spokesperson for Sundown. Also look for other deals with Viagra, Mature Money...

XXX: Andy Edmond, owner of SexTracker and YNOT, got his ass ripped out at the convention like you've never seen. The child pornography issue is a real hot potato. Some of the big pornographers love it, some hate it, some can take it or leave it. The net porners can't find consensus on how to deal with it.

"Who's to say that a 14-year old girl's split beaver is any less valid a form of free speech than a Jane Austin novel," says one publisher.

Andy sat on a board with a bunch of child pornography people like Mark Ishikawa of BayTSP along with Raw Alex and Greg Geelan, YNOT president/joke, Alec Helmy and Steve, the Jew lawyer.

It started off with Andy talking about what he was doing with child pornography. How close he's working with government agencies like the FBI. When he reports child porn sites, government agencies are telling him not to do anything. Leave them up there. And follow their progress. Which is not the right way of combatting it. You've got to get these guys out of there.

Andy just keeps talking and talking about what he's doing. And talking, never giving a yes or no answer to anything. Just talking and promoting himself. So Lee Noga gets to the microphone and she's pissed. She says, how dare you stand in front of us and call yourself the Messiah. Are you Jesus Christ?

You say you will destroy this temple and rebuild it in three days. Blasphemy! Who do you think you are?

Then Andy replied in a quiet but firm voice: I am the Christ, the son of the living God. None come to the father but through me... Foxes have holes and birds have nests but the Son of Man, me, has no place to lay his head.

And with that he unwound his massive jetblack 14-inch member and laid it on the table to gasps of astonishment. Then Greg Geelan, YNOT president/joke, got down on his knees to better serve his employer. "Oh Andy, I believe. Help thou my unbelief."

Did this bother Lee Noga? Not one bit because she bats from the other side of the plate.

Lee says to Andy: Do you have some messianic complex? Are you the Messiah or are you just a very naughty boy?

Then everybody put their arms around each other and started swaying back and forth to this catchy little number:

Andy Edmond,
Superstar
Who in the hell
Do you think you are?

There wasn't a dry eye in the house.

Then the three men I admire most, the father, son and the holy ghost, all took the last train to the coast, the day, the music died.

Lee Noga: Andy, how can you preach against child pornography when the number 54 is a kiddie porn site.

The looks on the faces.

Steve, the putative Jew lawyer, said, let her go. What you resist, persists. She's like a fire, let her burn out.

By this point, the light is dancing off Lee's gold chains. And into the room came 144 angels singing "Holy, holy, holy is the lamb of God." It was not your father's porn net convention, let me tell you.

But Lee didn't burn out. She charges the podium and gets in Andy's face off the microphone. "Who gives you the right to work with these governmental agencies? What do these agencies think of you? Aren't you the owner of a drug site called Lycaeum.org? Don't you support the legalization of drugs, including hallucinogenic drugs? And he says yes.

Then Andy offered her some pills. "Take, eat, this is my body which I shed for the sins of the world."

This is all on tape. Captured on video. It will probably get streamed on www.d-moneyshow.com.

Everybody started singing, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds...

President Greg did not say a word. The Jew attorney was nudging him to keep his mouth shut. Stroking his knee and running his fingers through his tousled curls.

Andy: "Father, take this cup from me. But not my will but thine be done."

Edmond was sweating great drops of blood. And his disciples had all dropped away from him, leaving him in Gethsamenee alone.

Andy: "I'm bleeding. Will somebody please stop the bleeding?"

Then Andy turned to one of his disciples who'd denied him thrice when the cock crowed.

"Thanks a lot," said Andy. "You could've stopped the bleeding. You could've put the tourniquet on. But you did nothing but pull your pud."

Then on the site Topniche.com, Colin from Wasteland got in Andy's face, and used some choice language which would not be appropriate to repeat in a family website like this one.

Colin: "Andy, what is that red stuff on your face? That must be from where you got bitch slapped."

YYY: JoeE and RB threw a phenomenal party with Cybererotica and Igallery at a strip club called Temptations. Beautiful booze, women overflowing...

The Highrise crew threw a killer party at a bed and breakfast. Every player in the industry was there. It was an invitation only party and Edmond got refused entry at the door.

A bunch of people got on this bus thinking it was going to a strip club. But it went to this party. Andy walks up to the door and sees Mike from Amateur Index. Mike says, this is a private party. You guys do not have tickets. You can't come in.

Andy sticks out his hand. Hi, you obviously don't know who I am. I'm Andy Edmond from SexTracker.

Mike: I know who you are, get out of here.

Luke: Why were people being so mean to Andy?

YYY: I think this weekend he learned a very valuable lesson. That he doesn't have as many friends as he thinks he has. Everywhere they went, the Edmonds would be in a corner by themselves wearing sunglasses like they were f---ed up. Just a weird vibe.

Just some crazy parties with girls kissing girls and guys kissing girls. But what blew everyone away was when CENCash and Maxcash were spotted making out with each other in the corner. Unbelievable! Maybe pornography does lead to perversion.

Major webmasters getting down, getting drunk and puking all over the place. It was fun.

I am dying now though. Haven't slept in five days. Just partying and drinking.

The AVNers were there - Stacey Boyd, Jennifer Rosenblatt... Good people. Jen got cozy in the corner of a strip club with Darren Blatt.

Great speakers and great seminars. Darren Blatt was phenomenal speaking about marketing.

Luke: "What's the outlook for the profitability of the industry?"

Hymie: "It is going to get bigger and better. Everybody is worried that the sky is falling with the credit card processing. The biggest net porners are working on programs to provide debit cards and bank wires instead of CCs. Porn has always found a way to reinvent itself. Porn is bigger than all of us. No matter what, you're never going to get rid of sex.

JT, SexTracker.com's PR man, had a different spin on events with his younger brother Andy Edmond.

Luke: I have some sources who hate Andy. And it seems like the knives were out this weekend.

JT: "Yes, Lee Noga ripped into Andy. A few people were whispering in her ear as she would go back to her table and fuel the fire. There was a coalition against Andy. They have their own agenda.

"The bottom line... Those against Andy and SexTracker don't understand that the Justice Department is forcing us to keep certain sites that might link illegal material that we don't notify certain webmasters who are publishing that material... Those against Andy want to take it down. Andy's position is if we do that, we're going to be giving a red flag to those people under investigation. Not to mention that the Justice Department is requiring us to keep the sites up so they can track who's using them and what kind of material is published... So the Justice Department can build a case...

"The people who want child porn sites taken down right now, that is putting a bandaid over a gaping woundl. It is a short-term solution that won't work. And when Andy tried to explain that, they wanted proof. They wanted somebody from the Justice Department to say yes, Andy is telling the truth. This is what happened. And we couldn't supply that.

"Ron from CCBill and Strictly Hosting stood up and said that was the truth. That they go through the same sort of practices. The content providers don't necessarily understand that all the time.

"Lee was probably the loudest voice there and very unfair. She was yelling and screaming and dropped anything productive or professional in her criticism. Just throwing darts. It was terrible. But to Andy's credit, he navigated the minefield well. He's going to have face that kind of thing, whether he likes it or not. The bigger his leadership role gets, the more he will face that kind of heat.

"There's a reason Larry Flynt is in a wheelchair. There are going to be people that don't like you because of what you do.

"I didn't find anything constructive about these criticisms."

Luke: "What's the underlying dynamic to the anti-Andy crowd?"

JT: "There are a couple of different tiers to it. There's the general resentment of the success of SexTracker. There's resentment of his style. Andy just likes to get things done. Andy's not into the bulls--- as much as finding a plan and executing it. And some of the resentment comes from relationships not being finessed enough. People find his dominant approach intimidating. They perceive it as arrogant. That he toots his own horn. He's misunderstood by a lot of people.

"The people who don't like him. We're not going to be able to change their minds. But the people who want to better the industry will end up on our ship. People who want to address child porn, spamming, credit card issues and do it without having to drink a dozen beers before getting any business done... All these people will be at the same table when the smoke clears.

"What fuels Lee's agenda and with those people voicing displeasure at Andy's leadership role... I can't speak for them. It is fair to have a differing opinion but be constructive in your criticism. But don't make it a personal attack. There's no reason for that."

Luke: "A lot of people don't like Andy."

JT: "Yeah, it's beyond resentment. It's outright hatred. And I'm not quite sure where that is coming from. Andy is not a bad person. He's putting his money where his mouth is. If they have a personal issue with him, that's not business.

"I thought the weekend went well. Though I caught a cold. We got some good business done, with the unveiling of CCwatch.com. We were able to do some good networking with billing companies to meet the American Express issue. I thought the child porn panel, even though there were so many knives thrown, I thought it was productive. I've rarely seen one person get so much pressure at any panel and Andy made it out all right. Even some of thepeople who might not like Andy might see that he can hold up under any kind of extraordinary pressure."

6/9/00

Andy Edmond and the Child Porn Debate

Daniel from Porntrack.com writes: Read the text about the Child Pornography debate at the CyberNexExpo last month. In particular in the last segment of the audio files you link to [www.d-moneyshow.com] Andy Edmond, owner of SexTracker, tells serious lies about the company I am part owner of. As a reponse to his accusations, slander, or whatever you call it I wrote the following message, which has also been posted on the Condom Project. I would appreciate it if you post it as a response to Andy Edmonds slanderous comments about Hi-End Media Inc/PornTrack. I can't sit back and listen as someone claims that I support child pornography.

--Message follows--

PornTrack wasn't present at the CyberNetExpo in New Orleans last month. I have since that show been contacted by several people about a debate on Child Pornography that was held there. After hearing the bulls--- that Andy Edmond of SexTracker was saying about our company I felt that I had to respond.

We do not, in any way, support child pornography. Any site we find that has anything where the content is questionable or definately child pornography is instantly removed. We screen new signups after they're created on a daily basis as well as go through our listings to catch child pornography sites.

To counter Andy's accusations, which is what I consider part of his speech to be, he has not once contacted me, or anyone who is a part of our company, regarding child pornography. If he wants to discuss ways of preventing child pornography with us we'd be more than happy to do so, as we would with anyone else.

About a year ago I had a long talk with Mr Edmond, actually one of the few talks I've had with him, regarding him telling half lies, or outright lies - like in this case, about us. He agree'd that he would stop spreading rumours about us, something which apparently has not happened. I would appreciate it if Mr Edmond would cease spreading false information about any operation I'm involved in. The only one I've really dealt with at SexTracker was Shawn Boday when he was there. Shawn did in fact report child pornography that he found in our listings before we did. They were instantly removed from our listings, with the icon on their site showing "invalid account id". I also reported child pornography sites that SexTracker had in their listings to Shawn.

PornTrack, owned by Hi-End Media Inc in full, is infact located in the United States. I do not know why Andy claims that we would avoid government agencies to protect, or at least avoid deleting child pornography sites. It's an outrageous accusation... If Andy really had come to me with the suggestion that we somehow co-operate to stop child pornography sites I would've been more than happy to do so and get a discussion going. Excuse the length of this post, but I felt it was real important that everyone understands that we, PornTrack and Hi-End Media, does not support child pornography in any way. I take offense from someone saying that we support child pornography. I take it that Mr Edmond will stoop to any level to try to beat his competition. I do not know why he would make such accusations for any other reason.

Andy Edmond writes on (http://www.weboverdrive.com/indexframe.html) :

I want to focus on the issues productively and thoroughly, anyone that knows me knows that I'm all business and want to get stuff done with the help of others. However, I have to take some of your reading time to point out that there is an agenda against me that is trying to keep me from committing my resources to dealing with this issue for nothing more than personal reasons. My resources are larger that a lot of folks, and my committment is equal to that of the likes of Alec Helmy, Snoops, Vegas Lee, and the rest. Thankfully, people are starting to see that, and accept that as a good thing, and those out there using their personal tactics to diminish that effort as being seen as the destructive folks they really are.

Please understand that we are working with a lot more responsibility that just the rise and fade public opinion of the message boards. I wish I was still in a position to ebb and flow with message board sentiment, but the day of the message boards controlling industry action is coming to a close because it is one single thing - they are ineffective in handling problems on a global picture with long term professional solutions.

We are working with very powerful commissions in DC that are going to be kicking anyone's ass that are not following the techniques I attempted to describe to the seminar room - my proactiveness on this situation brought me into information and experience that you all need to know if you want this business to continue as profitably in the past.

If I had not been working on this issue in the progressive and well researched manner I have, they you would see a massive Congressional Commission knocking on ALL our doors shutting us down. I feel that my actions have done a great deal to prevent that from happening in regards to this achillies issue for our industry.

My job up there was to take the relationships and knowledge I have worked on and pass it to the room in a solid and factual presentation.

The dissemination of that valuable information was interrupted in an organized attack on me personally in a retribution attempt by heavy competitors of SexTracker, SexSpaces and YNOT Masters - rather than working fairly to compete with me in those arenas, they irresponsibly chose to take the message of the solutions to child pornography and turn it into a "we don't like Andrew Edmond because he is our competitor, f--- his important message or not - lets just destroy him and his business so that we have more room to grow".

You see... it's a fact that these competitors were out to work towards destroying my name, the same person sitting and working on presenting honest, solid, and working solutions for us all to deal with major industry issues. I feel that if you go listen to that seminar on the D$ show again, you will see that the information I gave is complete, thorough and solid, and the attacks from the audience are irrational, desperate and destructive to the knowledge I was attempting to share with you all.

That message still sits in the archives of the D$ show if you can listen to it rationally and responsibily rather than going with the ebb and flow of how competitors draw their politics of business into industry wide leadership problems. Please understand that if you, and the rest of Top Niche continue to put competitve politics ahead of the message of knowledge and empowerment for cooperative solutions, then this industry, led by message board politics, is only digging it's own grave. Over and Out.

I have a conference call in the morning with Wired and American Express tommorow to publicly debate why they decided to take an action that cut 10% off all your bottom lines. At the very least, understand that my actions are not petty politicking among competitors with major issues on the line. The only thing I've decided to focus on for the reminder of my stay in this industry is the well being of everyone participating. .. andrew edmond

PS: Magick, if you enjoy these debates, I invite you to attend the first conference for the Adult Internet Trade Association, held in conjunction with IA2000 in New Orleans this fall - we will have six panels on VERY hot button issues with very passionate debate. We as an industry must get used to facing these issues, blood and fists or not, and get moving on working towards positive solutions for them.

Dravyk: Ok, you just said if it were not for you alone (ok, you didn't say "alone", it was however implied) that Congress would, at this very moment, be moving to shut us all down. ... Now, that is a "mighty" sentence there which I know many might regard as a "tall tale" only because it sounds so incredible. However, I am *not* going to refute it, nor am I even going to challenge you on it. I will infact for the moment give you the benefit of the doubt that this is indeed true in every sense .... That said, however, I think we all need you to please elaborate on your statement. If everyone here owes you a great debt of gratitude, Andy, then we all need to know exactly what you did and how you accomplished it.

VegasLee: It is really to bad that some of the people that have the power can not learn to work with us instead of telling us "how they are going to make it for us". Kind of scary if you think about it. Andy is a good person and it would be nice if he involved us all in "our" business instead of telling us how we should think and do. If I remember my history right, Jamestown had a self proclaimed leader also. "Don't drink the coolaid"!

Fay Sharpe, organizer of the Cybernet Expo, writes: I think you all know how I feel about POLITICS. I tried to fight it by pretending it did not exhist, and got nowhere. It is VERY DISCOURGING to have to consider if something could possibly have political overtones in considering anything I do or say. To be exact - I am pretty darn tired of it. Everyone suffers. To meet that task I had to drop the Peoples Choice Awards. I could not come up with ANYTHING to take its place for a quiet, inexpensive, relaxed evening that I have done at the shows before, that everyone seems to enjoy so much. A celebrity roast and auction was considered very strongly, but had to be dropped because of possible political overtones.

To this end I give my panels a free hand, in hopefully a non political way, looking for constructive workshops that accomplish something. When they do not, I am frustrated. Sometimes they show us how far apart we are. I think it is way past time that the leaders who are moving forward on the CP issue, set down together with NO GRANDSTANDING and work together on at least the issues that they agree on, with a line of communication that is not adversal. I don't think this can be accomplished in a panel. We just tried.

I would like to see Andy, RawAlex, and Helmy seclude themselves privately in a room, and find out exactly what they can agree on and move forward. There is a webmaster get together in Vegas in about 6 weeks. Sept is way too far down the road..... too much time lost. I am going to go out on a limb here and challenge them to come together privately, make peace, establish a communication, and get some kind of unity going on at least the things they do agree on. All in favor - say aye.

Otto from Ynotmasters.com: AYE, Sharpie! But note, Andy, Raw Alex and I did sit down privately in N.O., BEFORE the workshop, and agreed as to common ground. Others were invited, but did not attend. I (as well as Andy) have had discussions with Alec in regard to supporting a common goal. Unfortunately, that common ground got lost in a barrage of personal attacks during the workshop. Nonetheless, we are moving forward. There will be more meetings, and further actions taken. There will be more progress made before the September show. Everyone's participation is welcome. Hats off to everyone who IS making an effort to fight child porn - you are all appreciated. No one is trying to belittle anyone else's efforts in fighting child porn. No one is trying to take credit for what others have done (but really, folks, even if that was occurring, who gives a s---? Isn't fighting child porn the issue, no matter who gets recognition for it?) Don't lose site of the big picture, folks. Participate at Helmy's new ASACP Forum board. Set aside your personal dislikes and learn to play together for the common good.

Fay Sharp: Otto, I think that we need the 3 of them to meet PRIVATELY one on one - NO one else involved. Anyone missing would upset the balance, or anyone additional might do the same. Both Andy and Helmy lead strong organizations. Alex has no axes to grind, has always been a voice of reason, and holds the views of many of the grass roots webmasters. He has no politics or people to impress. He would be a good buffer. (In my opinion) Need to toss them in a room and not let them out until something is actually accomplished. hehehe....

Magick: Andy... Don't think that my previous post has accurately portrayed my feelings on this whole cp issue... First of all, you should not *ebb and flow* with board sentiment. If you are doing all that you feel you can do to battle cp in your backyard, then that is what you should continue to do. One thing I must clarify...I, myself, do NOT represent TopNiche, or any other service for that matter. I am a single webmaster expressing my *personal* opinion on what I heard. So please do not take it as "competitors" trying to destroy your name.

No one, at least no one that I know, is trying to destroy your name...in fact, I commend you for the measures that you HAVE taken, and the fact that you are courageous enough to work in cooperation with the fed. government to try to put these sick people behind bars. My posts have nothing to do with politics, Andy. I couldn't care less about politics. I state my opinions, which are formed from the information that I see, and information that is placed before me. That is why my feelings on your hosting cp sites stands...I do NOT agree with it...I never said you were not doing anything about it, I just feel that you are not doing ENOUGH about it. I did listen *rationally* to the seminar.

I am not hysterical about this, Andy. You made several valid points in the seminar, and I did not give you credit for that. That does not change the fact that there are two main issues that I have a problem with, both of which you stood firm on at the seminar...just as I stand firm on my opinions of them. I am afraid, however, that this is turning us away from the heart of the problem. This shouldn't be a case of "webmasters vs Andy"...it should be "webmasters vs childporn". You are doing things to help rid the web of this sickness...and on that level, we are all on the same side. And just because we have a difference of opinion does not mean that we all cannot work together...for if we don't, then *they* win. We can't keep fighting and expect anything good to come of it...therefore, perhaps we can "agree to disagree", and get on with business. That is why I will not post anymore on this issue on the board...I cannot see as it will be of any "true" contribution, for it only serves to stir up anger towards you, instead of where it should be going...to the disgusting sickos that do CP.

Vegas Lee: I have arranged for agents from the "Crimes Aginst Children" taskforce from the FBI to be present for a couple hours during our gathering in Las Vegas the end of july. The Las Vegas office has people assigned to just INTERNET child porn issues. Contrary to what some believe, I have been dealing with these guys for over 2 years now and they want to help us, and welcome our help if we are willing to do it right. I am inviting everyone that desires to be present to be here for this. They are going to explain to us how we can really help. What we should do and not do to deal with this problem on the Internet. They are assured me that they have to desire to check into anyone at our meeting and because of past relations with them, I believe them. They really do desire help because they know that their offices are 10 years behind regarding the Internet. They know we have the resources to combat this issue. I would like to see Andy, Alec, Alex and anyone else to come here and hear from the horses mouth what we can really do. No ego's, no leaders, no B.S. Lets let the ones that have the power to really do something about this lead us in the right direction.

Kevin Blatt from Sundownmedia.com: Otto as always you don't cease to amaze me. Always doctoring the spin in favor of Andy. Don't forget that used to be my job, I learned my lesson. Folks, all I can say id that what wasn't aired on D$'s show was a lot more stuff that buried Andy. Including her asking him if he was the founder of the drug site Lycaeum.org to which he agreed, it also contained footage of "friends" of Andy's that said he had negated himself twice, being somewhat cool, D thought he'd take it out. He was already "bleeding".

D thought it was nonconsequential however after listening to the tape again, I personally think it is very relevant since he says he is working with Governmental agencies very closely. Lee asks " does the government know about you and Lycaeum.org"? Good question. Spin it all you want, the world is learning about Mr. Edmond through his own mouth and his own words.

Granted I feel he did some excellent dodging, my guess is he had plenty of practice in school yards with big bullies who nailed his nuts with rubber ball during Dodgeball in recess. Next, maybe you'll try to tell us that D had someone magically splice the tape and the audio had been doctored. That's why D$ is showing the video VERY soon, folks see for yourself Jesus dying for our sins.

Andy Edmond, Kevin's former boss, replies: Kevin, You never cease to amaze me... everyone knows that you have a personal vendetta against me for stuff that went on at YNOT in the past.

What I am thankful for is that you helped us buy YNOT.

What I am not thankful for is that after that you decided that working a 20 hour week was below you, and the time you spent in the office promoting just your own gigs and liquidating YNOTs good reputation, and attempting to extort YNOT for more money. As an employeer, even after repeated talks about these issues, I had no choice but to fire a friend. This was one of the hardest decisions I'm had to make in my tenure in this business. However, that was nobody's fault but your own, Kevin.

For Kevin Blatt, it's all self promotion, irregardless of your duties, contractually or organizationally or industrially... before and after the event. Kevin only looks out for himself, and those he is calling his friends for that particular week. I asked you to move on with your life and make a friend of YNOT in the process, and you decided to go whacko and self destruct in front of everyone - including your old good friends, me, Bob and Otto included. JT, who was your inside guy here at Flying Crocodile to the very end is still dissappointed with your politicking that does nobody any good.

My focus is not you KB, even though your focus remains to be me. My focus is to the truth, Kevin Blatt's focus is to this warped reality that he expouses to anybody that will listen. My focus is to take serious, real issues in this industry and proactively lead constructive communication and organizations that are prepared and streamlined to handle problems in the future. While you continue to play petty politicks because of your hurt ego, we at YNOT are getting stuff done, in rapid order.

In the end, any destructive personal attacks, as we become more and more able to work towards solutions for our industry, will only make you look like the person you have become - petty in their ability to move on with their life, and one with the tenacity to attempt to destroy something good because of an injury to your ego that only you are responsible for. So Kevin, please grow up... for the good of yourself, and for the rest of us in the business.

Kevin Blatt writes: Andy tisk tisk tisk, Did someone get under your skin? Fired, NO! I think I have the proper paperwork in order showing resignation, formally... .

Give me a f---ing break- extortion? myattorney loves when you use those words- you keep burying yourself with your big mouth. Andy my self promotion and stroking of ego's like yours is what enables me to make solid relationships and friends in this industry, what you fail to realize is that when i go tete a tet with you a lot of people root me on, and most watch to see you fail.

You are simply a liar, and for the "good" of the business I plan on exposing all the liars and scumbags out there so that we may have a future in this industry and make sure that you and you're Dr. Evil mentality do not put a microscope on us. I told you I was underpayed, which I was and asked for money that you couldn't afford to give me- That's extortion?

As for my old good friends, you said it best to me on the phone Andy when you said "you have no friends, just business associates, and when you are done with them you throw them out like trash" I have a witness to the call remember? I have never doubted your brilliance Andy, just your bulls---, and there is way too much of it out there now that I did not cause- When you publically apologize for the crap you did to me, maybe I'll see you as a leader and not a con artist

And furthermore be expecting a letter from my attorney Steve Sperling, maybe you have heard of him? You just violated "our" agreement Thanks Andy maybe now I'll get that house in Hawaii. :-))

Andy: Hey Kevin, My attempt to make your animosity towards me publically known has succeeded. Indeed, most of the "ambush" at the tradeshow that you organized was stemmed from this feeling of hatred you have for me, a feeling that I simply don't deserve.

Now, I must ask, how is this productive for anybody but you? How is this productive for the issues we face as a body of hard working people? You are not destroying anything, you are just inviting back more politicking and bulls--- into an industry that already has too much. This is only about you and me, so leave it at that. Leave the issues alone. Leave the politicking to only between you and me as people, not as cliques or junior high school politicks which is your singular talent.

Let's look at the bigger picture here, KB, and act like adults. My offer of truce to you is still on the table... stop acting like a child, put your personal animosity aside, and stop involving other people in your retribution efforts. There are many other issues which must be faced and solved. Your interference in that process belittles everyone working hard on these issues. You turned a two hour conference into a showdown between your feelings and mine - a waste of over 200 people's time, putting aside the issue for your own glorification of victimization.

You have more to bring to this industry than this type of politicking. I have stood by the wayside long enough listening to your rants, your public criticisms, and your organized efforts to distort my image and my efforts for organization and consolidation of opinion within the business. It's tiring everyone Kevin, but you and me. As a gentleman, you face the crowd here at Top Niche, you tell people that you'll stop this bulls--- and leave it lie like I have since you gave me your pledge you would two months ago. Or you can tell them the truth - that your only asset at this point is divisory politicks, something that you will weild mercilessly for the detriment of all.

Kevin Blatt: Andy, There goes your arrogance again, me conspire? There were people in attendance with their own agenda, their own opinions who will not buy into your "David Kouresh" like charisma and charm- Not me, I don't remember calling you on the carpet. My name is never mentioned nor did I ask a question.

Did I confirm what was printed in your BIO on Luke F-rd's page? yes.

Did I say anything to you at the show? NO, why? because I will never look someone in the eye who did what you did to me. Politicking? ALWAYS.

Until you acknowledge the fact that you put yourself in the position you are in now, and that now you are a "public" figure you are open to satire, criticisms and the hostility of others either take the heat or get out of the kitchen. As for feeding into the destructiveness of the "show" I call it that because when you talk no one else does, it's really more like a "show".

Andy: Kevin, If you are dead set against being the fire underneath my ass, that's cool. You know I can take it. I think everyone would just want to see you successful running SunDown rather than causing turmoil in a public forum where serious issues are being discussed in front of 200 people. All I ask is that you keep your personal politicking out of the important issues, and let the people that need to focus on those issues do it without your distracting and unproductive tactics.

If we can compromise on that, I'm good. I don't mind your personal attacks through Luke F-rd, or behind closed doors, or your politicking behind the scenes - that's easy cause it just makes you look the person that I prefer you to be known as - dangerous, deceitful, and selfish above all things. You, your "friends", and I all know that to be all too true :) However, when it comes to public forums where I am participating with others in conversation and debate on major issues, can you do us all the favor and keep your politicking out of those very important arenas? I'm sure everyone would consider it a favor.

Just got off the phone with Vegas Lee (a cool guy!, never talked with him before...). Looks like he has a new lead for us all in this business with the FBI. It would appear that there is a juristictional and funding war between Customs and the FBI currently. My sources say that Customs is losing! Hooray! FBI policies say it's ok for a company like mine to burn anything IMMEDIATELY with anything remotely resembling child pornography. I am going to speak on the phone with the main KP FBI guy today and see if I can get in writing if he will stand up against Customs if they try forcing me every again to continue to host KP sites for "investigation". I'll let everyone know how it goes. We, as an industry, might just have the right to not be trapped into a beauruacratic process, and be giving the right to clean our back yards.

WhoCares: I must say there is simply alot in the industry that is going on. It's to bad that YNOT Network (such a very good name in the industry) is now in bed with one of the biggest CP promoters. If you have links to such sites on your website then what else can you be. It is a shame that YNOT is no longer owned by Rick. Atleast it would still remain honest & innocent (as much as a company can in this industry). FCI [Flying Crocodile Inc] seems very good at buy its competitors out and even those it feels will boast its distasteful image. I do see that Mr. KB may have his own agendas in place. Obviously he has other reasons for disliking YNOT & FCI. Alot of people have grown to dislike both companies after Rick sold it. Has FCI or even YNOT done anything to help the industry? Has Mr. KB even done anything to help the industry? Alot of programs out there that help remove the CP garbage. Although I do see a point that FCI is being counter productive in what they do. FCI/YNOT one promotes & one speaks against. What a two-faced company. Sad. Rick come back.

Playful: Nero [Edmond] and Kevin, I just have one question to ask both of you. In the time you have spent bickering at each other like old wet hens, don't you think the time could have been better productive in fighting the issue at hand? hmm, just a thought. I have listened to the little snippets of the cp forum and i have to tell you Nero, all i heard was a lot of double talk. No, i wasn't there, family illness prevented me from it and it's probably a good thing too, cause i for one, can tell you that arguing about the situation is not doing anyone any good. It's doing nothing but causing a delay in our actions and yours in fighting these sites that continuously keep creeping up on us. All i know is that you guys are spending so much time fighting each other, when why the hell you can't just band together on this one issue and put your differences aside and work together astounds me. This issue is way more important than who is cleaning up behind one or the other or someone's politics. Instead of a lot of double talk, put more effort into taking action and work together. heck, if the rest of us can do it, how come you guys can't? Okay, flame my butt, i really don't care, I have more important things to do, than worry about whose feelings i have hurt, i just couldn't take it anymore. This issue is one that gets my blood a boiling and my redhair flaming and i just had to voice my opinion.

6/10/00

Ynotmasters.com owner Andy Edmond writes on Topniche.com: NOTICE TO ALL TOP NICHE WEBMASTERS: I'm tired of the personal attacks on me for doing nothing but promoting and adding resources into a good cause. I'm tired of personal attacks on Snoops and others that I respect for just being who they are as people. I'm tired of consistently having to defend actions that contribute to the industry on a whole. This is a sickness that I don't have the cure for. JMM from SunDown, Kevin Blatt from SunDown, Lee Noga from OnTheRopes - continue your personal campaign against those that are making an effort. Sit on the couch and throw tomatoes that those are doing what they can to help us all. Have fun doing it! I won't be here to see it anymore, cause it sickens me to my stomach.

I never proclaimed myself THE leader, I proclaimed myself as a believer in certain issues followed by large amounts of information and resources and told people what I believed. Never in my imagination did I feel that by saying what I've learned in my process of much research, or taking positive proactive steps towards industry-wide knowledge on issues would put me personally into hot water. I've taken major steps to clean my backyard in ways MANY others in my industry segment have not and I've gotten so much heat for those steps and sharing what I learned in the process... How ridiculous.

Henceforth, I am off the message board in regards to debating any of these issues. The have proven their zero value time and time again when it comes to ACTION rather than bulls---.

The past two days have proved that as a community we have not learned to speak constructively about issues that harm us all. We continue to beat ourselves up, and I'm convinced that I, and many others that are doing good, will continue to be beat up by the various factions and cliques with their own agendas (not the industry's) in ways that make civilized conversation look light years ahead of the pulse of this industry. If I take part on these boards, or if I don't, good people will still be beat up unfairly and inconsitently to community good.

My efforts will be broadcast through more civilized and matured channels of communication, such as the newly forming Adult Internet Trade Association, a structure and platform that allow good ideas to rise and bad ideas to fall - no matter where they come from or who's been working on what for years. A structure that allows for the community support of new resources and new ideas. One that forbids and prohibits personal attacks in the middle of honest discussion. One that is held in person rather than electronically so the "internet bravery" factor is limited as it needs to be. A place where consensus can be reached and where heated and hard conversation will actually have a result - versus here where there is only more and more fracturing of our industry into their own seperate cliques.

So, have fun guys... beat each other up... continue to beat me up. I'll be back working for the virtues of a nice new organization that in a few months will allow for those tired of message board politicks and those that really want to getting something MOVING in a certain consensus direction based on the honest discussion of ideas and philosophies. It will be a LOT harder to convince people of your "virtue" if there is a meeting held on an issue and you neglect to attend in person or if you don't have the same conviction there as you do here.

Vegas Lee, until the AITA is there and ready to provide the resources for a quarterly meeting on CP issues, with agendas for the community thought, run by robert's rules of order, where ideas and respected and attitudes are not... you have the floor, my man. I will be there on the panel in Vegas to share my ideas, as I did at the trade show - without the personal politicking attitude that I was confronted with from the audience. Hopefully I will be engaged on the ideas themselves, and not the people's perceptions of the popularity games we played in high school.

Rastafarley writes on Topniche.com: As someone who has been an observer and part-time participant in the adult industry for over 3 years, I feel Andy Edmond can be looked at as both a pioneer and a leader. What is distressing is his ability within a few short months to single handedly destroy the credibility and entrepreneurial opportunities for thousands within the industry. His lack of tack and professionalism in combating personal attacks leads people to believe he is neither a leader nor a wise businessperson. His opportunistic attacks, which he defends under the guise of rebutting those who seek to admonish him, are simply ways of diverting and contorting the truth. It is obvious to all that the Great "Nero" is threatened by and scared of the truth. The truth that he projects himself as the foremost authority for and voice of all adult webmasters. Webmasters should be insulted and hurt. His lies and attempts to deflect truths which are continually being revealed by those looking to make an honest dollar, again proves his inability to stand alone as the holy savior to webmasters. Ynot...Rick, was it worth it? Everyone has a voice and a right to proceed in business affairs in accordance with the law. Andy, why do you promote a site with recipes for illegal drugs? I don't get it and I don't get you.

Kevin Blatt writes: Andy I think I speak for everyone when I say this- Just shut the f--- up already! You have beaten a dead horse way past mutilation. There is no "conspiracy", there is no "hidden agenda". It's all about lies! You seem to have a great time shifting the blame all day yesterday, you are very good at speaking in circles, however what you fail to realize is that every long, banal, and redundant post you have made, has either skirted the issues at hand or promoted you and Sextracker- Your ego is astonishing.

I do NOT know anyone at Porntrack, never talked with the- however I read on Luke F-rd that he has had problems with your "telling half truths, and outright lies". So is he part of the "hidden agenda"? Am I setting you up throught them? I don't get it, you give me way too much credit- for me to pull off such a coup would make me more powerful than you wouldn't it? Maybe it's Ron Levi and his evil forces right Andy? I for one liked the post you made last night when you entered the URL of Sextracker- and titled it "Nero" Are you saying "you" are Sextracker? Just you ?

You're team doesn't consist of skilled programmers and ,marketing people? People like: Chris,Eric Rodgers,David Eisenberg, Bama, Eden, and formerly Bode? I know these people and know that these people are/were "Sextracker". Not just you, and your pompous ego pal. Actions like that as silly as they may be, infuriate me.

As one who has worked in the Fortune 100 side of business, I can tell you that I've always made money for other people, and helped grow their companies. Most of the companies I had worked for never acknowledged my good deeds and productiveness that's why I got out of corporate America. I see that Sextracker is a " corporation", hell that's the real reason I am not there anymore- I couldn't take your structured, pseudo-corporate ideas and implement them at YNOT. Why? Because it simply won't work. "adult business" is itself an oxymoron. I think we prove that everyday with posts like Andy's.

You don't have to have a college degree to have an adult site, nor do you need any business sense to operate a site. I think we are showing the rest of our peers here at Topniche that this truly is the case with some of the namby pamby "poor me" rantings of Andy. Quit crying already Andy, yes, we do not like you, yes we will be calling you on the carpet when you promise your bulls--- and never deliver- I am privy to some of your best "overpromise and underdeliver promises" remember the new board of YNOT? Didn't you tell them that you were flying them all out to San Diego and wining and dining them? Did you not tell AL4A,RB,Greg Dumas,Bangwang, Scarlett,OZ, D$, and Rick Muenyoung this in a press conference? Does anyone want to email the people above to hear it from their lips?

Here is the bottom line, Andy you have never even called your board members for their support, why? Because you lost them a long time ago with your venomous, two faced, bulls---, and empty promises. Surely it would have been nice to call your board for back up the last two days, but I think we know what would happen if you called any of them on the phone. Andrew Edmond: Messiah here, calling for "XXX" Answer: Who are you ? What company are you from? and this is in regards to? Andy " buh-bye" buddy, may you rest in peace, from my perspective you have already hung yourself- I gave you just enough rope too! Funeral services will be held in Seattle next week, next to Jimi Hendrix's grave, (that soil is so funky and drug saturated we reserved your plot years ago) for our dearly departed. Now let's see if he reserects himself :-))

Lee Noga from OnTheRopes.com: Bill, you are entitled to your opinion, I tip my hat to you and would probably feel the same if I was not in the know. But if you drill down past his "abilities and success", it was his sucesses that made him a target when it as disovered these same successes were part of the problem.

If a poll was taken about Edmond/Ynot from the day he bought YNOT and another one taken 6 months post acquisition, would you call the comparative study results ( no doubt the polls would contrast) and could this sharp change in contrast be neatly filed under, "Oh, Andy is just an easy target"? I doubt it.

FYI, Ron Levi, Joe Elkind, RB, Bob Botto, Python, CashQuest, Porn Tracker, APIC, JohnIP, Persian Kitty, ..and the list goes on, easy targets too?

Honey, these people expect to get their shorts sniffed, and if there are skid marks, you can believe the news would be reported. How come they are not under fire as leaders of this industry? Edmond has been no more scrutinized than any other high visibility player, and why is it such a sin? Is it scandelous to report, Edmond did not pass muster?

Let me congratulate Flying Croc/Edmond on their http://www.chameleonbrowser.com/ , that was quite a sucess to develop a browser so the surfer can suppress ads/pop ups. Sure popups are annoying but they make adult webmasters money. Its a damn shame when a sponsor has to release code to 30,000 webmasters to offset this key component of chameleonbrowser....another key success & ability of Edmond.

YNOTmasters teaches webmasters how to make money, and on the flip side, Flying Croc develops a browser that can cost an adult webmaster money... You all can support and follow who ever you want, thats your choice, I am just stating when I make my choices, it will not be YNOT or Edmond related.

Bill Myers writes on Topniche.com: Lee, I see your points. You always have good ones, but so does Andy whom you've choose to attack. As for the other webmasters whom you've listed, yes, when they offer themselves up to the chat boards, they unfortunately become targets as well. That's why you rarely see some of them participating. Sad, but true. If what you say about Andy is true, then I urge you to attack those programs that you deem harmful.

As far as Andy's Chameleon browser goes, while I don't use it, I applaud him for giving surfers THAT choice. Just because pop-ups are money-makers doesn't give our industry the right to force them upon those who surf our sites. This is most especially true when pop-ups are inescapable and crash browsers. Shame on any of us for abusing this technology. The latest technology being tested by some of the biggests names in our business, apparently, are these dial-ups that fool surfers into paying for something that they haven't chosen on their own. Not only is this bad for surfers, but it also hurts revenues of advertisers since sponsors simply use the advertisers' traffic without compensation. It's a nasty trend and gives our industry a bad name as if we can use any more bad publicity. Yow!

If your intent was to get Andy on the ropes and knock him out of these discussions, then you've apparently succeeded. I've generally only heard good things about you, so I am astonished at your personal attacks. I have to believe that your intention is to fight CP and not an individual per se, so I at least applaud you for THAT effort. Keep up the good fight. I support you in that.

Lee, I just took a quick glance at Andy's "other site" [Lycaeum.org] which you linked here. It appears to be promoting the cause of the ACLU in their position on h.r. 2987, no? Isn't this a good thing? What's bad about THAT site? Maybe I'm missing something here.

Lee Noga replies: Here Bill, here are some recipes from the site, make sure you follow the safety cautions :-) Pass this on to every child on the web...and if you don't want to why not?

http://www.lycaeum.org/drugs/GHB/recipie-powder
http://www.lycaeum.org/drugs/GHB/ghbsynth.new

Brad Shaw: Lee, who cares if Andy wants to legalize drugs. To each his own. I choose not to use drugs, but if someone else wants to, that is their choice. Lets be honest, the webmaster population has quite a high % of illegal drug use. I give the guy credit for standing up in what he believes in, even if it is very unpopular.

Lee Noga: If you spend some time there [Lycaeum.org] you too can learn to become your own pharmacist....would you be upset if your kids visited this site? It is no different than a site that teaches folks how to build bombs.... Hallucenogens anybody? How about barbituates? Amphetamines? Andy what a great contribution to the web pal...very pioneering and pro-unity.

Let me quote from an indepth article:

Luke: "What's your primary motivation for buying YNOT?"

Andy: "It dovetails with our ambitions for the business. Sextracker.com had a lot of ideas to start our own organization on a legislative and consumer group. We felt strongly that everybody in this business would get burned because no one was proactive about [various political attempts to regulate and censor porn on the net]. We've always had this reactive business. We trusted the ACLU to go out and fight our causes. For me, it's protecting my back...

"Sextracker just does not count hits or do free hosting. We do a lot of business. We facilitate and catalyze everybody in this business to make more money. And everybody who does business with us is going to get stung unless somebody rises to a position of leadership. I happen to have enough energy and a broad vision of where this business is going... And because nobody else is doing it, I elected myself..."

Peeps, For further reading: http://www.l-keford.com/stars/male/andrew_edmond.htm

Oh? Where did I get this article from, YNOTMasters a few days ago......

If you read about his drug site lycaeum.org in this article, I asked him point blank on microphone if this indeed was his site! Edmond admitted publically, we have the audio to prove this, and note in his chat with Luke, he hosted the drug site pages, and was not a part....

The man lies, he has no creditability, and is as smooth as Seth at IEG, and remind me of their demise again? If he can lie abouthis passion for basement chemistry, how can I believe him about anything, I cannot. But to him valid points are personal attacks.

Edmond, lead on, but your not going to lead webmasters to a dry well as long as I remain in this industry. Lead your crusade as a self appointed leader, because impeachment is around the corner.

Raw Alex writes on Topniche: Otto, Nero, and myself met in the upstairs bar a couple of hours before the session [at the Cybernet Expo]. We discussed back and forth on a number of issues. All of those issues were touched during the session itself, no hidden agendas or other backroom dealings. The session itself was an eye opener.

First off, the number of people in the room was encouraging. Some of the biggest companies in our business were represented in the room, and the crowd was a good mix of the curious and the "armed".

While I am not a fan of personal attacks, there is some merit in this type of discussion in public. I will touch on that later in this post (did I mention this was going to be a long one?). For the most part, it was easy to see the the tolerance level for child porn has gone from little to NONE, at least in the group present for the session. There seemed to be general agreement that we need to work to seperate our honest and legal businesses away from this stuff.

I hope some eyes were opened amoungst the newbies that were in attendance. I know that each of the people on the panel left with a new appreciation for the subject and temperature of the room.

The end of the meeting was a bit scambled. I think everyone basically agreed we had talked the issues at hand to death. The attacks that Nero refers to as personal were for the most part less than personal. Questions regarding his operation of a drug information site, amoungst others, were personal. But they had a point. Again, I wil touch on the why in a minute. The rest of the questions had mostly to do with why one of the biggest offending companies in the industry was in a position to lead us out from anything.

Nobody will deny, this is one of the most important public relation topics for our business. This is where the rubber meets to road when it comes to public perception of our industry as a whole. We can either find the ways to put distance between ourselves and this plague, or we can be part of it. This is as much a political issue as a legal issue, and anyone familiar with the real world of politics needs to be aware of public perception of the issues and players involved.

I think the problems best raised were EXACTLY those of perception. It is easy to find CP [Child Porn] sites on sextracker's own search engine. You are more likely to find a sextracker counter or banner exchange on a CP toplist than any other. Basically, those people have discovered a company with a soft touch on these issues, and are taking advantage.

Yes, I know that sextracker has expanded quickly. I understand that the freehosting has exploded into a huge deal. Yes, I think everyone appreciates the magnitude of the problem. But that doesn't change the fact: Nobody BUT sextracker made their own problems.

Andy, you may have hit on good solutions, but you need to make them work in your own backyard. Spend the next 100,000 this month on lawyers to get the customs people to let you take your counters off these horrible sites. Distance yourself from them, or you will remain part of the problem, not of the solution. If your freehost is getting too big to manage, then STOP ACCEPTING NEW SITES UNTIL YOU HAVE CHECKED OUT ALL THE OLD SITES. The solutions to your problems require that you control your business - not the whole industry.

Yes, many of your actions have been good. But enough politics, get the job done on your own stuff, THEN show us how you did it. Also, you must listen. One of the most disconcerting things I found talking with you is that you are focused while you are talking, then as soon as ANYONE else starts talking, you stop paying attention. You are looking around the room, very absently listening to what is being talked about. This is the sign of someone who thinks nobody else has anything to offer.

You can make very valuable contributions to getting this situation resolved. But remember, you don't have ALL the answers, you don't have the ONLY TOOLS, and you don't have the only contacts to law enforcement. You can be PART of the solution, or PART of the problem - but you cannot be the ONLY solution.

Over the last couple of years, individuals and groups have refined ways to handle CP sites. We locate, report, and get these sites shut down, using whatever methods we can. We remove their links, we DON'T pay for their traffic, and we don't offer them the support services that the adult industry offers to legit webmasters. The results of these efforts are already pretty obvious: You rarely see major sponsor program banners on these sites - you rarely see major processing companies handling their payments - and you rarely see these sites listed on responsible linking sites.

Sextracker needs to move to resolve the issues in it's own backyward. All of the personal attacks are nothing but a very loud and public reminder than the most obvious association between the legit world and these sites is often a sextracker counter or banner exchange.

6/15/00

Wednesday afternoon I interviewed Andy Edmond, owner of SexTracker and YNOTmasters.com.

Luke: "Andy, how was the Cybernet Expo?"

Andy: "I think it went well. There are issues facing all of us in the industry, like child porn, stolen content, regulation of content, credit card issues. They affect everybody.

"We've talked to a lot of governmental agencies about these issues, particularly child porn, and I felt that my job at the Expo was to download the information that we've [SexTracker] gathered to everyone who was interested. I think the first half went great. The second half went not so great.

"The only problem that I really had in the second half was not really people disagreeing with me. I say things that people disagree with. Other people say things that I disagree with. My problem was that we started focusing on each other and stopped focusing on the issue. That's why people walked away disappointed."

Luke: "You became the focus of the child porn panel."

Andy: "Yeah, and I kept trying to divert it back to the issue but a couple of people came up and started talking about stuff totally unrelated to the panel. Turning some personal issues that I had with people in the business into a totally inappropriate arena. I kept wanting to return to the child pornography issue. We had the greatest minds sitting up on the panel. But a vocal minority wanted to derail the great work we were doing into something that was more personal in nature. But I think that after it was over the great minds did get together in a more secluded and controlled place and talked about the issues. We decided to share our resources and promote each other's efforts."

Luke: "Is there child porn on sites that SexTracker hosts?"

Andy: "There's very little child porn on sites that SexTracker hosts. There was a problem. Over the past two years we've seen the amount of child pornography online double every six months to the point where it got way out of any one company's scope to do anything about it. We have a quality assurance job who's only job is to kill any child pornography they run across.

"The people who are actually running the child porn rings have gotten so profuse and prolific and the distribution and the free tools out there, like the tools I innovated and brought to market, that's become almost unbearable handling it by ourselves. The truth is, it's like going and getting drunk in one bar and getting kicked out and then going and getting drunk in another bar and getting kicked out and so on... You go around the circuit and you've always got bars that are open to you. My idea was, if we band together and we can make sure that the drunks stay out of our bars collectively. All the child pornographers should stay away from our tools that allow them to distribute this information.

"Internet Quality Check was pioneered to do that. That allows us to give the child pornographers a much harder time to have repeat offences on our tools... One problem that we still have with child pornography is with our counters. That's totally separate. So even though we don't host any child pornography any longer on our free hosting, our counters still does link to a lot of child pornography. We are trying to come up with ways with the government to use that data to send people to jail. We're working with the FBI to allow our backyard to appear as clean as it is and still put people in jail."

Luke: "You posted that the government wanted you to keep your tools in place on sites that contained child porn."

Andy: "When Customs notices major organized rings of international child pornography distribution channels, when they notice them [child porners] using our system, they ask us to keep the child pornography up so they can gather as much data as possible to bust these child porn rings. The people we're allowed to take down are the mom and pop child pornographers. They're not in any major organized child ring. At the moment there are no open cases of child pornography with our free hosts with the Customs department. We have an instant takedown policy.

"Webmasters get confused when they see Internet Quality Check doing a great job cleaning up our hosting systems but they don't see the counter itself getting cleaned up... Customs have given us threats that we need to keep our counter open to child pornographers because they use it as a source of information to find new portions of the ring as they surface. We have a problem with that. We do not like counting hits on child pornography sites. If we had a choice, we wouldn't accept those sites in the first place.

"Until we get orders otherwise... We hope to hear from the FBI in a written statement that says (A) that we can stop listening to Customs and (B) that your policy can be instant takedown of any counters, or free hosting, with porno. Customs and FBI have a turf war going on right now. I'd rather side with the FBI so I can get my entire neck of the woods completely clean of the stuff."

Luke: "Andy, when you took over YNOTmasters, you assumed a leadership role in the internet porn industry."

Andy: "I would say that Netpond, Topniche and YNOT are all vehicles for webmasters to share ideas that ebb and flow. One day it is a sponsor getting flamed and one day it is a sponsor getting lauded for doing a great job. The posting boards are vehicles for opinion... YNOT allows me to participate in this...but YNOT is not the end all or be all in being the solution to the problems that affect us. We're all responsible for that. We all have to learn what we can learn from the message boards... And take that into our own backyards and implement those solutions.

"One thing I don't like about the message boards, YNOT included, is the ability to stimulate fighting and bickering. I think that's here to stay no matter how much I idealize that... I might think that it is a place for mature public debate but it isn't. I've backed away from the message boards for now as far as my way to institute leadership."

Luke: "It sounds like there are a few people in the adult industry who don't want you to be their leader."

Andy: "I am not out to be anybody's leader. I'm certainly not out to be anybody's elected leader. There is no vote for leadership in this business. My job is to protect my company. I think everybody out there has their own assets to protect. I have more resources than most people. When I take care of my neighborhood, I take care of a big neighborhood. And I like telling people how I did it so they can do it with their own. When I say that I am doing something, it is not because I am vying for leadership or any appreciation from the community because I've done all these great things, I'm simply telling people how I handled a problem that they face as well. I think there's been a misinterpretation of that by a vocal minority who've promoted me as a leader more than I have promoted me as a leader as a way to get people negatively against me. Which is undeserved..."

Luke: "Do you have character flaws that encourage people to hate you? Such as not listening to people?"

Andy: "I am a good listener. I like having respectful conversations with people. I do not deal well with people who are hostile or belittling or are just in a conversation to get their own way. I like organized formal respectful meetings. And in those organized formal respectful meetings, where people can sit down as equals, I think that works great. I think a lot of people in this business struggle so much for notoriety and fame and name recognition that they only thing they can do, because I have so much, is to try to draw me down. And I don't think that is something that I care to expose myself to anymore. I've always prided myself about being accessible to the smallest adult webmasters and the largest adult webmasters. And some of this vocal minority is taking that accessibility and disrespecting it. So I am just going to back away and not make myself accessible to those portions anymore."

Luke: "Andy, what is your association with the website Lycaeum.org? And do you think that any association you might have with it could hurt you?"

Andy: "When I was a college student at the University of Wyoming, I was involved in a Master's thesis as a ethno-Botany student. It focused on the cultural use of plants and medicines throughout time. I started a website called "The Lycaeum," which was one of the first websites out there. It was 1995. It was a school project. It got a lot bigger than I ever thought it would be. Certain people in a community way put up a lot of information that I wasn't responsible for even though I hosted the site. I have not been involved in 'The Lycaeum' for four years. It still runs a lot of original work on it but it is still run by a completely different community of people.

"Can it negatively reflect on me? I don't think so. A lot of your new money which is on the internet is very libertarian. Look at the Paul Allens and how they spend their money and the things they do with buying basketball teams and building shrines to Jimi Hendrix. If you read Steve Jobs, he talks about his acid trips to major magazines like Time and Newsweek. I think an eclectic culture is expected of the top businessmen these days, especially when it comes down to the industrialists of the silicone era."

Luke: "Do you support the legalization of drugs, such as the hallucinogenic ones detailed on Lycaeum.org?"

Andy: "I don't support legalization. I do believe in a relaxation of some laws. But that is my personal opinion. That is not my primary agenda right now. My agenda is to grow my business and to protect the industry by sharing the knowledge."

Luke: "Daniel from PornTrack writes: Ask Andy why he attacks PornTrack every opportunity he gets?"

Andy: "Hey Daniel, I don't attack PornTrack every opportunity I get. I was under the mistaken assumption that PornTrack was outside US jurisdiction. And I had alluded to that in the conference and how that made certain government officials nervous. I apologize deeply. I will even take some time now to promote your new efforts. Hypercounts is a new counter that Daniel is coming out with in conjunction with Porn City. I've seen the site. It looks great. I have nothing against Daniel. We've competed before and my respect for him has endured."

Luke: "What is going on with the credit card processing issue and what are you doing about it? It seems that many webmasters are concerned that Visa and Mastercard might pull processing for adult websites?"

Andy: "That's one of the issues I'm proudest of working on. Even though Child Porn backfired in my face at the last tradeshow...we've had a lot of success with the Credit Card issue. I've been on the phone with a lot of the big players. They all support the [Andy Edmond] site Creditcardwatch.com. We've issued statements and platforms and written letters to American Express. We've been in 14 major markets with TV interviews and airtime. We've been in about ten magazine articles, with about 30 more coming up. With the Department of Justice going after Visa and Mastercard...they can't talk about it. The only group who is CreditCard Watch. We're shifting public awareness away from Visa and Mastercard being financial giants to financial duopolies that harm the consumer. And mostly harm the merchants. I use my non-adult industry connections with big places like The Industry Standard, Wired Magazine, friends at Real Networks and other people in San Jose to get across that credit cards run the entire internet. And after a trillion worth of investment into this internet thing, the only way that people can make money back on it...is for the credit card industry to get a clue. They don't have a clue right now.

"We're using the stuff that they've done with the adult internet to advocate change with credit card companies and make them more merchant friendly. Is it working? Hell yeah it is work. American Express has already backed away from its policy of not processing adult websites. American Express is still processing adult websites today. It was supposed to be shut off two weeks ago. You can still sign up for a new adult account with American Express.

"American Express has battled us in the public marketplace when it comes down to interviewing, cross referencing our story and their story. American Express says right now that they don't believe they will change their policy but it is under review. We're having an affect. And I think we are going to see conversion ratios and signups across the board.

"With VISA and Mastercard, we're going to participate as much as we can with our Washington DC and media connections to make sure that everybody knows that VISA is the enemy for the internet as a whole. Nobody is going to jump on a bandwagon to save the adult internet. It's not going to happen. But if the bandwagon was spun to say, let's save the internet as a whole, the adult internet is going to benefit. Our conversions will go up and our pay per signups and pay per clicks will go up and I hope that my efforts will help reverse the trend towards declining profits in the past six months."

Luke: "If MasterCard or VISA stopped processing adult sites, it would be a catastrophe for the adult web?"

Andy: "There are some major contingency plans out there that I can not talk about. Major weapons of war, so to speak, that have been built, are armed, that are ready to be lit and are pointing right at MasterCard and VISA's headquarters. I don't mean that in a literal sense. I mean that in a legal, public relations and regulatory sense. That VISA and MasterCard have been made aware of this weapon and they're not going to touch us. Amex was left off the map. They're finding out later that the adult industry has more power than they might've thought."

Luke: "Wenchy writes: Ask Andy if he has any upcoming releases or projects?"

Andy: "The big one that I am proud of, which is not a profitable release, it is more of a community release, is my continued work to put together a trade association. I'm spending most of the summer on this. I feel that the message boards can only do so much good as a way of sharing information. But as a way to come up with a unified grassroots effort, it's not the best place. I want to create a trade association that will allow us to have an affect on child pornography, children's access to pornography, stolen content, a bill of rights for adult webmasters, free hosting, paid hosting, business ethics for adult webmasters... People who want to get involved in a more orderly structured environment for conversation and action will have the place to do so.

"We're totally renovating our free hosting system. We also have SexTracker 2.0 which has been in development for over a year. Moneytree 3.0 will be supercompetitive with lots of sponsor programs. The Sex Ad Network is a new project we've released over the past month in quiet beta tests. You can find that at sexadnet.com. It is a banner rotation and tracking and signup tracking program. It's built for traffic brokers."

Luke: "Andy, what's your history with Lee Noga? Was there anything you had in your history with her that may have provoked her outbursts against you at the Cybernet Expo?"

Andy: "I talked to Lee once in Miami. We caught each other on the way to the Players Ball. I asked someone who that was. They said, that's Lee Noga. I said, Oh, I know Lee. I'm going over to her to shake her hand. We had a nice conversation about XXX counter... Little did I know, totally off the map, I saw Lee coming at me in this conference personally. Totally dropping the child porn issue and just talking about a lot of real personal grunts... It surprised me. I had no idea where that came from. I don't know of anything I've done to piss her off. All I know is that she had some dislike of me and rather than calling me and rapping about who I am and who she is, she made a big public spectacle of her feelings on a situation that was totally off topic from child pornography. And that's cool. I think people noticed that Lee was pretty hot under the collar. People get way at times. You've got to let it go. I've got no hard feelings against Lee. She runs a great site - OneTheRopes.com.

"The truth is, when she did focus on the child pornography issue, which she did on the boards later on, she had some great points. And I was glad to have the opportunity to address them. I wish that I had had a more respectful audience when I was writing back. I just answered her questions and that's the way it went."

Luke: "How many employees do you have?"

Andy: "We have 115 employees. We have offices in four cities across the United States (Virginia, San Diego, Los Angeles and Seattle). We might open a new office in Georgia."

Luke: "When you took over YNOTmasters and became more prominent, did you expect to receive this much heat?"

Andy: "I expect to receive heat on anything that I do. Any person who feels strongly and has the bravery to stand up in front of an audience and tell someone how they feel, has to respect... You can't please all the people all the time... There's certain people that you do business with and then stop doing business with, and sometimes you have let people go. You have to end a relationship. You make enemies in business. I expected the heat, but I still was disappointed that the information that I had to share about child pornography got sidetracked..."

Luke: "What sort of job is AVN doing with IA2000?"

Andy: "I think AVN is doing an awesome job. If I look at tradeshows in the last three years and then I look at the last Miami show [when AVN took over], it was perfect. It gave everybody a place to speak. It was an awesome networking show. It was at the best location. It was well run. There were no hijinks. There were no wrenches in the mechanism. Everything was smooth and everybody walked away so much more wealthy than before after three days of networking at that show than any event previously in the past. AVNonline magazine is a great magazine that all of us get and look forward to. It allows us to see how other webmasters are marketing their programs. Certainly the articles are not as investigative as the Luke F-rd site but I think it has a lot of value for this business... I encourage people to identify who has value and use those sources to grow your business. AVN has value, Luke F-rd has value, Lee Noga has value, I have value..."

Luke: "Thanks. Anything you'd like to add?"

Andy: "I'd like to let everybody know that even after all the heat I got in the past couple of weeks, which was a little more than I expected, that I am still hanging in there and as motivated as ever to contribute to solving some of the problems we face as an industry. The next year or two will be very telling as to who succeeds... Those people who read the boards all the time and communicate well with other people and work well with businesses like mine and Cybererotica and CENs and Topniches and Netponds, are going to do well. Those that get caught in bitter battles with personalities will find that their welcomeness in the business will be lessened. Pay attention to your business. Even though we don't need to band together under a singular leader, like some people have accused me of trying to do, we need stop from dividing each other so much on issues that don't matter."

8/10/00

My site thrives on allowing porners to go back and forth with each other. I rarely weigh in with my own opinions.

I freely admit that I do not practice the tenets of good journalism but rather cut and paste from what people send me. Most journalists would probably consider my approach unethical.

At one time when I wrote on this industry, I tried to practice good journalism. I eventually found that it was a more effective way to get at the truth by allowing a free for all, and creating a circus like atmosphere of accusations and counter accusations on my site.

I also do not pretend to work in the best interests of the porn industry, video or internet or whatever. On balance, I consider the porn industry destructive. I don't know whether or not it should be legal. I have no interest in fostering industry unity.

There are institutions in America that I care about, such as organized religion and the Boy Scouts, but porn is not one of them.

For months I've published stuff on Andy Edmond's Flying Crocodile Incorporated operation, which owns SexTracker.com and YNOTnetwork.com. Andy recently testified before a federal government panel on controlling child porn.

A source hostile to FCI writes me:

Luke, FCI info. If you use it, use it anonymously please. It is rumored that:
1. FCI is over 1 million behind in paying their bills and barely met payroll again this month. Supposedly they are billing sponsors like crazy trying to get money in. (Intresting side note) We'll have to see if the payments for the counter he purchased are on time this month or if they are "still auditing" as was claimed. We should all call our creditors and tell them we can't pay our bills this month because we're auditing the checkbook and see how far that flies.
2. The VP of Operations resigned.
3. The CFO was fired (this is the new CFO appointed after the "Friday Shakeup" on the 16th when the old CFO stepped down.
4. Another key, long term employee is rumored to be giving their resignation.
5. MoneyTree cancelled some advertising. This could be because they can't afford advertising now or it could be because they want to take MoneyTree out of the limelight because of an earlier report that MoneyTree didn't track or pay webmasters for half their traffic that FCI sent to paysites without webmasters knowing it.

The corporate structure, its' hefty payroll, and ultimately Andrew Edmond's ego and lack of leadership abilities could very well be the downfall of the company.

"Andrew has alienated FCI to many people in the adult industry. This alienation will likely doom any attempt to control 20% of the adult industry world-wide as is Andrew's goal."

Andrew went before Congress to testify that he is a leader in the Adult Industry and that he knows how to eradicate Child Porn from the adult internet, when FCI hosts Child Porn on its' servers and has Child Porn websites using its' counter. Andrew can't or won't eradicate it in his own back yard. Andrew has no answers. His ego and his own personal "look at me" mentality is the compelling factor that took him before Congress. It should be noted that it was peer pressure from content providers such as John Copeland about websites using stolen, copyrighted images that forced him to have IQCheck built. Had peer pressure not forced this, he would not have had (what is not much more than a glorified email form) IQCheck built. He's trying to talk Congress into making his program an "industry standard" (translation, "my stuff on your site by law")

This is not the corporate resume of someone I'd ask his views on how to eliminate Child Porn. This is also not my choice of someone who should go before Congress to "represent the adult community".

Andrew is not a leader in the Adult Industry. He runs FCI and taking the above things into consideration, you'll have to come to your own conclusions about how well he does that.

FCI responds: "We do not agree with this misinformation and slanted tactics by certain adult industry insiders in an effort to undermine our business. Nor do we condone these persons providing this information behind the veil of anonymity. We believe these sources are individuals who are obviously biased in their beliefs and that wish FCI harm. Therefore, we clearly and unequivocally state these claims have no merit whatsoever."

10/25/00

Flying Crocodile Inc Fires 30 People

Flying Crocodile Inc (parent company of YNOT and SexTracker) fired 30 people Wednesday.

According to a source, FCI is over two million dollars behind on their bills every month.

FCI tells Luke: "Flying Crocodile, Inc has finished with it's first phase of corporate expansion to support our current products: SexTracker, SexList, XXX Counter, SexSpaces Free Hosting, SexTracker Hosting, and SexAdNetwork. The second phase of our corporate growth is set to commence in January of 2001 with scores of new products and services, hence the company is spending some time house cleaning after the biggest and longest company expansion in the adult Internet's history. We did let some staff go to assign our efforts to planning our new growth phase at the behest of our customers expectations for more and better new services. FCI staff of course remains committed to all our customers and current products as we ever have."

Globiz writes on Netpond: "That stuff from FCI sounds like double talk corporate bulls---...and I also wonder that if they are expanding with all these new things, why they would lay off all those people. And I also remember how, at one time, there were people singing the praises of MoneyTree all over and now you NEVER hear about it. Hmm....."

XXX tells Luke: Remember how a few months ago, some anonymous source told you about how much FCI is behind in its bills. And how they're not making their XXX counter payments to Joe Holler. Well, they still haven't made this month's either. So I guess they're still balancing that checkbook. Doing internal audits?

FCI and Joe Holler respond in a joint statement: "Andrew Edmond and Joe Holler have, and will continue to have an excellent working relationship. There are no financial problems between the two groups. Joe will be at the Chicago Webmaster Convention this weekend to verify this."

XXX tells Luke Wednesday night: "They [FCI] sent 32 people to that IA2000 tradeshow in New Orleans, spending $250,000. Did you see $250,000 worth of SexTracker promotion at that tradeshow? They blew the money.

"According to Internet.com, according to the net's Nielsen ratings, FCI was the seventh largest advertiser on the net (as of June, 2000). They are now 22nd.

"Andy Edmond screwed things up. He's drugged out."

Luke: "He's still using drugs?"

XXX: "Oh God, yeah. In a big way. Cocaine, meth... That's what I hear. At the June Cybernet Expo tradeshow in New Orleans, he had drugs there. It's no big deal, unless it affects the business. I've never seen the man use drugs in front of me, but I know. You know.

"He's not expanding any more. He purchased YNOT and that got him into financial trouble. But YNOT is making money. XXX Counter is making money. Sexlist is making a bit of money because he has to pay Eric and Mark Marjie who owned it. It's the other FCI properties which are losing money. They banked on Moneytree growing to be the number one reseller on the net. But they got caught with their dick down a couple of times, directing traffic to dialers. They didn't update, so signups dropped considerably. People no longer use Moneytree. FCI's executive staff don't understand the internet.

"Here's a classic point. They put up a XXX Counter logo that was too tall so you had to scroll to just see an advertising banner. You don't make people to scroll to click on banners if you want to make money. So, to get the logo shrunk down so you could see the banner, it took eight weeks and seven signatures. It had to go through channels. That's the kind of crap that Andy let that place become.

"Moneytree used to be a big moneymaker. But conversions dropped. People make more money using other people's programs. And they started redirecting traffic, throwing consoles on and not paying webmasters for the returned traffic on the consoles... And the word got out and Moneytree went downhill. And their latest one is redirecting overseas traffic to dialers without letting the webmasters know.

"You haven't seen Andy post on any of the boards because he got his ass reamed. People inside FCI told him to shut up. When he shows up on the boards, people just attack because he's an egotistical son of a bitch.

"Andy got XXX Counter for no money. His purchases would be ok except that he is late on payments. Andy should've left when he was forced out in June... He resigned when Ross Perkins asked 'Where the f--- is all the money?' They went from cash rich to cash poor. He decided to build a company before the company needed it. He expanded too quick, went too corporate.

"Andy got nervous about it all, and then over the weekend, he talked Ross into letting him back in. But the damage has been done. There's no turning back. There are plenty of people in this business who won't do business with anyone who does business with SexTracker.

"Then you've got to look at the thing that happened with Yishai's [Crescent] sites. He was their biggest sponsor. Then the FTC cracked down on Crescent.

"They are so far behind on bills, two-and-a-half million dollars a month behind... That includes the servers, bandwidth, the whole ball of wax. They're payroll is ridiculous. They also gave Shawn Boday a helluva deal to come back. It's the stupidest thing he's ever done. He sold out. That's going to hurt his reputation.

"Ross Perkins is the cofounder of SexTracker, which flies under the umbrella of Flying Crocodile which Andy Edmond founded. Ross owns half of SexTracker. Shawn Boday also owns a percentage."

Jay Kopita, FCI PR guy says: "Luke F-rd is on the fringe of the adult industry. You've got to take him with a grain of salt."

Luke says: I found an interesting snow job on FCI by Randy Barrett at ZDnet. Here's an excerpt:

Edmond, unmarried with no children, says the site attracts about 6 million unique visitors per month. Those visits fuel one of the most successful and ambitious adult site companies on the Net - a business he claims generates $50 million to $60 million in revenue per year. In an industry still largely populated by small - some literally mom-and-pop - shops, Edmond has big plans to dominate.

"A lot of people we view as competitors have no intention of staying in this business," he says. "No one else is in the position to be a consolidator."

Others in the online adult business agree that Flying Crocodile is the company most likely to go on a gobbling binge. The reason is twofold: Edmond's intense focus in an industry that is constantly at war with itself and his well-disciplined, 135-employee corporate machine, which he started in 1997 with $15,000 out of his own pocket.

Luke says: I posted a response to the article and ZDNet totally edited it. Be careful about posting there. You will never know how your words will come out.

In early December, another 20 FCI employees were laid off.

12/25/00

Andy Edmond - Grinch or CEO?

I hear that Andy Edmond, CEO of Flying Crocodile Inc (FCI), has missed his payment to Rick Muenyong (founder of YNOT), due to Rick on the 15th of every month. It's a high five figure sum. The missed payment, coming on top of layoffs over the past few weeks to about half of his employees, causes speculation about the financial health of Flying Crocodile Inc, the parent company of YNOTmasters.com.

I'm curious about the stipulations in Andy Edmond's contracts should he default on certain payments. I hear there's juicy stuff to uncover if I can get deep.

JT Edmond from FCI writes: Luke, In the wake of FCI's recent restructuring, this isolated payment has been temporarily affected. Rick's payment this month will be 14 days later than our normal 'on-time' history. Mr. Muenyong was notified last week by company CFO, Jm Finnell.

Rick Muenyong writes Luke: I'm extremely worried about the future of FCI and it's companies. This new guy, Jim Finnel, contacted me last Thursday stating a mixup in funds, and that I would have the money in my account the following day. Fine, I'm worried, but I'll give the new guy a chance. Next day, no money and the new Jim is no where to be found. Evidently FCI took the day off on Friday to have an Xmas party!

Come Monday, I left a few messages on Jim's line on Monday. No callback all day. I called Andy Edmond on his cell .. his words 'everything is going great, FCI is experiencing growth and re-structuring mode'. This would be the only time I get a hold of Edmond, even after 3 messages left. I can except not getting call-backs from Mr. Intern Finnel, but when Andy is hiding under a bush somewhere, you know there is reason to worry!

I made a deal with Mr Intern, to call me every single day at 10am starting Tuesday until the money gets wired into my account. He's already broken one promise, making him 0 for 1. Since that understanding, I have not heard from him once. That was almost one week ago. The only individual who ever returned my messages was Greg Geelan (my former attorney, now YNOT pres) from YNOT. Possibly the only person from FCI/YNOT who even cares I get paid.

Up to date, YNOT has done very well paying me on time. This is the first payment where FCI has been in charge (for whatever reason) of it, and look what happens. You can brief Greg or JT if you want to know why YNOT didn't handle my payment this time 'round. It's been just 11 months (out of 60) and FCI is already defaulting on their payments. Myself and Ranks.com (current venture) obviously rely on this money to stay in business. This is why I was somewhat forced to throw a funding campaign together for Ranks.com.. the initial plan was to obviously fund it ourself.

As someone who is extremely passive, I'm extremely PO'ed with the treatment from Intern Finnel and CEO Grinch. You can put this one under your never-ending stack of "Negative FCI PR" file. I'd love to speak with JT on this..... because it sucks getting my FCI updates on your site Luke. Maybe you should be my FCI contact person....

1/21/01

The Scoop On The General Internet Alliance (GIA)

FCI president Andrew Edmond writes on YNOTmasters.com posting board:

As I promised... let's stir the political pot a little, shall we? :)

Here is the INSIDE STORY of the GIA and the "players" effort to form a protective association to protect their (and your) business, and the total lack of success thereof. Here goes...

I was one of the original folks at the GIA pre-meeting and first open meeting in January of 2000. Folks from the ITA (International Telecommunications Association, a fancy title for the largest phone sex business association in the world) took initiative and pro-actively approached the big players in the adult internet business.

At the meeting where Dave from Python, Ron from CE, Joe from CEN, Jack from BabeNet, myself (Andrew Edmond from YNOT/SexTracker), Bob from RJB, Kaiser from NetPond, Greg Dumas from IGallery. Quite a roomful of people, egos and fortunes!

The ITA guys were perfectly reasonable, they wanted to help us create an adult internet trade association by mirroring the successes they've had with the phone sex business... they knew how to neutralize politics and ego to get business done between enemies for a common good. They had even flown out some chief prosecuter from the FTC with their own money to explain to the embryonic GIA that a s---storm was coming. I was convinced that these guys were offering to our industry an awesome advantage for getting this done quicky, correctly, and with folks that have already hit all the bumps in the road. I was convinced we couldn't lose if we went with what these guys were proposing... experience, proven track record... they had it all.

However, it was clear from the beginning that Ron Levi had control of the room, and was the central figure that would decide if the rest would participate. Everyone in the room, though intelligent and successful, was going to go with where Ron was going to go. Most of them were still looking at me wondering how I got in the room, but as usual I had a lot to say about protecting our business. It was also very clear Ron and Jack didn't like me interrupting them :) I *did not* make a good first impression on those guys - LOL!

In the end, Ron and the rest of the guys decided to throw their money - quite a bit of it - at Mark Tiarra to run the GIA, not these guys with a proven record from the ITA - who had a dossier of lobbying success the size of the yellow pages. I like Mark and all, but vocally told them I thought they were crazy to put a guy with a stellar design business into the lobbying business. Ron was pissed at Visa, as was Dave from Python that was in the middle of billing nightmares. Jack and Bob were on the sidelines, but dropped their money down as well. Mark accepted as a favor to Ron.

Over the next year, the GIA spent a lot of money on lawyers doing research for how to sue Visa effectively, but in the end nothing happened. The GIA is still in existance, but really is being used as community lawyer muscle for all the big players to protect their business interests, and not to that successful of a degree from what I gather.

Where was the GIA when RJB got sued by the FTC? Where was the GIA when JoeE got shut off from UUNet? Where was the GIA when JoeE got sued by AOL?

Now here we are a year later. Dubya just got elected to office, Ashcroft is days away from being named attorney general, and ANYBODY with a half a head knows that online pornography is going to get the s--- KICKED OUT OF IT.

BEFORE Bush become president, AOL sued CEN for $150,000,000 and not only is CEN going to spend hundreds of thousands fighting it, they are going to be dragged through the public media like criminals before they are even found guilty soon as Ashcroft's PR team starts up. RJB lost untold millions and has had to stipulate to agreements at gunpoint by the federal government. I can tell you right now there is not one company cleaner than RJB and they got trashed this year with a friendly administration in place.

2001 is going to be worse.

Much worse.

MUCH MUCH worse.

If you aren't scared, you have your head in the sand!

Pull it out and look around you. This industry is heading for some serious rapids, and unless your raft is bulletproof, you have an equal chance of going down as anybody else.

So, why am I writing this? Well, because it's not a bad thing. I think it will be GOOD for this industry to have to fight for it's life. I think we'll see a lot of assholes get chased out of the business.

I think we'll see most of the con men shut up shop, and even though many of the innocent will hurt insufferably through the next few years (most people at YNOT I include on this list), the whole industry will come out so that the next time Ron Levi and partners are in a room being held an olive branch for protection from the government they won't f--- it up like they did last time.

In the meantime, YNOT is dedicated to helping webmasters survive through the coming storm. Much of what is going on at YNOT in the background is preparing for the likelihood of this type of nightmare happening to our industry. This is why I get involved with stuff like the COPA Commission, or the National Research Council. YNOT will be there to do that and more, now and in the future.

Oh yeah, if I'm wrong about my predictions for the next administration, then I'll be glad to have you all say I told you so. However, I think most people can see the truth and the likelihoods I propose as happening.

Okay... if I offended anyone, I apologize ahead of time. These are my opinions only, don't roast me for having them, but I would love to hear yours in turn.

Webmaster Brad Shaw replies: The GIA was and is a joke. It was set-up by a few self-serving guys and failed and continues to fail. That about sums it up.

Flying Crocodile Statistics

JT Edmond from Flying Crocodile Inc writes: Luke, In reference your story " Is Porno A $10 Billion A Year Industry?", please allow me clarify that FCI has never said that the adult online industry makes 10 billion a year. Our projected earnings for the online segment of adult entertainment is 1.1 billion for the year 2000. May I also add that all of the statistics that come from FCI are completely accurate within +/- 3% depending on the statistic and the methodology used in the calculation. We couple our methodology with Nielsen Net-Ratings to provide the most accurate statistics available on the adult online industry. We stand behind our numbers 100%.

Based upon your article, am I to understand that you have done independent research that contradicts FCI's ( or even AVN's) statistical findings? Do you have any evidence, what so ever, that backs up your claim that our information lacks accuracy? If you don't have any other evidence, how can you call this information BS?

Sometime the bias in your commentary baffles me. You manipulate words and opinions to fit your own agenda and them post them on your site as if it were fact. I find this very unfair. As a company, Flying Crocodile has always treated you with respect and fairness. Is it too much to ask for the same in return?

4/10/01

Andy Edmond's Secret Garden?

I hear that former Flying Crocodile CEO Andy Edmond has bought a house off Puget Sound in Seattle and spends his time gardening.

Andy Edmond writes: Hey Luke, as you showed interest, I thought you might want to know how I'm doing.

I live on an island and own a large house on five acres with a spectacular view of Seattle and Mount Rainier. On the gardening front, I'm primarily growing beans and corn and spices this year. I'm still in the middle of laying in the raised beds and tilling and preparing the soil. I should be able to plant in three weeks almost all of my seedlings! We shall see how I do this year. I'll send you some canned dilled beans at the end of summer, okay? I've also taken to fixing up my motorcycles (I have three), and playing with my dogs - I have a weimaraner and a new little baby pug.

I do plan to come out of retirement at the end of summer with a new company (non-Internet or adult related), but I'm not sure which business I want to get into yet. I'm just glad I'm out of the business, and I think a bunch of other people are equally as glad, if you know what I mean :)

However, I have to admit that I had a blast while I was in the business, it was a lot of fun. I'm rooting for FCI from the sidelines now, and know they will do very well. Ross Perkins and Shawn Boday are the two smartest people I've ever met, and hardworking to boot. I really can't wait to see what they come out with now that the "company" is out of the way. With Ross running technology that he's a master of, and Shawn continuing to make all his adult friends rich, FCI will do just fine in the short and long term.