22 Dec What ManyVids Creators Should Know About Creator Plus
Posted
in All About Content
Creators on ManyVids all received an unexpected email recently that left most of us feeling some kind of way. The message was to inform us about a shiny new opportunity called Creator Plus, where we get to upload twelve safe for work videos and ten safe for work store items. In return, we don’t get our profiles hidden from the general user base. This is just the latest in a wild stream of updates to the site that are being sold to us as empowerment. Let’s go over this safe for work push, what it means, and why it feels like we’re jumping through hoops just to stay visible.
AGE VERIFICATION, PAYMENT PROCESSORS, AND THE SFW PIVOT
With age verification laws creeping up on us from all sides, platforms are scrambling to look like more than just a porn site to payment processors. If that were the only metric we used to measure ManyVids’ most recent update, it might seem like they’re trying to cover all our asses. Unfortunately, if you’ve been an active creator over the last few years, you know that isn’t the whole story. What started with relatively straightforward policy changes, such as SFW profile pictures, has stumbled into its current messy state, breaking some of the site’s best features along the way.
FEATURE CHANGES THAT HURT MORE THAN THEY HELP
Thrown in with all the SFW terms of service additions is a pile of objectively dumb features. We’re seeing tiered brackets of access to content for users and the removal of comments from free posts and videos. Floating getting rid of free videos entirely, while throwing in the option to make your videos free for premium users. All of this is done with the stated intention of protecting our content from freeloaders and other boogeymen. But let’s be real, none of this makes any sense for our bottom line.
WHY MORE FRICTION MEANS LESS MONEY
A lot of us are probably thinking that these changes are nonsense, and that’s because they are. From a business perspective, how is anybody supposed to make money while adding hoops for that money to jump through on its way to your account? Every page a user has to go through to get to our products makes it less likely that they’ll buy anything. It’s like putting the stuff in the grocery checkout line in a locked display case. One of Amazon’s most successful features was adding the “Buy Now” button for a reason.
A PLATFORM THAT LOOKS LOST IN PUBLIC
You won’t get any additional clarity from checking the ManyVids Twitter account, either. For the last few months, that feed has been a weird fever dream of AI slop, hand-drawn graphs, and the strangest pseudo-inspirational posts. It hits like a former child actor publicly crashing out rather than a professional platform communicating with its users and creators. Under almost every post, you’ll see creators and fans alike pleading with them to listen to the people who made the site successful in the first place and to seek help. It’s hard to trust a platform’s direction when their public face looks this chaotic.
IS JUMPING THROUGH THESE HOOPS WORTH IT?
We have to ask ourselves if jumping through these new hoops is really worth it. While we all want to keep our traffic flowing, there is significantly more friction here than there ever has been before. It feels like the platform is having an identity crisis, and we are the ones paying the price for it. We’re the ones who have to scramble to create content that fits their new, sanitized vision. And we have to do it while wondering if the rug is going to get pulled out from under us again next month.
CHOOSING WHAT IS BEST FOR YOUR BUSINESS
There is no hiding the fact that these updates are a headache for everyone involved. But as sex workers, we’re used to adapting to bad decisions made by people who don’t understand our jobs. Whether you decide to play ball with Creator Plus or start focusing your energy elsewhere, make sure you are doing what is best for your business. Don’t let the pressure to be “safe for work” make you forget why you started this spicy journey in the first place. Trust your instincts, weigh the risks, and do what you need to do to keep the cash flowing.
Riley Cyriis is a New England-based indie content creator and mortician. She owns Cyriis Studios with her partner, Ryan Cyriis. She’s a cult survivor, a heavily-armed liberal, and the enemy of corruption and greed.
Creators on ManyVids all received an unexpected email recently that left most of us feeling some kind of way. The message was to inform us about a shiny new opportunity called Creator Plus, where we get to upload twelve safe for work videos and ten safe for work store items. In return, we don’t get our profiles hidden from the general user base. This is just the latest in a wild stream of updates to the site that are being sold to us as empowerment. Let’s go over this safe for work push, what it means, and why it feels like we’re jumping through hoops just to stay visible.
AGE VERIFICATION, PAYMENT PROCESSORS, AND THE SFW PIVOT
With age verification laws creeping up on us from all sides, platforms are scrambling to look like more than just a porn site to payment processors. If that were the only metric we used to measure ManyVids’ most recent update, it might seem like they’re trying to cover all our asses. Unfortunately, if you’ve been an active creator over the last few years, you know that isn’t the whole story. What started with relatively straightforward policy changes, such as SFW profile pictures, has stumbled into its current messy state, breaking some of the site’s best features along the way.
FEATURE CHANGES THAT HURT MORE THAN THEY HELP
Thrown in with all the SFW terms of service additions is a pile of objectively dumb features. We’re seeing tiered brackets of access to content for users and the removal of comments from free posts and videos. Floating getting rid of free videos entirely, while throwing in the option to make your videos free for premium users. All of this is done with the stated intention of protecting our content from freeloaders and other boogeymen. But let’s be real, none of this makes any sense for our bottom line.
WHY MORE FRICTION MEANS LESS MONEY
A lot of us are probably thinking that these changes are nonsense, and that’s because they are. From a business perspective, how is anybody supposed to make money while adding hoops for that money to jump through on its way to your account? Every page a user has to go through to get to our products makes it less likely that they’ll buy anything. It’s like putting the stuff in the grocery checkout line in a locked display case. One of Amazon’s most successful features was adding the “Buy Now” button for a reason.
A PLATFORM THAT LOOKS LOST IN PUBLIC
You won’t get any additional clarity from checking the ManyVids Twitter account, either. For the last few months, that feed has been a weird fever dream of AI slop, hand-drawn graphs, and the strangest pseudo-inspirational posts. It hits like a former child actor publicly crashing out rather than a professional platform communicating with its users and creators. Under almost every post, you’ll see creators and fans alike pleading with them to listen to the people who made the site successful in the first place and to seek help. It’s hard to trust a platform’s direction when their public face looks this chaotic.
IS JUMPING THROUGH THESE HOOPS WORTH IT?
We have to ask ourselves if jumping through these new hoops is really worth it. While we all want to keep our traffic flowing, there is significantly more friction here than there ever has been before. It feels like the platform is having an identity crisis, and we are the ones paying the price for it. We’re the ones who have to scramble to create content that fits their new, sanitized vision. And we have to do it while wondering if the rug is going to get pulled out from under us again next month.
CHOOSING WHAT IS BEST FOR YOUR BUSINESS
There is no hiding the fact that these updates are a headache for everyone involved. But as sex workers, we’re used to adapting to bad decisions made by people who don’t understand our jobs. Whether you decide to play ball with Creator Plus or start focusing your energy elsewhere, make sure you are doing what is best for your business. Don’t let the pressure to be “safe for work” make you forget why you started this spicy journey in the first place. Trust your instincts, weigh the risks, and do what you need to do to keep the cash flowing.
Riley Cyriis is a New England-based indie content creator and mortician. She owns Cyriis Studios with her partner, Ryan Cyriis. She’s a cult survivor, a heavily-armed liberal, and the enemy of corruption and greed.
