history questions

I arrived here 6 years ago. I missed it when ASPD went down and ECCIE arose. I have a question about that time. how did it go down? how long after aspd went down before eccie came around? how did folks find out about eccie? were there other local contender web sites for the Austin hang out zone for the hobby? if ECCIE does go down, and if another replacement pops up to replace it from an out of country site, how do we all find it and end up there?. When things changed, did the providers all change names and start over with a new identity? did the mongers turn to street walkers during the down time? I am curious to learn from the past of ebbs and flow of this local hobby market. anyone want to expound on the history of this sort of change in the local community?

Aspd went down because the owner died and some mods run it into the ground. Ck was one if I remember. I learned about this place from a providers yahoo groups page.


Ps. The owner was a provider if I remember correctly.

Aspd went down because the owner died and some mods run it into the ground. Ck was one if I remember. I learned about this place from a providers yahoo groups page.


Ps. The owner was a provider if I remember correctly. Originally Posted by Kickrocks

This is correct … at least the part about the owner dying and the owner of this site being a provider at the time, as that's all I know about. This site came about rather quickly and with a smooth transition.

Aspd went down because the owner died and some mods run it into the ground. Ck was one if I remember. I learned about this place from a providers yahoo groups page.


Ps. The owner was a provider if I remember correctly. Originally Posted by Kickrocks

If you are going to propagate mis-information, could you at least cite the source?

Sue, thank you for asking and offering me the opportunity to set the record just a bit more straight.

Disregard the trolls views of aspd.

I was there inside the site, from 2003. they were not. Despite what many aspders might think, none of the support admins nor any other admins either ever had full entry to the inner workings. Pure control of the site was vested in only the owner, a former spa/agency lady who started aspd in 1999 after earlier non-gui sites run by Delphi, Compuserve, Genie, AOL and the Well. All "bulletin board" type services, no photos mostly just plain texts except for folks who knew how to boldface, etc.

I will use blue inside your text to reply.,

btw, aspd went down because for more than a year in 2008-2009 the owner ("Amber") was seriously ill and had changed from her original s.o. to another, but neither was able to maintain the site properly since it had been seriously hacked and damaged in 2005.

Suffice to say, one of the lead support admins (ck1942) was constantly assured by Amber and her mother and stepfather that the site was indeed being maintained properly and ck1942 (aside from local haters in one city forum, not Austin or San Antonio) as the more or less public face of the site was blamed for misrepresenting the maintenance falsehood and especially the off-site Houston social bust in December, 2009, the week that the site owner died.

I arrived here 6 years ago. I missed it when ASPD went down and ECCIE arose. I have a question about that time. how did it go down? lack of proper maintenance for several years prior to final crash in early 2010

how long after aspd went down before eccie came around? organizers of eccie.net and ourhome2.net realized the faltering aspd would eventually die and started those sites just in case. home2 was originally intended to serve only the "socializing" communities in multiple cities, but when the aspd end came quickly created many additional city forums to accommodate established hobbyists and established providers and ck1942 sent out emails notifying only those aspders that home2 was open. I assume the eccie organizers did much the same.

how did folks find out about eccie? there were several other local and outside sites already extant and many hobbyers already knew about those.

were there other local contender web sites for the Austin hang out zone for the hobby? yes, a couple, but no need to annotate them here as they are now either long gone.

if ECCIE does go down, and if another replacement pops up to replace it from an out of country site, how do we all find it and end up there?. IDK, word of mouth at the socials, perhaps, or private messaging via email or PMs by those here who have or are building contact lists.

CAUTION! imo, new e-mail addresses should be carefully checked out and verified via existing communications channels lest some "identities" be assumed by persons impersonating existing identities.

When things changed, did the providers all change names and start over with a new identity? Perhaps some did but many did not, preferring to keep some history to prove their identity (see CAUTION above). There were some providers, those with bad reputations or a desire to become more anonymous who assumed new identities. So did some hobbyists for much the same reasons, imho.

did the mongers turn to street walkers during the down time? No doubt the streeters continued those habits or increase spa or studio visitations. imo most legit hobbyists/providers made the transition to new sites very smoothly.

I am curious to learn from the past of ebbs and flow of this local hobby market. anyone want to expound on the history of this sort of change in the local community? Originally Posted by sue_nami

Great questions above and certainly all of us could learn more about the hobby -- pre-Internet for sure, because imo that still will be a basis for continuation after if and when whatever becomes effective takes hold. Perhaps we will see more female run "agencies, groups" as we did during the aspd and post-aspd era.

imo, many of us can remember the pre-'net era(s) and certainly much of that still exists off line. The reality, however, is that the 'net is not going away no matter what governments try to do, and, check the link in my signature about "Unexpected Consequences" for a perspective on what might happen in the U.S., as has happened in many other countries.

...but neither was able to maintain the site properly since it had been seriously hacked and damaged in 2005.
Originally Posted by ck1942

^^^ this
The site was so customized from standard vBulletin at the time that it became impossible to apply updates to sustain its growth, having nothing to do with the forum administrators like ck1942, who were not system administrators.

^^^
Thank you for the view, entirely true.

And after her death, unfortunately the parents were quite distraught and literally ran off many established members with their rants.

Attempts to resurrect the site were never successful and although the database was said to have been saved, I've never seen much if any of that. Some can be found on the web archival sites like "wayback."

However, I know many hobbyists who separately were always saving much of their aspd site contributions, reviews, photos, ads, and I was one person of many who I know regularly downloaded all of my PMs from the very beginning of my tenure there.

Still do that here as well and recommend same process to others interested in preserving stuff.

wow! thanks for the history lesson. I did not know any of that. I hope we can maintain some semblance of local community if eccie goes down. While we do have our troll issues, the underlying community and swapping of knowledge makes us all safer. I believe that a stellar reputation developed by years of good reviews is an asset I would hate to lose. maybe the courts will pull this country back to the center and allow freedom to post online. I believe it is vital to protection of all parties involved.

Sue,

Just a few added thoughts—take them for what they are, comments from a watcher from outside. I have never lived in Texas but I did spend a lot of time there and became well acquainted with a number of the ladies and a few of the men. Many have moved on—from this corner of the world and/or from Texas—but I still stay in touch and talk with a lot of them.

CK’s rendition is from an “insider’s” perspective, mine is not, but everything he said matches the things I have heard from a lot of others whom I trust. And more importantly for me, it is completely consistent with some pieces I do know firsthand, and some things that made their way into federal investigations.

There was a definite power struggle in the period before, during, and after the demise of the site. There was—as often happens—some serious bad blood that accompanied the struggle, and one of the factions had some very bad and dangerous folks associated with it. Some may or may not have departed—not all voluntarily--but some are still around under different names.

I am writing this because you will likely get some other versions of what went on, versions where different people are identified as the good guys and the bad guys. There was a recent thread started quite recently that seemed to be nothing but a drive by shooting of CK for example.

Believe who you will, but I would wager my money on CK’s version. And I know a lot of ladies of that era who would too.

Deleted--duplicate post

Disregard the trolls views of aspd.
[/COLOR][/B] Originally Posted by ck1942

I didn't mean to offend (if that was the case), no was I intending to be a "troll" - just confirming what I remember reading during the transition that the owner died and Amber, if memory serves me correctly, was once a provider. If not, I stand corrected. Regardless I offer my apology if I came across the wrong way. Peace out!

I recall seeing this one provider 'back in the day' in Houston just off the Beltway near Westheimer. After the fun was had, she was excited to open up her laptop and show me 'this little site she was working on'. That site - ASPD. That provider - Amber (RIP). My, how shit has changed in the hobby over the years.

I found eecie by providers on back page attaching their reviews to their adds. I found TER that way as well. If eccie goes down I wonder if TER will as well. I don't travel like I did a few years ago and elected to not reniew TER and P411. Looks like that will be my 1st move if this goes away.

I sure do miss the ASPD days.

But once that closed, I kept seeing a few of my regulars, and one of them told me about here. Funny enough, but back then I actually had a lot of success on Craigslist, which is gone now, too.

Ah. The good old days. I was living in the Houston area at the time. One of the main business people was a good friends. In addition to Amber's death, the Houston PD had created a new vice squad. They brought in the Fed's claiming RICO. Long story short, Owners were arrested and served some federal time. Lots of folks went under ground then reappeared on this site. Others disappeared for good. One of the owner/providers at the time is still a friend but no longer working in this industry.