Hmmm, I don't like where this is going
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Sadie, I'm sure you don't mean anything by it, but it seems there is maybe a feeling of disdain for "bp girls". What so many people who have been in the hobby for a long time don't realize is that everyone has to start somewhere.
When I started, I admit that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I put an ad up on cl because I had read an article years ago about how cl was providing a "safe haven" for prostitutes and make the practice both safer for women and more difficult for law enforcement to control. So naturally, that sounded to me like a good place to start. Where else would I have started? The newspaper? Down on Roosevelt? I didn't know about ASPD, TER, ECCIE, etc. I didn't know that there existed a whole community of people on the internet who talked about all this and who reviewed the service of ladies in the business. I think the first time someone asked me if I had any reviews I said, "What do you mean? I guess I could have one of my clients write an email saying that I'm not the police." I had no idea what he was talking about. He acted like I was being evasive and a smartass and I thought he was nuts and so I hung up on him. My apologies to whomever that was
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But how was I supposed to know? There's no handbook mailed to you when you first start.
Luckily someone took a chance one day--someone who is now an active hobbyist himself. He gave me my first review and my phone wouldn't stop ringing after that. I was amazed and totally baffled. But I'm sure that someone had to do the same for you when you started. You don't start this career with reviews already in place in all the right spots. People may not have started on bp or cl back then, but they do now because that's the more mainstream forum for advertising. I don't know what it was back then or how ladies got started in this business. I just know how I fumbled my way through until I got it all figured out. But that doesn't make me any less legitimate as a provider now. I've worked to build up a good reputation as well--one where I truly believe that providing a good service is the only way for this career to pay off. There was only one "veteran" lady who ever reached out to me to teach me how to screen and to check on me to make sure I was doing alright. No one else ever bothered.
So honestly--how was I supposed to know? Where should I have started and where is the notice out there telling me so?