Good Egg Productions wrote:
It's not your imagination.

The reason is Instagram and Snapchat.

a model's social media following is now far more important than her portfolio, and with all the advances of cell phone cameras and the tool available in Instagram and Snapchat, the role of skilled photographer is almost useless to them.

+1 it's instagram, I'm on there more, met more models there.

Armando D Photography wrote:

+1 it's instagram, I'm on there more, met more models there.

How do you find models on IG? Hashtags?

ZP Pliskin wrote:
How do you find models on IG? Hashtags?

Yes, or you get connected by a mutual acquaintance.

I might check out #lamodels, see who shows up, and message someone. Others might have searched #laphotographers or #lafashion or whatever and found me that way. Someone might see a shot I did for a designer on the designers page and if I'm tagged, then it would lead them to my feed. Lots of different ways.

Makeup artists and photographers connect all the time on IG. And makeup artists know a lot of models. You can put up a casting call on IG in your feed and maybe one of your MUA friends will repost it to his/her audience.

There used to be an IG account for model and actor castings, and they would repost the castings that I put up.

Give it a shot!

Randy Poe wrote:
There was also the ever important breaking story a while back of three missing young Colorado women all connected to MM so therefore MM was somehow at fault in the insinuation if not outright accusations of many news outlets on prime time news.

oh joy.

That has left a public scar that still exist. Some models think MM is a dirty word with no further knowledge of the matter. I'm personally not out to educate them as all it does is come off as nerdy at best and creepy at worst.

One was discovered a runaway a couple month into it all bought that never was newsworthy.
http://www.westword.com/news/raven-furl … ly-5895698

A second was pregnant from a local junior collage jock and perhaps not a mm related, again not news worthy but instead a 20/20 investigation. No more mention of MM as they have already somehow sued and publicly destroyed their suspect without a court case much less conviction. BTW not a photographer not even by MM standards.
http://www.westword.com/news/break-in-k … er-7922140

Lastly the unfortunately still missing last girl who did in fact disappear on her way to a shoot the story has now turned to the mishandling of our then local sheriff who was to busy getting BJ's by several members of his direct level staff to correctly do his job. This story overrides the MM aspect as BJ.s with nude selfies and milf cops trump old MM news any day.
http://www.westword.com/news/kara-nicho … er-7947838

I hope they someday find the two young women alive a well. but more and more MM didn't seem to have anything to do with any of it. That never mattered to the news.

Do you think people really pay attention to this when deciding whether to join MM?
Maybe so, IDK.
There is a thread somewhere about a model who donated a kidney to another model he didn't know. Someone said best thread ever. There is now another tog who needs a kidney.
I've been promoting the idea--we did it once, can we redo?
Good publicity and save a life--not bad combination. 😊
Let me see if I can find the link...
https://www.modelmayhem.com/forums/post/960847

Good Egg Productions wrote:
It's not your imagination.

The reason is Instagram and Snapchat.

a model's social media following is now far more important than her portfolio, and with all the advances of cell phone cameras and the tool available in Instagram and Snapchat, the role of skilled photographer is almost useless to them.

'Her portfolio' 'Model'
We are a diverse community.

Soapbox was popular. Then it was gone. POOF!

FFantastique wrote:
So how would you reverse the decline?

Soap box.
Cheap life time VIP memberships.
Listen to paying members [never a priority to owners].

Fotopia wrote:
The unwillingness of many mayhem members to reply to messages in a timely manner is among the main reasons this site is ineffective as a talent search resource.

Perhaps those who are unresponsive do not log in any more.
MM would be better if accounts inactive for a year were closed.

Do you think people really pay attention to this when deciding whether to join MM?
Maybe so, IDK.
There is a thread somewhere about a model who donated a kidney to another model he didn't know. Someone said best thread ever. There is now another tog who needs a kidney.
I've been promoting the idea--we did it once, can we redo?
Good publicity and save a life--not bad combination. 😊
Let me see if I can find the link...
https://www.modelmayhem.com/forums/post/960847

Agreed, I love this place. Sadly news 5 did not pick up the kidney story. all I'm saying is if you Google MM and see what you get, the bottom half of the first page is all sludge. Sludge that MM does not IMO deserve.

Perhaps those who are unresponsive do not log in any more.
MM would be better if accounts inactive for a year were closed.

Now that's an idea.

Abbitt Photography wrote:

The problem is goals and incentive.   Compare IB to a modeling agency.  An agency makes money by booking shoots and doing what it take so ensure those shoots go well.  IB in contrast is an internet board service.  They make no money by shoots being booked and in fact, it's a liability for them, not a positive. 

I think for what's needed is an incentive that to some degree resembles the way agencies work a site that makes in money from successful bookings, not from member numbers, logins, or clicks on ads.

A few one-sided moderator actions have also driven off some good members.     Again, this comes down to incentive.  IB doesn't care if the advice given in a forum is good or bad or censored.  They care about numbers.

This is absolutely true....

I guess my OP was just to vent a little bit but at the same time try to see what the problem was. 

As I mentioned, I live in a relatively small town.  When I search for people within a 50 mile radius of my zip code, 1, that's right, 1 model pops up and 3 photographers (I am one of them)  I don't mind traveling to do a shoot of course, but as we've al faced, you can make the arrangements, get your gear together, drive to your location and the model fails to appear. (and yes it goes both ways), so I am always a bit put off by driving a couple of hours without any sort of guarantee that the other person/people will show up.

Oh well, so it goes...

huremics wrote:
Why MM didn't capitalize on their website popularity with a good mobile app years ago is a mystery to me. Probably too late now. I do as much shooting from IG, FB, and CL than from MM. Probably more.

MM seems to be partly a GWC factory.

I hate that label with a GWC....there are plenty of GWT on here as well...that's right, Girls with tits

SAND DIAL wrote:

Perhaps those who are unresponsive do not log in any more.
MM would be better if accounts inactive for a year were closed.

Yes Yes Yes....

I suggested that accounts that are inactive for "X" months or some defined time period were deleted or at a minimum no longer showed up in the search results until the person logged in again and reactivated their account.

I got two basic responses...1, MM likes to claim they have BIG numbers to justify their fees/advertising costs and many photogs about jumped me...how dare I suggest a port be turned off....we don't have time to login every day, etc...it was kind of a crazy response.

PK Brazil wrote:
MM's social media features are extremely outdated. The site initially did a good job implementing popular MySpace-era social media features (friends, pic comments, tags, etc), but MM hasn't kept up with newer social media features (likes, trending pics, friend feeds, event invites, comment/tag replies, @user replies, etc).  Lack of contemporary features leads to much shorter stays on MM and infrequent logins. Former daily users now log in weekly or monthly.

FB, IG, Tumblr are much more engaging and have taken a lot of the MM traffic. They of course lack some model site features like local talent searches, casting lists, travel notices, etc, so MM remains semi-relevant. 

Also, a lot of web traffic has gone mobile and MM has a very weak mobile game.

Hard to argue with any of this. For 2 years now, every time I get an email about a forum update on my phone, it takes me to a mobile page that isn't the forums, then I have to request the desktop site from my browser, *then* I can continue... every single time...

PK Brazil wrote:
[snip]
Also, a lot of web traffic has gone mobile and MM has a very weak mobile game.

fact.

I could never use the site via the mobile app and the vast majority, if not all of the younger generation are all about their phones.

FFantastique wrote:
[snip]

And BTW, numbers aren't everything, quality counts for a lot.
.

fact

Koryn wrote:
I didn't really shoot all year, just a couple of things here and there in 2016. I recently changed day jobs, so my schedule is a little more flexible. I figured I'd schedule some shoots, because I kinda miss modeling and I have the flexibility to do that again. I casted for both trade and a couple of cheap paying gigs (local, $25-35/hr art nude and glamour). I figured that was so cheap to hire an experienced figure model, I'd get some local gigs, make $50 here and there and have fun. After all, that's basically all that MM is good for these days. A lot of the focused, "serious" people are gone and the remaining photographers only ever seem interested in "having fun" on shoots, rather than working toward anything specific and goal-oriented.

I got responses from a few people on MM immediately after posting an availability. One scheduled with me and followed through, was nice, great, etc etc. Had a good shoot. One of them was obviously a basketcase. The other dicked me around for five days and cancelled last minute.

The getting dicked around was something that used to almost NEVER happen with shoots booked on MM. I'd have everything wrapped up and scheduled within a few email exchanges, and just show up and shoot with them, at the agreed upon time, in the agreed upon place. It was exceedingly rare that I felt like I was being asked a million questions and securely booked, then last minute cancelled on. By last year, it was happening pretty regularly. Now, people here will ask you 40 million questions, often the same questions over and over again in different words (like: do you do topless? Do you shoot explicit? What does explicit mean to you?). Even after you specify that what you see in your portfolio is what you shoot. Period. I had someone, who'd clearly looked at my work, lots of it, ask, "So, if you will shoot without bottoms, will you also shoot without a top?" That seemed utterly ridiculous to ask, considering my breasts and full frontal nudity is ALL over what I referred them to look at. You will be as clear and concise as possible, and they'll be splitting hairs, wanting more cell phone snaps, asking more odd questions. Prior to 2012, people did ask odd questions or repeat questions sometimes, but now it is almost the norm.

Like no one will actually believe you are who you say you are. My website is ALL me, every single photo is me. My MM port is relatively recent. Stats are updated. No, the cell phone snaps were not taken "a few years ago." My skin looks "good for my age" because it IS really good for my age.

I do feel like the INTEGRITY of the people here has gone down. And their willingness to trust each other, and build ongoing, meaningful professional relationships. The vibe in the air is skeptical and hostile, like everyone thinks you're trying to pull something over on them and you have to go to extreme lengths to prove that you're not going to commit a murder or something.  Now they want to ask you questions and for cell phone photos by text, and your phone is exploding all day, while they think of random things to ask, like "How long are your toenails" (when you were not even planning a foot shoot). In years past, I expected some people to email me well-written, pre-booking questionnaires, covering topics such as personal grooming and the like. Not 42 million text messages, all asking about different things - often the same things, over and over in different words.

Part of the reason I barely did any shoots in 2016 was because I felt like I didn't have the time or energy to manage all these needy people who couldn't just trust me and have a great shoot. We used to just worry about managing the lighting, the wardrobe, the themes. Now, it's managing egos and paranoia.

And maybe that is indicative of the experience level of people recently joining being less than it once was, when we had more working pros and full-time models here. I don't know. Maybe people who've not booked models online before don't KNOW how to manage the pre-booking process in an efficient way yet, and when you get all those individuals trying to learn brand networking skills all at once, and you're dealing with a lot of inefficient, inexperienced people all at once...it just devolves into awkwardness, disorganization and missed connections.

Cool but sad.

Model version of the complaint that photographers make.

Like yourself I primarily come for the forums, and no longer book shoots through here.

The old pros, I talk to on FB. Many have left MM.

K I M I L Y wrote:
I agree. Whilst the forum is nothing like as useful as it used to be there's plenty of model activity in and around London. Moreso here IMO than on other UK modelling sites.

What are the popular UK sites? I'm thinking of visiting London.

Koryn wrote:
And maybe that is indicative of the experience level of people recently joining being less than it once was, when we had more working pros and full-time models here.

I can't speak for the past, but this may be it. I think people are so used to scammers, spam, frauds, and see so much negative things in the news about networking on the Internet that they are suspicious. Even if they are not, looking at some of the forum threads started shows that shady stuff is happening frequently and jaded people respond to the threads so cynically that the cycle perpetuates.

L o n d o n   F o g wrote:

Looks like we finally agree on something!

Yes they are amazing. I'd say that 70-80% of the models I now work with are from Eastern Europe, in particular Poland, Latvia, Slovakia, Croatia and Russia. There's just something about the girls from this region, they are so naturally beautiful, so willing to go that extra mile for great looks. Many of them are top notch with their own make-up thus negating the need for MUA's, and most importantly they generally don't have any hang ups, and aren't particularly shy either!

All the right ingredients for amazing looks!

I think I might move to Riga!

I know, right?

J D R Photography wrote:
I've been away from MM from a couple of years.  I have recently started browsing again and trying to make contacts and what I am finding is that many many many people are now only checking their page every 3-6 months...and some are away. (Yes I was away too).  It also seems that a lot of the people that were on here in the past are gone and the over all numbers of people in my area has dwindled.

Is anybody else experiencing this or is this just my imagination?  I'm not trying to knock MM, just curious as to what the issue is and why.

I have only been really active here he past year or so and have found MM to be a great way to make new contacts and book shoots. It could be more up to date technically, however, all the right tools are there for photographers to find local or travelling models for all their needs.

I have no complaints.

SAND DIAL wrote:

Perhaps those who are unresponsive do not log in any more.
MM would be better if accounts inactive for a year were closed.

I also think a thinning would be beneficial.  Perhaps a free membership for three months, then a modest $5/year minimum to demonstrate a sincere interest.

kickfight wrote:
My experience is that it's not just on MM but pretty much everywhere, including CL and social-media-based interactions as well. What used to be rather straightforward and streamlined as recently as 2014 has apparently become an obstacle course for a whole lot of people since then. Getting shoots set up involves a lot more back-n-forth exchanges and last-minute deferrals than it used to just a couple of years ago; from a purely-anecdotal basis it feels to me like folks are just having to deal with a lot more churn and randomization in their lives recently, causing them to re-prioritize how much time and toil modeling and/or photography takes up. Not sure what the deal is on a fundamental basis, but yes...  things have changed dramatically. I feel fortunate to be averaging a couple of shoots a month as always, but have several in a nebulous pending state going back to early October, and that's definitely a new wronkle.

I know you say that you don't know what the deal is but you must have some theories.

Because, yes, setting up a shoot has devolved into a lot of people asking tons of questions, hemming and hawing, amd generally not seeming to be able to tell their ass from their elbow. At least compared to a few years back.

Guss W wrote:

I also think a thinning would be beneficial.  Perhaps a free membership for three months, then a modest $5/year minimum to demonstrate a sincere interest.

Definitely.

pixpal wrote:
I am not sure if the mentioned decline started when mayhem switched to the new front page look.
I recall no one liked it, I still prefer the old look for both front page and mystuff and settings.
a lot faster on slow connections.

I think MM declined after they relaxed profile approvals a lot.

I agree with both observations.  It has been in decline in my area where everyone now uses FB groups to network.  We used to have an annual MM Christmas party that was well attended. Now no one is on MM much to network.  I think MM might need to change somehow to adapt, I just don't know how.  It is still the best platform for contacting models outside your geographic area.

Koryn wrote:
Like no one will actually believe you are who you say you are. My website is ALL me, every single photo is me. My MM port is relatively recent. Stats are updated. No, the cell phone snaps were not taken "a few years ago." My skin looks "good for my age" because it IS really good for my age.

I do feel like the INTEGRITY of the people here has gone down. And their willingness to trust each other, and build ongoing, meaningful professional relationships. The vibe in the air is skeptical and hostile, like everyone thinks you're trying to pull something over on them and you have to go to extreme lengths to prove that you're not going to commit a murder or something.  Now they want to ask you questions and for cell phone photos by text, and your phone is exploding all day, while they think of random things to ask, like "How long are your toenails" (when you were not even planning a foot shoot). In years past, I expected some people to email me well-written, pre-booking questionnaires, covering topics such as personal grooming and the like. Not 42 million text messages, all asking about different things - often the same things, over and over in different words.

I have the same experience here, increasing circular conversations, repeated questions that have already been answered, and just a general way of going about things that seems more about making some point instead of getting things done. Not universally, but with increasing frequency.  The last two years have been much better for me with CL ads to get models or people approaching me who had seen my work.

The last time I ran a CL ad I got several good responses along with the usual bunch that weren't interested after I gave full information. Usual and understandable. And then there's one model who took half a dozen emails to ask; about the pay, the content, can it be implied, are outfits needed, what times, and then wanted to negotiate off the answers to the questions, everyone of which had already been answered in the ad and the first email. And, of course, she was someone from MM. And, of course, she drifted off, just like she had done 2 years earlier in a message thread we had here.

It's just part of the culture of this site.

Koryn wrote:
I know you say that you don't know what the deal is but you must have some theories.

Because, yes, setting up a shoot has devolved into a lot of people asking tons of questions, hemming and hawing, amd generally not seeming to be able to tell their ass from their elbow. At least compared to a few years back.

Well, my point was that I don't know if something got altered at a fundamental level, from which everyone's approach necessarily gets altered as a result (and not for the better)... or if there are just a whole lot of various randomizing elements that can affect people's availability or even their interest on a number of different levels in 2016 which weren't there (or were non-issues) in, say, 2012. I honestly don't know. I could speculate, but that's really all it would be: speculation.

Rik Williams wrote:
.
IMHO, MM developed a reputation all of it's own in the modeling world which has been it's undoing and it's no wonder. For way too long MM has let it's standards slip with regard to talent and content, it has essentially become a hub for softcore porn artists and fanatics alike, it's become a site most in the fashion industry wish to avoid.

This of course has encouraged a market for those wishing to make a living posing for anyone willing to pay and there's nothing wrong with that. However it opens the floodgates for creeps with a little cash, a camera and the desire to take snaps of nekid ladies. Unfortunately most of these GWC's have few ideals or aspirations and next to no talent or inclination to improve, but ultimately fall under the banner of photographer as a consequence of camera ownership.

I tend to disagree with you and here's why:

I was one of the people who made a living posing for "anyone who's willing to pay," and I did that for many years. Because there was good money to be made that way (5-8 years ago), many young women during the financial crash years and the years immediately following got on board as well. I did, and I was able to build a life that way when other types of work simply wasn't available for younger people, or didn't pay enough to live on. There was, years ago, plenty of what you guys called "GWC shoots" on here and you could make a few hundred bucks at a time. It was EASY to find those gigs here back then, and as a result, models were joining in droves and many of us became full-timers and committed traveling models. That was a large part of what built the creative culture and community of MM in the early years. There was money to be made, and a bunch of young women with few responsibilities back wherever they'd grow up, decided to take advantage of it. Hosting photographers around the country provided places for us to sleep and bounce between photographers' private homes, in exchange for shoots, and it resulted in an underground economy of people making money and therefore being able to create genuinely good work (not as frequently for money)  in their spare time, with friends who were shooting and traveling together, and while staying with host photographers.

This was the base that BUILT MM. I don't know why, but a lot of the "GWC shoots" are gone, the paying shoots are gone and the hosting/traveling community has dissolved because they no longer have the income-earning shoots to be able to do it.

I was on the road as recently as a year ago. And I will tell you that EVERYTHING has changed. It used to be quite easy to keep a full schedule and actively use MM to get reliable paid work - and to find people to stay with - but it's neither anymore. That underground network and economy is gone and people can't use it to make ends meet financially or creatively anymore, so they've left. MM thrived for so many years because of the cheesy paid glamour shoots and the fetish video work that all of us full-time models lived off of back then. With that gone, there's no longer a way to keep moving and traveling effectively from this site. That means fewer people are interested in staying around.

Perhaps your perspective is different since you are in a different country, but a bit less than ten years ago our economy was so bad, people were losing their homes and living wage work was nearly impossible to find for a lot of younger, self-supporting women. This led to a strange combination of factors that created both a community and cottage industry on MM. Anywhere there's money and work, communities will grow. When the money leaves, the communities dissolve

Rik Williams wrote:
The whole vibe of Model Mayhem has changed over the last few years.

I can remember speaking with some very talented professionals here in the forums and receiving invaluable feedback from them ...now but a handful remain and most seem reluctant to give an honest opinion for fear of causing waves with trolls.
And from what I can gather, a lot of the serious/professional models associated with agencies left years ago under advisement from their employers. Don't get me wrong, there are still agency models about, but a lot of the ones I know of or have worked with have either cancelled accounts or rarely/never visit.
IMHO, MM developed a reputation all of it's own in the modeling world which has been it's undoing and it's no wonder. For way too long MM has let it's standards slip with regard to talent and content, it has essentially become a hub for softcore porn artists and fanatics alike, it's become a site most in the fashion industry wish to avoid.

This of course has encouraged a market for those wishing to make a living posing for anyone willing to pay and there's nothing wrong with that. However it opens the floodgates for creeps with a little cash, a camera and the desire to take snaps of nekid ladies. Unfortunately most of these GWC's have few ideals or aspirations and next to no talent or inclination to improve, but ultimately fall under the banner of photographer as a consequence of camera ownership.

If you stop to think about it, one can easily see how a poorly managed environment like this can and will evolve/devolve into a stomping ground for many with questionable motives and those who are happy to take their money.

I recently saw a thread here regarding the unprofessional things photographers say to models, it was pretty sad, but with the picture painted above, is it any wonder?

I blame the parent!!

Blame the parent? Sure, it's fun and there's been enough management blunders to make a good case as that for the primary cause. But it's worth noting that "the parent" has become noticeably more and more restrictive over the years. If you go back to threads from the beginning years of MM, when the site was vital, growing and active, you can find many discussions of how POV and fetish with sexual acts is, or isn't, acceptable as modeling, or art, or  whatever, but it clearly was part of the community at the start. As was a good deal of very thinly disguised networking for hard core and adult work, along with fashion art, and just independent wackiness. The arc at the site over the years has been to pull back from edgier and more overtly sexual displays and conversations. The site is pretty tepid these days compared to it's past and continues to move more in the same direction.

Not that the moves seem to do much to halt the decline in the reputation, which, I agree is generally bad.

Hey, do you remember a little while back when MM started sending notices to folks who were asking about nude shoots in private messages? Some sort of automatic flagging program with a very poorly worded and threatening message being sent. I'm sure the whole thing seemed brilliant to someone(s) at corporate headquarters, the sort of action that shows a zero tolerance policy regarding sexual harassment. A good intention, but unfortunately it also showed a total cluelessness regarding what sort of community is served by the platform, how features are used, and what activities are commonly engaged in by the members.

Anyway, yeah, the parent is a corporate drone responding to advertising guidelines and legal pressures. Community? Good luck with that.

Jeffrey M Fletcher wrote:
. If you go back to threads from the beginning years of MM, when the site was vital, growing and active, you can find many discussions of how POV and fetish with sexual acts is, or isn't, acceptable as modeling, or art, or  whatever, but it clearly was part of the community at the start. As was a good deal of very thinly disguised networking for hard core and adult work, along with fashion art, and just independent wackiness. The arc at the site over the years has been to pull back from edgier and more overtly sexual displays and conversations. The site is pretty tepid these days compared to it's past and continues to move more in the same direction..

Yes, agreed

MM was, from the time I became active here in 2007 through about 2012 or so, a very open environment, regarding people who worked on the periphery of the adult industry. And by "periphery," I mean fetish work, arts erotica and what many would refer to as softcore . Fetish content videos, and reasonable rates and expectations for that sort of thing, was just commonplace banter on the forums. It was also easy work for a lot of the full-time traveling models, who kept themselves afloat with the low-hanging fruit (fetish and light erotic content booked through MM and the like), then shot more arts focused and artistically interesting content with others from the site. That sort of dual networking practice was just the norm, and totally accepted. HOWEVER, it was extremely rare that I was personally ever approached about anything "hardcore" here, or for hard pornography. It happened a couple of times, but very rare. Instead, there was a lot of spanking clips, foot fetish, bondage and very soft female/female domination work available through here. None of that was considered inappropriate to book here, or talk about openly, only a few years ago.

It's rare that people talk about this stuff here anymore, or that models network for it. It's almost taboo, and sometimes people from MM seem shocked that I - an "art model" - did explicit erotic content, or fetish videos. But, almost all of us were doing that stuff back then - and talking about. It's only been within the past few years that MM has seemingly sought to distance itself from light erotic content. This means less money, less work for both models and photographers...and when the work and the money leaves a community, the community falls apart.

pixpal wrote:
I am not sure if the mentioned decline started when mayhem switched to the new front page look.
I recall no one liked it, I still prefer the old look for both front page and mystuff and settings.
a lot faster on slow connections.

I think MM declined after they relaxed profile approvals a lot.

Just an FYI, profile approvals have NOT relaxed. In fact, just the opposite. There are lots of criteria (more than there used to be) that must be passed. Unfortunately, some people figure out how to get thru, then they flake off.

Patrick Walberg wrote:

Your thinking is outdated by at least 10 years and perhaps nearly 20 years.   The old days of carrying around a portfolio of 8 x 10's or 11 x 14's to "go see's" has gone the way of shooting film and hiring models from agencies, although I have never hired a model though an agency although I've worked with agency signed models.  All the major agencies are online.  Models carry their images on thumb drives.  Most photographers shoot digital although there are a few hold outs for film.  The vast majority of "actual" models are online with profiles on social networking websites.  Selfies are nothing to sneeze at as there are models who use selfies for marketing.  As crazy as it may seem, I even some models who make a direct profit from selfies.  At the very least, the use of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube make for great marketing tools. I'm on all of those sites.  Sometimes I even take selfies.

Looking at many sucessiful models in Instagram, several of them have more photographs showing their life style and selfies in bathroom and parties, than actual photos from photos shoots.

I don't get how they get so many follower. Why people are so interested on seeing model doing duckface in their bathroom, gym and disco? I think it is all boring.

Few models actually dedicate their Instagram to show their work, which interest me more.

Koryn wrote:

Yes, agreed

MM was, from the time I became active here in 2007 through about 2012 or so, a very open environment, regarding people who worked on the periphery of the adult industry. And by "periphery," I mean fetish work, arts erotica and what many would refer to as softcore . Fetish content videos, and reasonable rates and expectations for that sort of thing, was just commonplace banter on the forums. It was also easy work for a lot of the full-time traveling models, who kept themselves afloat with the low-paying fruit (fetish and light erotic content booked through MM and the like), then shot more arts focused and artistically interesting content with others from the site. That sort of dual networking practice was just the norm, and totally accepted. HOWEVER, it was extremely rare that I was personally ever approached about anything "hardcore" here, or for hard pornography. It happened a couple of times, but very rare. Instead, there was a lot of spanking clips, foot fetish, bondage and very soft female/female domination work available through here. None of that was considered inappropriate to book here, or talk about openly, only a few years ago.

It's rare that people talk about this stuff here anymore, or that models network for it. It's almost taboo, and sometimes people from MM seem shocked that I - an "art model" - did explicit erotic content, or fetish videos. But, almost all of us were doing that stuff back then - and talking about. It's only been within the past few years that MM has seemingly sought to distance itself from light erotic content. This means less money, less work for both models and photographers...and when the work and the money leaves a community, the community falls apart.

Thank you, that's an excellent history.