Friday, June 23, 2006 - Meetings

We’ve been in meetings all week with our staff, our partners, and our legal team. The reason? Plotting a course and an overall strategy for the Independent Sites. The big issue? Establishing balance in everything that we do.
The job board on this site and the audition boards on the others were greatly debated. There is no question that we are able to put together the best modeling/ entertainment industry job board on this site and that we will be able to get to the next level by late this year. The question that we debated was “should we”?
With decentralization a big mission on the content theme of the sites, hosting a dedicated job board would seem to contradict that. We do need this, however, simply as one of many “lighting rods” to attract regular visitors to the site and as a support measure for the foundation of the site. Additionally, there are plans for our partners to use things like our job board. We’ve also put a lot of work into this feature, too, as well as other highly refined features throughout this site and our sister sites. This said, we did decide to proceed with the job board, although we will be putting most of our work into assisting professional models finding work on their own with a series of excellent tools rather than hinge everything on this job board. We will also be utilizing professional discretion on the jobs that we do post and the contacts that we will place in the TALON Database. Jobs like TFP from amateurs (established professionals ONLY), teen modeling web sites, jobs that obviously exploit models in some way, jobs where models serve as scantily-clad “eye candy” on boats and “business” trips, pseudo porn jobs, model networking schemes, jobs where models have to do things that models normally don’t do (such as wrestle), nude and/or “glamour” modeling jobs, bikini modeling jobs that may be unethical or unprofessional, and other questionable jobs will not be placed on our board, regardless of their legality. Our standards exceed those that the law defines, and we reserve the right to refuse posting any job without cause or reason given. If we have to ask more than three questions regarding the job or the business practices of the posting party, you can bet that we will refuse to post the job. It is critical that we keep professional standards high on our job boards, as we have plans to attract the best modeling jobs in the near future. The only thing that happens when you go for quantity rather quality is that you undermine any chance of our job board setting standards and being taken seriously by the professionals who count. We will attract quality businesses posting a majority of legitimate modeling jobs and serious professional models who know that they won’t have to shift through a ton of job offers that are either career-killers wastes of time. This said, we cannot, and will not, be held legally liable for any job contracted through our job boards. We do not assume any responsibility. Our intentions are to keep the quality high and to keep what is there professional. Obviously, being selective about what jobs we will post will eliminate 75% of all model job posts that are currently on model job boards, and we wouldn't have it any other way. At first, however, you can expect a lot of promotional modeling jobs, and we will be attracting more print jobs later.
TALON ties into this, too. We will be selective as to who is listed in this database, and we reserve the right to refuse to add or delete any database profiles without a given cause or reason. Fortunately, there are a LOT of qualified, legitimate professionals out there, and we won’t have a shortage of professionals to add to the database. The question that we have about TALON, however, is one of curiosity rather than concern. What will those who are less than professional do when all of their professional competition is listed and they are not? It’s all about providing professional alternatives to what everyone seems to be doing, people, and you can rest assured that this move will hurt unethical people in the industry by driving business away from them, and we find it amusing.
We also spent a lot of time discussing content and good ideas that are presented on the site, and the proof that we have that unethical and unprofessional people in the industry have stolen things from us in order to pass it off as their own while telling people that this site is some sort of scam. Well, what can you do? While we do have plans to take action against the big offenders, we have decided that to curb the information that we have on this site so others cannot take it and use it in an unethical manner would do more harm than good; we would be giving hostile parties the ability to censor us while they continue to use material that they have already taken. By leaving content up, we provide a reference of its true source. When those who have been misled finally check out our site and meet our partners, the unprofessional people who lied to them look really bad, and the professional relationship built of lies is shattered.
We want people to talk bad about us. They cut their own throats. We are truly the good guys in the industry. We are true professionals. It will backfire when those who they lie to eventually discover the truth, which is that we are the victims of theft and we have been vilified for doing the right thing. We will continue to help models, make people accountable for what they do, and raise the bar of professionalism in the industry regardless of what anyone says, thinks, or does. Most who complain about us are simply professionally insecure and are frustrated that we have a louder and more respected voice in the industry than they have or ever will.
Let the long fight for what is right begin.

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