God, the more I think about it, the more I have to say.
First off--talking smack about Boleyn Models is hard. I started out on StripperWeb and Boleyn has a huge presence there. They're the only studio that really does, honestly, and people sing their praises. It probably stems from Katy more or less building the studio by word-of-mouth with heavy help from the forum. Factor in that, quite recently, one of their new staffers became the primary moderator for the camming subforum and I wouldn't dare talk smack there if you paid me. ACF is different because they have no presence at all here, and I find that super weird given that they're on ALL the social media but ACF. I still find it awkward to discuss old grievances because it feels like you risk your neck to do it. So please bare with me because I'm expecting someone to stab me with a pitchfork just writing this right now.
I started with Boleyn when it was very new. Katy was super helpful and I signed on with SM before adding a few other sites as they made new studios. Initially, she told me that if I wanted to leave in the future, it'd be an automatic release and I could take the account I'd made with me. Flash forward to my first attempt to leave and I'm told that's no longer true. At that point I got some mixed message about it never being true and me misunderstanding, then it was that no one had ever tried to leave the studio until recently and so they had only just discovered what SM support's take on the process was. I was miffed that no one bothered to check that in advance or communicate the information after, but sort of shrugged it off even though not being able to take your account with you is a huge pain in the ass (loss of comments, tags, ratings, placement, gold shows, settings, etc. is a huge PITA).
Then a girl showed up on SW soon after and voiced the same concern/frustrations. She was immediately shot down by Katy and half of the forum as having misunderstood, and the entire exchange was pretty rude (oh, that's where my fear comes from--ha!). I chimed in with my own experience politely and suggested Boleyn send out an email when policy changes like that were discovered. Within half an hour, I got a private message from Katy that basically said 'how dare you imply we don't do things above board.' It was a punch in the gut. I felt uncomfortable asking about things for months after that, but it was my only major run in with them personally.
Then there was that insane email about doing drugs on cam, asking for advances while high, insulting/being rude to Boleyn support while high and asking for advances. Really just the craziest fucking email. Everyone who read it was taken aback. Katy and occasionally her husband wrote the support emails for the first few years, but I think one of their new staffers is doing it now and they're, uh, a
trip these days.
Then I got to ACF and just wow. There are a lot of issues, big and small, that I've seen both in the public and MO sections. I would never have imagined it, honestly. Yeah, they're still the best studio out there, but as Amber put it the lesser of all evils still has some evil in it. They're good most of the time, but when it's bad it's a
mess.
Why do some models choose to use studios?
Why? Two reasons--flashy graphics and false promises (99% of the time) or a real service (1% of the time). If you google 'become a camgirl,' basically every single link on the first two pages of results is for an affiliate or studio sign up. They'll say their site pays 75-80% and have fancy graphics so you sign up, then you realize later down the road that it was 75-80% of what you'd have gotten if you'd had the direct sign up link buried on page 20 and, unless you find a camming forum beforehand, a lot of ladies fall into that trap and end up giving a percentage of their earnings to a virtual pimp for life. Oh, and good luck leaving--once you've signed with a studio, even accidentally, the waiting time to leave is 6-12 months, if you're allowed to start over independently at all (looking at you, Cam$harks and InternetM0deling! You're top notch SCUM!).
As actual services go, daily pay and physical studios are the biggies. Some sites have shitty payout systems (SM is a huge dumpster fire that still doesn't offer actual ACH) or some ladies are desperate to get paid
now because they need to pay their rent. Some ladies don't have the equipment, space, privacy, or legal right to work from home (Romanian models are basically all in studios for that reason) so they pay a fee to a studio for access. That's a small percentage of studios overall though.
Final Thoughts--lest you all forget this,
studios do not exist only for your benefit. They are not some force for good that is here only for you and your needs.
They exist to make money. In the best case scenarios, they also help you out but don't confuse them as being your friends. That's a rookie mistake I've personally made.
