Why no mention of this forum on the main page?

[Jeffrey99]

Hello guys, newb here. Was a former member of FTV who signed back up recently. However I was just wondering why this forum seems to be hidden? I just happened to stumble across it after checking out the Voting section for the first time. Just happened to see the one text link at the top, otherwise I'd still probably think there was no forum. I think it'd benefit FTV to make it known that A) there is a members forum B) a link form the main page so it's easy to get to.

Anyway glad I stumbled across this forum, just wish I would have known it was here sooner.

[FTVGirls_Rob]

I guess I could put a link to the forum on the updates page, but definitely not on the free tour. Also I find that I prefer the hardcore member types who 'find their way here' than just random visitors at this point.

[Jeffrey99]

I guess I could put a link to the forum on the updates page, but definitely not on the free tour. Also I find that I prefer the hardcore member types who 'find their way here' than just random visitors at this point.

I understand not wanting it on the free tour but it could be put under the Welcome Members, where it has sneak peak, ftv challenge and super sized pics. Or make it like other sites, where even if you bookmarked the forum, you'd have to be a member to have access.

I just know review sites have knocked the site for not having a members forum. Hell I've even docked it points for not having a members forum. Anyway it's cool. Just found it strange there was a actual link to Alison's on her main page, so that's why I figured FTV didn't have one since I never saw a link.

[FTVGirls_Rob]

But Jeff, about your review on thebestporn, regarding updates, like I've said before on this board, just look at the sheer volume/size of these updates. Example, the current Danielle/Leslie update could be split up into at least 5 updates in comparo to what a competitor does in what it calls an 'update'. I could fool the members and make updates daily or every two days, by splitting what I shoot up into smaller parts, but then it wouldn't be FTV.

So I wish you and reviewers in general would understand this, the comprehensive nature of these shoots aren't a 'hello-goodbye' thanks-for-shooting that generic masturbation scene in the overused studio and gimme my pay ive done my half hour already video.

[Jeffrey99]

But Jeff, about your review on thebestporn, regarding updates, like I've said before on this board, just look at the sheer volume/size of these updates. Example, the current Danielle/Leslie update could be split up into at least 5 updates in comparo to what a competitor does in what it calls an 'update'. I could fool the members and make updates daily or every two days, by splitting what I shoot up into smaller parts, but then it wouldn't be FTV.

So I wish you and reviewers in general would understand this, the comprehensive nature of these shoots aren't a 'hello-goodbye' thanks-for-shooting that generic masturbation scene in the overused studio and gimme my pay ive done my half hour already video.
First, my review is on PornUsers. Which is a general public review site, which was created by TheBestPorn. So just wanting to point out that I'm no way affiliated with TheBestPorn.

And if you look at my review, the updates was the least of my concerns. Another member had mentioned $29.95 was worth it for a site that updates 6-7 times a week, I was just pointing out that FTV doesn't update 6-7times a week. I really have no problem with the update and I will agree, compared to other sites, they would release each gallery as a separate update.

If you look at my review, my biggest problems where the user forum, which I see you actually have(so need to edit that outta there) and the image quality. I just thought for $29.95 the image quality is lacking, now for $20, FTV is probably the best site on the net for that price.

[CK1]

There are some site that look they they were shot with a Cell phone. other look like someone with a nervous tick is working the camera. and it seems like its the same scene with different girls. or they have a gimmick that gets old after the first two videos. FTV picks great looking girls and shoots them beautifully without being scripted. Honestly just to avoid the BS sites and poor quality of material that other sites offer, i think it is worth the extra money to be a member for FTV. Just my opinion.

[FTVGirls_Rob]

ahh... I'm 37 years old. I remember the days when I thought it was value if I got 3 hustlers for the price of one, and so getting about 100 pics for $10. Or getting the special 5 one hour VHS videos for $40.

Nowadays $30 is too expensive even if there is 100s of hours of video and a gazillion photos ahahaaha. I think one would go broke if it was any cheaper. My bandwidth alone: $55,000 a month.

This much porn for less than $1 a day?

[Anoree]

If you look at my review, my biggest problems where the user forum, which I see you actually have(so need to edit that outta there) and the image quality. I just thought for $29.95 the image quality is lacking, now for $20, FTV is probably the best site on the net for that price.

Huh? You are complaining about FTV's Image quality?!?
I've been around on the internet for about 20 years now, and still have to come to an adult site which has better image quality than FTV.

Sure, you can pull out one of the first shots and then complain about image size, or draw a public shoot and complain about lighting. But they have always been of the best available at the time of release and still are. And these aren't studio shoots, where you can have lighting set up to blind the models. Especially the public shoots have to be made in a way not to draw attention. So no flashes. FTV's shoots are genuine and that's a part of their appeal to me.

Apart from the photos, the site is named First Time Videos and the video quality has nowhere been better. Rob has been on the edge of the possible throughout the years.

A last word about the update schedule: I prefer having a shoot come out in one bundle over having to wait for weeks until everything is finally available together.

I think FTV is worth every cent I spend on it.

[FTVfanatic]

I just thought for $29.95 the image quality is lacking, now for $20, FTV is probably the best site on the net for that price.

What? I mean, seriously, you say that image quality is your concern with FTV and it's lacking somehow?

Yeah, right. That's like taking a Lamborghini for a test drive and then saying that "for the price the performance is lacking!" I admit that everyone is entitled to their own opinion but claiming that image quality is lacking at FTV is just, well, I have no words to describe it.

Do you prefer the airbrushed images found somewhere else; it's so great when the models look like non-living plastic dolls, isn't it? :rolleyes: Is that good image quality? Is it quality to not see the pores on model's face?

[ugo]

Im agree with Anoree and Rob.:)


Thanks to the site of a beauty as Alison's, then I have admired the cleverness of Rob. I am now still happy to be from Rob for another girl as Danielle.
From other parts of the naked internet it seems indeed me rare to see "another Rob". And then it is rare also the neat chat with these beautiful girls of FTVGirls.
I believe that FTVGirls has the right to win the Oscar of the clean nude in the porno world.

[Jeffrey99]

When speaking of image quality, I'm not talking about lighting or any thing like that. I'm talking about resolution alone. Seriously, Rob has shown by having the "BigPics" he has the images in that resolution. Why not do what sites like ALS Scan do and offer both avalable to download for every image? For example ALS images are 2592x3888px, which is DOUBLE the size of FTV. Ron Harris is 2912x4368 which is almost 3x the size of FTV.

And I know it's called First Time Videos (which some aren't first timers), it's kinda impossible not to mention the image size in a review. If there was no BigPics available, then I wouldn't have made that big of deal about it.

I guess I just come from a different part of America, I'm just looking for the best bang for the buck.

I also rated the site a 91, so it's not liked I dogged it. I pointed out the pros and the cons, which any real review should.

[FTVfanatic]

When speaking of image quality, I'm not talking about lighting or any thing like that. I'm talking about resolution alone.

Thanks for the clarification and sorry I didn't realize that to you image quality equals resolution. To me those are different things.

Now I can see why you are wanting more of the BigPics. And who doesn't? Rob's BigPics are absolutely gorgeous.

[danielle_ftv]

Now let's stop fighting boys ;) Free love everyone!

[FTVGirls_Rob]

I can post the originals at the 4300x3200 or so resolution my D3 delivers, but everyone has jumped on this supersized pic bandwagon. The truth is, 90% of members don't care if that's going on, but it seems that the most hardcore photo guys are obsessed with larger and larger images -- they also happen to be the most vocal on message boards, review sites, etc...

I run on one of the largest Dell screens available: 30 inch widescreen, and at a desktop resolution of 1920x1080. Even my photos can't completely be seen without scrolling up and down on this monitor. What is the practical value of a picture that is so big you can only see 1/8 of it on your screen? Let alone the download time per pic?

Like I said, most members don't care if its any bigger, and even some ask why are the images so big etc. but the most vocal ones...

[Jeffrey99]

I can post the originals at the 4300x3200 or so resolution my D3 delivers, but everyone has jumped on this supersized pic bandwagon. The truth is, 90% of members don't care if that's going on, but it seems that the most hardcore photo guys are obsessed with larger and larger images -- they also happen to be the most vocal on message boards, review sites, etc...

I run on one of the largest Dell screens available: 30 inch widescreen, and at a desktop resolution of 1920x1080. Even my photos can't completely be seen without scrolling up and down on this monitor. What is the practical value of a picture that is so big you can only see 1/8 of it on your screen? Let alone the download time per pic?

Like I said, most members don't care if its any bigger, and even some ask why are the images so big etc. but the most vocal ones...
I guess my problem is, why can't the member decide what images, if any they want in the BigPics? One thing I don't like know about the BigPics is the fact that I have to download a full zip, when I may only want 1 or 2.

The main reason I like bigger images is mainly for the landscape photos. My screen is 1440x900, so images from the Melissa April 08 set are only 1200. Or images from like 05 are only 1072x712. So there really is no way, without upscaling it and distorting it, to make those images work good as a background.

I'll agree 100% that images that big in portrait really are kinda useless. And I agree that not every image should only be available in that size. Some people don't like images that big and I understand that. But I don't think in todays age that anybody would be worried about download time. I realize some people still have dialup but even images that size wouldn't take as long to download as movies.

I guess my biggest thing is that I'd like to have control over what BigPics I can download, instead of only having select ones in a zip file.

EDIT: By the way, I don't want this to come off like I hate the site or anything. I wanna think Rob for taking the time to actually respond and talk to us members on the board. I got that feeling when I was a member of Alison's site, that he was interested in what the members thought. I know not everyone in this business would do that.

[FTVGirls_Rob]

Hey Jeff, indeed don't think I'm upset or had a problem with your review; actually I'm happy you did, it makes FTV the 2nd most reviewed site on thebestporn.com haha.

I just wish that there would be more talk about the video intimacy, style of video, and such -- even down to the model narrations that does not exist anywhere else. If some other company/photographer could truly emulate what I do, I would jump with joy, and hire him/them and retire (or at least take a break!).

[geolarson2]

For what its worth, the supersized images are gorgeous, but its not like I can view them on my monitor without having to scroll, and so what I wind up viewing is just a portion of the image, not the whole image. And printing a full-sized image isn't all that practical, unless you own your own large format, a la a Prograf. And for what its worth, I don't mind the zipped photos--I prefer them, actually as I can download them all at one swoop, then go through them and decide which I prefer. For me it saves a lot of time. I've steadily worked my way back since I joined in Sept 08 to the point where I'm now dealing with single images and with AVI video. It would be great, from my perspective, if Rob could go back and zip those "ancient" photos up and convert the AVI video to WMP, but I sincerely don't think he has the time for that. One of the great things about FTV, one of those prime reasons why I chose to join this site and no one else, was that Rob is the vision behind FTV, this is his baby, his concept. When he goes, if he turns control of FTV over to someone else, then it will become something other than what we see now (duh). The site, if you go back and look at the photos and videos from 2003 and compare them to what we saw in 2008 and so for in 2009, has really grown with a more and more refined taste and feel to it. I am sincerely impressed with the amount of time and effort Rob has put into this site, and I am just as impressed with virtually every woman who has posed for him and allowed Rob to document those intimate moments for our voyeuristic pleasure--its a level of intimacy I haven't seen in any of the previews for other sites I looked at while shopping around for that one "porn" site I wanted join. Not only that, but some of the other sites I looked at, those based in Europe in particular, seemed to have more of a detached quality about them--multiple photographers contributing to a very high quality clearinghouse of erotica, but without that sense of "danger" Rob and the gentlewomen he works with experience flashing in a sandwich or pizza joint--America still has that Puritanical aspect to our culture that makes sex "dirty" so when you see a woman in America being a woman and delighting in that freedom we all talk about, really living it, it takes on a whole other aspect to it than you get when watching the same thing coming out of Europe where, I understand, you can have nude women walking around St. Petersburg or laying on a nude beach in Portugal or Italy. I noticed that even when some of those gentlewomen from Europe come over to the US to work for Rob they actually seem to open up a little more or glance around a little more, feel a little more thrill than they might in Europe because American culture is still more repressed sexually. Anyway, I think I got off on a tangent there, but still I think you (yeah you, that's right you--jk ;)) get the point.