SHARPES, Fla. - Although it has retained its frisky, youthful joie de vivre, pioneering gay adult website Badpuppy turned 12 years old Thursday. As Marketing and Advertising Manager Lisa Turner pointed out, "that's 84 in dog years!" Funny—it doesn't look a day over 3.
"Badpuppy turning 12 is a very wonderful feeling," said Badpuppy Chief Executive Officer Bill Pinyon. "The longevity and success we've enjoyed I attribute to my life partner, Steven Wojcik, and the incredible staff we have; a good number of them have been with us for 10 years or longer. Having very little turnover and the incredible relationship and support we all share plays a huge role in what we've accomplished and where we go from here."
Pinyon recalled Badpuppy's humble beginnings with fond nostalgia and something akin to awe.
"To think it all started in early 1995 as a hobby, based out of my bedroom, from a single computer—which was an Intel 486-based computer," he said. "Maybe it had a 40MB hard drive, and if it had 640k of memory, we were lucky. There was no Internet for home use at the time, so it was controlled through a 1,200-baud modem, and the software that controlled it was Wildcat BBS. To be able to realize that it has grown into the huge, high-tech network it has, simply put, takes my breath away."
Pinyon laughed and recalled a time when he thought Badpuppy might have been a bad idea. Today, he couldn't be happier with Badpuppy's success and longevity.
"Every single day I remember where I came from and am thankful for everything I have," he said. "It has taken a lot of work and patience, but if I had to do it over again, I would."
Turner, who has been on the Badpuppy team for more than 10 years, said today's Badpuppy hardly resembles Badpuppy in its youth. She said the room Badpuppy's employees call the "War Room" is beyond impressive, and it's difficult for her to believe it grew out of a humble computer bulletin board system.
"We now have two OC-3 lines connecting us to the Internet," she explained. "Each line is capable of 155 Mbps—total 310 Mbps, full duplex. We currently are utilizing about 50 percent of capacity. The two OC-3 lines are connected via an AccuRing OC-12 from our building to AT&T. This means if the fiber-optic line gets cut, our traffic is automatically rerouted to the other part of the ring. Results: We do not go down—ever.
"We also have an 85-KW generator—larger than several cars and some trucks on the market—which will power the entire building in case of power failure," Turner continued. "We have fuel on site to last for four days without having to refuel."
That sort of emergency preparedness can be extremely useful, especially for companies in Florida's "Hurricane Alley."
"Back in 2004, when four major hurricanes crossed our path in Florida—during one of the storms power in the area was out for nine days, but thanks to our trusty generator, Badpuppy never went down," Turner revealed. "As a matter of fact, half the employees, their loved ones, and pets were sheltered from the storm here at Badpuppy, and many remained until power was back on in their homes."
Tuner said that sort of "extended-family" atmosphere is par for the course at Badpuppy, and the company does its best to extend the sentiment to its customers, as well.
"All of our servers are hyperthreaded Dell PowerEdge servers," she disclosed. "Every server has a disk configuration of RAID-5, and the servers have two 1Gbps [network interface cards]. This all makes for fast response to customers' requests of the websites, and fast sites make for happy, long-term members."
In addition, "We continue to offer a huge amount of diverse content," Turner said. "There's something for everyone. Because the members enjoy multiple content updates every day, around the clock, and can contact our customer support team 24/7, it makes Badpuppy stand out from all of the rest."
Both Pinyon and Turner hinted that bigger things are on the way for Badpuppy and its sister site, video-on-demand company Dog Gone Video , and both expressed gratitude not only for loyal members, but also to the adult entertainment industry at large.
Don't worry, Badpuppy. Regardless how old you get, you'll always be a puppy at heart.
GayVN
- By
