Depending on which industry veteran you talk to, anywhere from 50 - 90 percent of the industry won't be around next year. "Veteran" is an arbitrary word though, since there are people who have been Webmastering for four years and still consider themselves newbies, either because they aren't well known in the biz, or aren't making an outstanding income. I consider a veteran anyone who's been involved in the biz for three years or longer, where their primary source of income and more than half of their work hours are dedicated to the adult Internet.
Granted there are new people coming into the biz all of the time, whether models, Webmasters, or consumers, but there's no denying that the "face" of our industry changes on a regular basis. Various companies who showed up in full force at industry shows a year ago now don't even attend. "Players" who seemed untouchable are now either forgotten, disregarded, or long gone. People bet on when certain prominent companies will go under; they gossip about who's doing who, who's shaving, and who's next to be fired. I'm not saying that any of this is particularly wrong per se, but it's part of how things work and how the game is played. Of course, the opposite is true too, in that there are plenty of seemingly overnight success stories in our biz as well.
A practice that's always disturbed me is how rude and nasty people can get on chat boards, and worse, how Webmasters can take what is being said there so much to heart. Webmasters regularly ask my opinion about a certain company or person, and unfortunately they sometimes only have what they read on an industry chat board to go on in forming their opinions. I've been involved in the industry for going on three years now, so I feel I have a pretty decent grasp of whom you can trust in our biz. I often tell people this: Do you personally know the person who said what they said? Do they hide behind the veil of anonymity? Do they actually have a Website or are willing to list it? Do they appear to be spending all of their waking hours posting? If you can weigh all of these factors accordingly, you can make a pretty educated guess as to how much weight you should give someone's public opinion. A lot of it is common sense.
Of course, thousands of posts can mean that a particular Webmaster has been around the block plenty of times and is very observant... it can also mean that they don't have a job, are independently wealthy, or simply bored. People "leave" boards all of the time and often publicly state that they are doing so, sometimes due to leaving the biz for good, but more often than not, because of regular abuse or mob mentality taking over. It's too bad that happens, but again, with the ridiculous number of industry chat boards out there (and a new one popping up every day it seems) you have to take what is being said much of the time with a grain of salt.
My favorite way to do business is one-on-one chatting, whether via ICQ or the telephone. People are much more honest and open about themselves that way. How often have you had an online discussion with someone, where you thought the person on the other side of the screen was joking and feeling lighthearted, but in actuality was fuming and secretly plotting your demise (or vice versa?) Whether you use emoticons or not, it's often hard to convey exactly what you're thinking or saying in typewritten text, especially if you're typing a 2,000 word e-mail to someone to get a problem resolved or a proposal hammered out. So much time can be saved and miscommunication spared if the phone is picked up. I've been trying to get into the habit of that myself much more lately, but still have some room for improvement. It's nice to hear another person's voice sometimes when you work alone.
Jay "LAJ" Kopita is the Executive Editor for YNOTNews and the Communications Director for YNOTMasters. He can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected].
