The Prisoner of Sex author a high-powered Nerve feature. \nSILICON VALLEY - They bill themselves as the "literate smut" Web site. And next month, Nerve will throw caution to the cyberwind and launch an online community.
The New York Post says that, for five dollars a month, the site's members (the "Nerve Center") will choose a logon letting them view and post personal ads, access message boards, establish free e-mail, and partake of live chat.
The project's manager is Emma J. Taylor, who made her bones at Tripod.com, a pioneer in free Web page/Web site hosting. "The community will probably grow in ways we never expected," she tells the Post, "but we intend to take a hands-off approach."
The Nerve Center has been in beta testing for four months, the paper says, with a select number of writers and site regulars. Taylor says the lurking ratio is about five to one, "normal," she tells the paper.
Until the 1 October launch date, Nerve has been, primarily, a publishing venture, featuring "artsy nude photography" and "sex-positive" writing from authors as famous or infamous as at least one Pulitzer Prize winner - Norman Mailer.
Other renowned - and controversial - writers featured by Nerve include Kathryn (The Kiss) Harrison, Pia Pera (author of Lo's Diary, a rewrite of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita from the title character's perspective), Nabokov's son Dmitri. Photographs include some from Spencer Tunick, who was arrested in New York recently for capturing hundreds of people naked together on film, the Post says.
Nerve will keep costs down by, among other things, outsourcing the free e-mail with San Francisco's Critical Path. They pay per user hoping to make money back by way of advertising, with each member also given a free homepage builder by way of partnership with Homestead.
The Post suggests this kind of niche portal could be the next growth area in the online life. Jupiter Communications analyst Aram Sinreich tells the paper that, just as offline affinities are the biggest drivers of community, the arrival of affinity portals could prove likewise online - if it hasn't already.
But Sinreich also warns that, though adult material has always been the most successful paid content driver, "focusing in too narrowly" on it can make it difficult to power revenues and traffic. "The question for Nerve," he tells the Post, "is whether they need mass market appeal and whether they can attain it."
Not to mention one little technical detail - adding a community equals redesigning the entire Web site.
