Let's give Analvids/Pornbox some absolute due credit ...

[hyapet]

Earlier in the year, like ... almost nine months ago ... when NRX (permanently) and EKS (non-permanently) closed - business as usual at Pornbox and Analvids came to a screeching halt.

Their old "business model" had flaws - but they could be glossed over because NRX was delivering such high quality, ground-breaking porn. Everyone else who wasn't at that same level - or old time greats who were starting to slow down their production pipelines - could "get away with it" (lacking a better term) because NRX was such a dominant powerhouse. It glossed over all the cracks that appeared everywhere else, including an inefficient front-page design (swimming through 100 videos of dudes sucking cock just to finally get to the absolutely great material that was released just yesterday), and troubles within the industry itself (OF disrupting the traditional porn pipeline).

At that point - when, in the most unceremonious of circumstances, the highest quality porn that had ever been produced stop being delivered, people absolutely noticed the shock. It went from feast to famine almost overnight - and then, suddenly, all those prior cracks that didn't really matter, and really weren't all that noticeable, suddenly came swinging into full view.

Alongside this - Giorgio was beginning to wind down his output - Gonzo was pretty much smoked - and EKS, while still releasing scenes, was gone as well. There were months - like, literal months there, where you could count the quality output from any of the studios on a single hand, borrowing perhaps a digit or two from the other. Things were looking absolutely rough.

And where were we? Right here. Raising hell on these forums. Screaming to high heavens. Cursing both the porn Gods and porn producers for inflicting upon us these sparsity in both output and quality. Screaming, literally screaming (that dude that writes in size 150 and all caps his shit in blue) at them to get their fucking shit together.

And you know what they did?

They listened to almost every single word we said.

Let me list - just off the top of my head (because there are way more) - all of the specific things I mentioned that the producers, organizers, and managers at Analvids/Pornbox listened to. This is going to be a long list. But - once you're done reading it - you'll realize that Analvids/Pornbox have both really tried and really succeeding in starting to turn the ship around.

Here we go:

1) I made comment, often times, that the shooting style, technique, and playbook of NRX was the evolutionary step in porn. That it brought so much to the table that was essentially "the evolution" of what Giorgio Grandi started. Since then - Erika Korti Studios (especially) - Natasha Teen (to a great degree) - and many of the South American studios have co-opted the style Nick engineered with NRX and have begun increasingly making it the frame through which their productions are seen. This includes the style, the music, the energy, the costumes, the camera angles, everything. They listened.

2) I made comment in the Erika Korti Studios thread that their black men had pretty small penises. That the white crew was not only bigger than them, but had a superior energy in their scenes as well. Since then, at an increased rate, EKS has been bringing in bigger and better hung studs to all the scenes. Seeing Leo Casanova there is a great thing. And increasingly, in the EKS scenes, I swear some of the old NRX Dark Side actors have been popping in. Some greatly hung black dudes have been making appearances and doing performances in the scenes, and while they don't always do the DAP together, everything is still building in the right direction. Not only this, but the camera shots and set-ups have been getting more daring, and the energy from the intros are fully making their way into the scenes themselves where the studs act like animals, rather than lining up like frat-boys waiting to get their hand stamped outside the club. Absolutely tremendous. They listened.

3) I made a comment that, despite everything, pissing really takes away from the energy of the scenes. I wasn't the only one - tons of people raised that issue here - well before myself as well. That, regardless of whether or not you like pissing, that it kills the moment of the productions, and watching everyone stand around and take a leak isn't really ... exciting, interesting, or has any dynamic to it whatsoever. Increasingly, across all production houses that are still producing traditional gangbang/DP/DAP porn, the pissing has been slowly but surely (at an ever increasing rate) getting removed. Lots of EKS scenes release now without any piss. Same with all of the South American studios. Pissing is now the exception, not the rule, as it absolutely should be. I don't how else to say it, but ... They listened.

4) I made mention that, outside of certain things being uncontrollable and absolutely not the fault of the producers or folks at PB/AV, that losing all of the Russian talent was really a shame. Everyone from Eva Barbie to Eliz Benson to ... well, almost all of them. Not just this - but losing Nick Whitehard as a producer really hurt as well. These days? Increasingly all of these girls are showing up in scenes of all the different Eastern European studios that have come to try and fill the gap that NRX left. Nowhere near as rough or degrading as their NRX work - but that's how it's supposed to be - newer studios are supposed to start out slow and build steam. It allows the finding of their voice, and them being able to get the cash to do bigger productions, get bigger spaces, and utilize their newer networks of female talent (that they first have to create the tools to find, to then actually have to go and find them). Not only this - but who else seems to be back shooting with the same girls that he started with back in the day? A certain Nick Morris? Really - just seeing Eva Barbie again is great. Yeah - you know how this works by now - They listened.

5) What did I say? The front-page is a fucking mess. You release eighty scenes in a day - and the tremendous gangbang from yesterday is lost forever from the eyes of the public. That when I show up - I don't want to see pictures of dude's shoving their cocks into other dude's mouths - because that just ain't me. No offence to the folks who dig that shit - but, that just ain't me. So ... what did they do? They implemented a front-page system where you choose both the categories and the studios you get to see. What's that? *cough* They listened. *cough*

6) I swear to God - outside of even the big things - the smaller stuff they've been coming through on as well. I made mention in a topic that, all things considered, Proxy Paige is fucking gorgeous beyond belief and that any and all content, new and old, with her in it is a win all around. Like, a month later, they released a series of some really heavy gangbangs with her in it, alongside some of her newer/solo material. Man - these guys - They fucking listen to us man!

Like - there is almost nothing I've said - that hasn't been followed through on by these crews. And you know what's increasingly happening? It feels like the page is starting to turn on the beginning of what had to be one of the worst years in Pornbox's and Analvids's entire history as an organization/collective. The amount of damage that was done, alongside the amount of things that weren't stopped/paid attention to prior the correcting of the ship's course, was absolutely megalithic. Meaning - it would absolutely take some time for the ship to even start going back into the direction it came from after it started turning itself around.

But - they are absolutely trying. And - they are absolutely listening to us.

I agree - things aren't anywhere near where they used to be. They just aren't. I'm not saying they've succeeded in their task. I'm not saying everything is the best it's ever been. There are still lots of empty days of releases (today wasn't too spectacular - no disrespect to the scenes that were released). But - increasingly - you get the feeling that the momentum is starting to build again. That there actually is something to look forward to when you go and browse the latest releases for the day. That there is a reason to be excited when visiting the front page (rather than being surprised when there is something great released).

Again - that ship isn't fully turned around yet. There are still so many things left to do. But things definitely seem to be going in the right direction. These things do take time. But - all things considered - everything we griped about - screamed at them about - and reasoned our point of view about - you have got to absolutely admit ...

They listened.

[dap-addict]

It feels like the page is starting to turn on the beginning of what had to be one of the worst years in Pornbox's and Analvids's entire history as an organization/collective. The amount of damage that was done, alongside the amount of things that weren't stopped/paid attention to prior the correcting of the ship's course, was absolutely megalithic.

I just wonder why this could even happen?
I mean we know the OFy discussion and the talent pool scouting problems, but on top of that Pornbox just fucked off landing page, the deleting problem, the earlier price rises, the bit rate reduction etc.
It looks like they did everything to harm their own business. But why?

[hyapet]

I just wonder why this could even happen?
I mean we know the OFy discussion and the talent pool scouting problems, but on top of that Pornbox just fucked off landing page, the deleting problem, the earlier price rises, the bit rate reduction etc.
It looks like they did everything to harm their own business. But why?

There's a conglomeration of issues there that, individually, might not really be that big of a deal, but together, and with everything else, really adds a nasty edge to everything that was breaking down around it. From my limited perspective, with absolutely no insider knowledge, try to answer these individual cases as best I can.

Bit rate reduction - simple. It's a numbers game. To be absolutely realistic and fair - as soon as you start going above 1080p - you start getting diminishing returns. What I mean by this is - for the excessive amount of data that is sent - the rise in quality doesn't really justify it. Your imagination is pretty solid, believe it or not. If it likes what it sees, it'll fill in the rest. This isn't knocking 4k, it's great. But for the number of people who could actually properly enjoy that setting (in the sense that they're looking at it on an actual 4K television), and not just on another computer or smartphone screen ... is actually pretty low.

This is to mention nothing of all the excessive (super expensive) equipment you need in order to shoot in that definition - and not just this - but all the mistakes or things that aren't that great come into much greater focus as well. Bad lighting in an already barely high-def image is a lot less noticeable than in 4k. It's like, even I'm like, "Man ... they really need to fix those lights ..." at that quality. Whereas, at 1080p, it's noticeable, but not glaringly so. Your mind just gets over it way quicker, rather than having your literal face shoved right into it.

So, in a time when costs are going up, sales are going down, and newer studios are the focus (re: not having that much expendable cash), then it makes sense that the definitions would come down. To mention nothing of the server costs. Like - the excessive gigs it takes to download that adds up. Might be nothing for the end-user who has a limitless collection - but if a scene really starts selling well - and Pornbox has got something like 10,000 Terabytes worth of data it had to dole out - I'm guessing that adds up somewhat.

Finally - if the newer studios can't afford it, and are already going against the perks of the established studios who've got fancy set-ups, more recognizable talent, better wardrobe, and better lighting, it's probably logical to not over emphasize the distance between the two by having one send out 1080p and the other send out stuff that has eight times the picture quality.

It actually makes perfect sense that they did this.

The Deleting Problem - It's a problem for them too. I think they've created this beast of a database that, spanning probably almost 100,000 videos in total, when things start to go wrong, no one can really say, "Oh! That's what's causing it!"

Knowing how these things work, one misplaced comma, one excess digit, one space where it shouldn't be in the coding of the entire thing can have ripple effects which extend throughout the entirety of the program that's upholding, well, everything. The producers have come out, the management have come out, everyone with inside knowledge of the thing has come here (very quietly) and admitted - they don't know why it's doing it - and (more importantly) - it's not intentional.

I know with them selling re-releases of all this stuff, and behind-the-scenes, and all the rest of it, it can look like they're slipping away past purchases so they can resell it to you again. I can tell you, 100%, that no business in their right mind would ever want to take away a product somebody has purchased. It's pretty much theft. It destroys their credibility. It's ... just, no.

On top of this - the number of people this actually effects is very small. Not a lot of people go over their porn libraries extensively. "Where's this scene I purchased in 2017?!" is a complaint very few people will logically have. Most people don't curate their porn stash like other people do with albums. They just ... don't. That's not saying that the people who do so don't matter. This also isn't calling them weird or anything like that. It isn't. But ...

For the number of people it affects, how it affects them, and where the priorities lie within the overall organization as a whole - it's understandable if this doesn't take top billing. "Making sure people can access the stuff they bought 57 months ago" understandably takes a back seat to "making sure we're producing porn people actually want to buy today." That's not to say they don't care - or that they aren't looking into it - but in terms of man-power and priorities - this would understandably not be the biggest fish they have to fry.

Finally ... no company, in any situation, can ever admit to doing wrong, unless it's so blatantly obvious that the only thing left to do is to apologize. Admitting they don't know how to handle their own system would send shockwaves of doubt and eye-brow raisings all around. Best to sweep it under the rug. They are trying to fix it - make no mistake - but this isn't some nefarious plan of theirs. This is something that happened to them as well.

Price Rises - makes perfect sense. I mean - I don't like it either - but think about it from their perspective for a second ...

OF has come in and absolutely gutted the traditional porn industry. One of my favorite North American studios - CCHD (High Definition - Couch of Castings) hasn't released a scene in three fucking months. The folks who shot some of the best interracial 1 on 1 young white teen porn just a year ago or so has been reduced to shooting the odd latina milf who shows up. And that's all that's left.

Seeing the trends that were forming, being both of and elbow deep inside the industry themselves - they probably had a board-meeting and were like, "How are we going to handle ourselves going forward?" With NRX not having shuttered yet (I don't honestly remember now), they probably figured that then was the best time to start bringing in more funds from their audience.

Think about it. You know your source of models is going to be drying up to desert like levels soon. You know that in order to be able to afford bigger names that could bring newer customers in the future you're going to have to spend way more money to get them - and also that helping newer studios which will have to come and replace some of your biggest and heaviest hitters that will soon be closing their doors (Giorgio/Gonzo) - that introducing the shock then was probably the best time to do it. Before the generational change occurs. Before the newer studios get established and ... then what?

A new studio is going to somehow normalize a gigantic price increase? What are the chances of that happening? Better for the older studios who will be leaving soon anyways to normalize that - because people are familiar with the brands - and thus more likely to stick around - and then let the newer studios just kind of "join in" with what's already been established, rather than taking that weight on by themselves.

So, the pre-emptive strike on the price increases made perfect sense from a business perspective. Both to better handle the future realities of the market, and to give a much better chance for survival to the newer studios that would be coming around.

I'm telling you - these folks aren't dumb. They're also not malicious. They aren't corporate greedos who dream of taking every nickel from you. They're still artists first and foremost. That's what I feel. I think their dicks still drive their desire to produce the content, more than their brains and wallets. The price increases were a way to better guarantee safe passage through stormy waters. And, fuck! Those waters were stormy indeed.

The Landing Page - I get the feeling that whoever Pornbox outsources their coding to might really not be coming through on their end. Or, perhaps more realistically, efficiently coding a site that can categorize countless numbers of things and line them up quickly is really rather difficult.

Overall, I could code a system that can organize all of the content, allowing the user to handle it on their end. But, like I said earlier, once you get like 100,000 live videos going into that system, suddenly some things that would be simple to handle with a smaller pool of items, becoming both understandably and unexpectedly more difficult when you've suddenly got this literal sea of content to handle. All porn sites - once they become large enough - start having categorization problems. Google loves to pretend that Baby Kxtten just flat out doesn't exist. Like, will give you a ton of videos with actual Baby Kittens in them. Otherwise, will give you a message that you're trying to access harmful or law restricted content. That's obviously not the reality - but ... yeah.

Pornbox has a problem at the moment where their entire database of actresses is down. I don't know if the entire thing is down, but whenever I'm trying to look up scenes based on a whole series of actresses, I get 404'd. The system has got some problems. But it hurts them as much as it does us - so to really say, "Hey, why are you guys doing this?" is to presume that they are willingly punching themselves in the face.

They deserve a bit more credit than that.

Hey! Just like the title of the thread.

Good space to leave it off on.

[leo.casanovaxxx]

2) Since then, at an increased rate, EKS has been bringing in bigger and better hung studs to all the scenes. Seeing Leo Casanova there is a great thing.

Thanks man, I appreciate it! For me it's important to see the feedback of my work from users here.

[justinwarren41]

Yes Industry in flux and 2024 is no exception. You mentioned US studios, there's not much left. Sadly if an american pornstar doesn't come to Prague I have no idea who they are (Thank you Kaitlyn Katsaros, Avery Jane) But yes you have to give credit where it is due to navigate. A year ago, Yummy was all but dead. Gonzo and Latin Teen Productions appear to be gone forever. Yet there's still great porn coming out. Still some unknowns on the horizon, GIO's departure first and foremost and AGO separating from analvids/LP slowly but I'm happen with what we are getting at the moment.

[hyapet]

Yes Industry in flux and 2024 is no exception. You mentioned US studios, there's not much left. Sadly if an american pornstar doesn't come to Prague I have no idea who they are (Thank you Kaitlyn Katsaros, Avery Jane) But yes you have to give credit where it is due to navigate. A year ago, Yummy was all but dead. Gonzo and Latin Teen Productions appear to be gone forever. Yet there's still great porn coming out. Still some unknowns on the horizon, GIO's departure first and foremost and AGO separating from analvids/LP slowly but I'm happen with what we are getting at the moment.

Yeah, the greatest victim in the past year has been stability. Studios suddenly drying up out of nowhere. It's still happening now. Natasha Teen went from releasing mind-blowing scene after mind-blowing scene every three to four days to ... not releasing anything at all hardly in the past couple of months. Went from finding only the most insanely hot girls and encouraging them to get absolutely wrecked in BBC DAP's to ... shooting nothing?

The other South American studios are more hit and miss in terms of hitting the sweet spot. They are, indeed, all excellent, but ... all the ones fucking on the beach are like ... yeah, whatever. The high-heels these girl's wear in every scene from Mambo (I believe) just makes it like ... you've got this beautiful 19 year old girl there ... why are you dressing her up like a 45 year old hooker? The outfits are amazing ... it's just those G-damn shoes ... so unnatural. So ...

All the South American studios either burn super hot or dry up completely - all the newer Eastern European studios look promising, but will take some time to truly find their footing and bring in an arsenal of incredible looking girls - while many of the decades old institutions have pretty much bordered up their shops and are gone for good.

Not that this is an easy thing to do - but, just a constant stream of good quality porn. Easy to type those words - extremely difficult to make it a consistent and constant reality. The nature of the business seems to be very fluid. Here one day shooting the best porn ever - gone the next without a whisper. But, this turning on the tap, and only having a couple drops come out, and then the next day it's a steady stream, and then the next it's a couple of drops again ...

The sporadic release schedule and studios dipping in and out of existence doesn't help with the "I don't want to be on the 2024 Pornbox Rollercoaster anymore" feeling. The feeling that the any studio, at any moment, could just vanish. This has been a bad year for the whole organization - but as the title of the topic states - they've been doing an absolutely bang up job in trying to make everything better.

It's all about getting that feeling to be both noticeable and permanent. Which is why I said - it takes time to turn the ship fully around.

At least they're pressing their full weight against the wheel.

At least it's going in the right direction.

[jzabel19571964]

Let's hope there is a resurgence. All I know is that a year ago I had trouble deciding what scenes to purchase with the amount of tickets I had because there were 3-4 great gangbang scenes released per day from multiple different studios. Now it has been over a month since I purchased a scene. The past year has been a disaster for this site. I agree your assessment of NatashaTeenFilms as well. It had always been one of my favorite studios releasing 2-3 great scenes per week with young hot Colombian women. Recently there have been only a trickle of new scenes and not a decent gangbang for over a month.

[hjohjole]

They listened alright... To all the wrong people and all the bad advice.

As a result we now have multiple Euro studios that are all competing with each other over who can make the trashiest looking scene with the trashiest looking model. And we have a customer base full of people who buys thees scenes and supports the studios.
And at the same thees people with very bad taste also spam the forum with bullish posts about how OF is to blame for all of this.

The main issue right now is that there exists a topic in this forum titled "Alexxa Vice" and that topic have 108 fucking pages. This place is a cesspool right now. And this could have very easily have been avoided with just some basic top level quality control.

[jjwhite1985]

They listened alright... To all the wrong people and all the bad advice.

As a result we now have multiple Euro studios that are all competing with each other over who can make the trashiest looking scene with the trashiest looking model. And we have a customer base full of people who buys thees scenes and supports the studios.
And at the same thees people with very bad taste also spam the forum with bullish posts about how OF is to blame for all of this.

The main issue right now is that there exists a topic in this forum titled "Alexxa Vice" and that topic have 108 fucking pages. This place is a cesspool right now. And this could have very easily have been avoided with just some basic top level quality control.

Let me guess, the problem has nothing to do with competing platforms - it's actually all because they make porn which, by sheer coincidence, isn't to your personal taste. And the fact that one of the most popular pornstars around is also popular at LP showcases the problem
"And we have a customer base full of people who buys these scenes and supports the studios." - this, by definition, is not a problem. It is *good* for the studios that this happens. Nobody goes out of business because their customers support them and buy their product. It will never cease to amaze me some of the comments you can read on this forum.

[hjohjole]

Let me guess, the problem has nothing to do with competing platforms.

Good guess. I literally mentioned nothing about competing platforms in my post. And you are also right that the garbage fucking trash that EKS, GG and AGO puts out is not my personal taste.

this, by definition, is not a problem. It is *good* for the studios that this happens.

I know that it is good for the studios that makes trash. It is also good for the small number of people that buys trash.
My point was that garbage does not belong here because it is not good for all the porn consumers who dont like trash.
You see, it hurts the platform as a whole when the vast majority of people is left completely without content to consume. Consumers leave and stay away. Sales in general go down. Releases gets fewer and far between. Studios close down. And so on.

And the fact that one of the most popular pornstars around is also popular at LP

This is without a doubt the most delusional insane thing i have ever read on this forum.

[jjwhite1985]

Good guess. I literally mentioned nothing about competing platforms in my post.

Ah, I must have imagined that you typed this out "spam the forum with bullish posts about how OF is to blame for all of this."

My point was that garbage does not belong here because it is not good for all the porn consumers who dont like trash.

For reasons unknown to me, you continue to mistake things *you* dislike for things *everybody* dislikes.

This is without a doubt the most delusional insane thing i have ever read on this forum.

A multi-award winning pornstar with over 250k followers on X apparently does not constitute popularity, according to whatever plane of reality your mind happens to be occupying right now.

Please have the generosity to stop subjecting the users of the forum to this absolute nonsense.

[hjohjole]

Ah, I must have imagined that you typed this out "spam the forum with bullish posts about how OF is to blame for all of this."

OF is not a competing platform. It is a platform for amateur self produced trash. This is platform for high quality high budget studio produced hardcore porn.
But with the amount amateur garbage and trash studios featured here today i can understand your confusion.

A multi-award winning pornstar with over 250k followers on X apparently does not constitute popularity, according to whatever plane of reality your mind happens to be occupying right now.

Yes thats right. A few thousand cuckolds on x does not constitute popularity.

https://www.iafd.com/person.rme/id=5d8c ... 0c4d7746c0

Only amateur content and releases on pornbox and pornbox associated websites since 2016. Like 90% of the work she has done is for Giorgio Grandi.
Truly the greatest porn star of our time! Everybody is just fighting to book her for their next scene! So popular!

Get the fuck out of here.

[jjwhite1985]

OF is not a competing platform. It is a platform for amateur self produced trash. This is platform for high quality high budget studio produced hardcore porn.

It is impossible for me to roll my eyes any harder at this. The utter inability to understand how anything works. It's genuinely impressive.