I've just read this thread which is a client field report:
http://www.saafe.info/main/index.php?topic=4446.0
It's very funny but it's got me thinking big time.

I've no experience personally of field reports, other than a little feedback on my AW profile.
This is because sites like Punternet specifically exclude transsexual female sex workers.
I'm looking more and more at using the net for advertising
and I hope this thread helps me to get forewarned/briefed,
on this one thing of which I've no direct experience
and only a very recent cursory awareness {a lot of which is due to the above thread}
This is for when/if I find trans escort friendly places, similar in structure to PN & PL, etc..
Also, I  prodded a couple of friends who do website "stuff"
They have given me {admittedly slight} interest in setting up a trans friendly place
based loosely on places like PN
If this idea of mine goes anywhere,
then I will know for sure if reviews are a good thing
or as I suspect, a very bad thing for escorts.

I would be grateful for anyone who has knowledge / experience
of this aspect of escorting, to let me have their thoughts.
I'm I spot on or wide of the mark?
Are escorts able to opt out of field reports on these sites.
Is that detrimental to their business?

Below is my perception. of reviews:
I think field reports by clients is actually a dreadful thing.
This is why.

Firstly, my session performance is an intimate thing.
The thought that it was going to be judged and a detailed summary posted
for the whole world to see
would likely result in me refusing to open the door to the arriving client!

Secondly, it's all about the balance of power...it's very unequal.
If a client has a less than brill time through nobodies fault.
Maybe we just don't gel or I'm not what he really wanted
or he had tooth ache or any of a myriad of things...
he can do an unflattering review.
He walks away, but my business has an unfair / negative review.
This can then loose me business through no fault of my own.

I get less coin despite doing a Stirling job.
Lets also say, the client was rough with me or rude
or had BO or jagged finger nails or any one of a number of niggly things
which I don't let effect the quality of my session.
Say he then leaves an unflattering review.
If a board has a feedback facility for escorts to respond to the review
or the facility to review the client,
even if I mention these things in reaction to a bad report on me,
it looks as though I'm being petty.
Even if it doesn't, the effect on the client is maybe another escort refuses to see him.
So he shrugs and starts another profile.
Completely unbalanced.

Finally my last consideration is possibly more serious.
I get to be compared on a like-for-like basis with other similar escorts.
As  you know, we are all unique
and if we are good at this job, we use those assets to our own and our clients advantage.
In reviews, I suspect those very qualities get marginalised or even more likely, totally ignored.
Then it goes to the fact that I give good head
but escort B is nice and ?50 cheaper
And does CIM or rims clients or saw him and his mate at the same time....
or whatever.

Now that would make me feel a little 'less' about my services
and might put me in the mind-set of considering offering services that I'm not comfortable doing, or things I consider unsafe.

Now I don't think I 'd be swayed on how I run my business,
my safety and health considerations.
But it would make me start to question the very things
which I consider boundaries,

And in the scheme of things,
take 100 escorts, in a review environment.
Some of them will compromise on their boundaries.
And that pushes down the "Generally accepted safety line "
Before you know it bareback anal would be the expected norm!

Anyway, I've stopped shuddering.
Am I worrying over nothing
or have I got it all wrong?

Ian, thank you so much.

That basically confirmed many of my thoughts.

Um, just feel I should add that it's not all like that. My reviewers have all been of the "a gentleman wouldn't say more" type, and I've never been reviewed by someone I didn't click with. Also yes, you can opt out.

Quote from: Anika Mae on 27 January 2011, 11:02:03 am

Um, just feel I should add that it's not all like that. My reviewers have all been of the "a gentleman wouldn't say more" type, and I've never been reviewed by someone I didn't click with. Also yes, you can opt out.

But... lots of it is, which makes the actually useful reviews less noticeable/effective nonetheless. And your kinds of reviewers (who are the same as mine, really) would still be able to leave comprehensive feedback without even noticing that the "Please elaborate on your sexual technique" box was missing.

Opting out just makes you look really suspicious, anyway! Both clients and sex workers on AW with hidden feedback are often avoided, for example.

I agree with Anika, and would also point out that FRs are not there to make us feel all warm inside and score some handy free advertising, they are there to provide information for punters and whatever effect they have on our business is entirely secondary. I have reviews of pretty much all kinds from the fairly graphic to the 'what happened will remain private' kind, both of which are virtually useless to potential customers as far as I'm concerned. Some ladies like them and some don't.

I would never spend this sort of money without doing some proper research first, no matter what it was on. If I'm booking a hotel, restaurant or flight I look at review sites, for example and since I am offering an extremely expensive service in an unregulated industry which cannot be repaired/exchanged/taken back if it isn't right, I expect that service to be subject to scrutiny. The physical intimacy involved is a fact of the job and doesn't come into it - it's not my personal life that is being discussed but the way I conduct my business and if I was to get my knickers in a twist at a bit of porny prose I probably shouldn't be shagging strangers for a living. Even the ones that have made me flinch a bit have been well worth the ?100+ they put in my wallet.

If punters want to relive/shout from the rooftops their experience however they choose, including writing naff third-rate porno stuff (and I have to say I don't see that many of these either - most seem to fall somewhere inbetween the two) that surely that is up to them? They;ve spent enough money, and provided an FR is fair, and covers the important bits (location, pictures, services, price etc) the rest is really just window dressing anyway. Asking us what we think of FRs is like asking hoteliers whether they think Tripadvisor is any good - the people who should be answering are the customers.

I do feel that any FR system should allow for opting out, and also the right of reply (although I've never needed it), and possibly some way to make a distinction between people who are not reviewed at their own request and those who are banned for some wrongdoing.

Speaking as someone who's never had their sexual performance reviewed on a website that wants to make money off the fact...

... I think it is very mixed. I can see the PR advantages to having good ones on you. I can also see that potential clients find them reassuring and even that some clients find writing them an enjoyable additional part of the experience. I've suggested reading them, especially the 'bad' ones, to people considering starting work. They can also be hugely amusing (the now-deleted one that springs to mind is the one on PN where the guy booked someone as a treat for his girlfriend and was horrified when she enjoyed it), and there's doubtless a potential PhD or two in analysing them.

But the current system is one where the ones being reviewed have almost no power over it and instead it's in the hands of people who really do not have their best interests at heart. As well the need for an ethical agency or two, perhaps there should be an ethical review system.

Yeah, you've got a choice of somewhere run by someone with arbitrary rules and no appeals, somewhere you have to pay to see the porn people have written about you, somewhere few people trust, somewhere...

It should be possible to say 'I'm ok with this kind of review', for example. So someone offering PSE could want 'all the squelchy details' reviews, while someone else wants 'a gentleman wouldn't say more' ones, and someone else just wants confirmation they exist and the pictures aren't fake etc.

I'm not sure if they're still up, but other favourites include the pair where one went 'she does bareback, but only with me' and a later review went 'hang on, that's what she says to me too!!!' I can see that sort providing a clue to some people, if not an actual public service.

So what about the significant proportion of the people reviewed who will have never heard of the FR system? I hadn't in five years of working on and off because I wasn't on the internet, and if I was working in a small local parlour, say, or for an agency which took care of all my appointments and advertising I probably still wouldn't. Why should members of the online community get an unfair advantage or special treatment?

It's hardly a level playing field as it is; I remember a while back a popular member on PN had a negative report posted (not her first) and instead of writing a rebuttal or reporting it as fake or malicious in the correct way, she started a thread on the message board to moan about it, cue predictable army of sycophants throwing up their hands in horror and lo and behold, the report disappeared. This would not have happened if the recipient of the same report had been in the earlier position and IMO was very unfair. I don't think that one bad review out of ten would really do much harm, and since people just browsing tend to read the bad ones rather than the good ones, it could bring a hell of a lot of attention.

I can't imagine that a system where the subject of review gets to have a say what it's like having any credibility whatsoever - what would be the point? Why don't we just write them ourselves and get the punters  to sign them? What I agree could be done is have a form with more prompts/tick boxes and less opportunity for free text (I can't see how 'unsafe' services would fit, since everybody's view of risk is different), but some of my barmier reviews are long and not necessarily graphic (but then I don't care if they are, because I have a huge apartment  ).

(Checks..) Yes, 135 pages, hardback only, a 'how much?!?' price - this started life as someone's thesis.

Look on it as there being five more years' data now