I am in the process of building a site for independent escorts to promote themselves. I am at the stage where I am prototyping the UX - or user experience - and need to form a group to test what works and what doesn't. I'm having difficulty finding escorts; you've all heard this kind of pitch before, and no doubt receive countless of pointless offers for web services in your inbox.

User research is critical, to get a site like this built correctly. I understand that there has always been ongoing chatter about creating a good, usable site for escorts. It isn't hard to understand why this aspect of the web hasn't been modernised along with everything else, but it poses a unique challenge, nonetheless. I am not a punter, but I build large scale websites for a living. It is important for me to get my approach right. 

So, the site I'm building is being created from the ground up, with a focus on usability and "best practice" design (responsive to tablets and smartphones, higher visibility on search engines, etc) . I need to know what features escorts would like to see - which don't already exist on other sites - and features which do, and need to be improved. For instance, on a user's page, can a Like/Dislike section be tightened up to offer more valuable information?

I'd love to hear your thoughts. The sky's the limit, and I know you can be better served online.

this is a support and advice resource for sex workers, not for website builders and it is equally not a place for us to help you do your market research for free.

Sure, and I don't want to step on anyone's toes. I didn't say I was expecting free advice.

The long and short of it is that we don't really need any more directories and the huge number of also-rans in this very section should be enough to confirm that to you

I have seen many crappy sites, and their failures don't necessarily indicate a lack of need. I'm aware you've heard it all before, but this appears a logical place for me to discuss this.

I don't even know what a Like/Dislike section is - do you mean services?

Yes.

Basically if you're not even a punter, I cannot see how or why you would want to get involved at all?

The technical challenge more than anything. No, I'm not a punter. Should I be? I don't expect to do this alone; I'm what's called a "technical co-founder". I'd ideally like find someone who knows the industry inside-out, to partner up with.

One thing I can't imagine any of us are queuing up to do is pay to advertise on sites that virtually nobody is going to see.

You're assuming too much about the business model. If you would like to discuss how to build a site which is a joy to use, that would be lovely.

You've made your views very clear.

I'm engaging in discussion, here. I've not bitten, nor have I been fed.

But thanks, anyway.

I think AW pretty much covers it, I actually am a little bored so if you want to pm me and I will answer your questions...

Advertisers cannot send PMs. Full use of the forum's facilities is restricted to full members, and the separate rules for advertisers are in the Sticky thread at the top of this section .

Knick knack, can you put up an email addy so you can be contacted or the link to the website you are building?

Oh I didn't realise that they couldn't send pm's sorry.

No worries - there isn't really any need for genuine members to know that unless it's with regard to the people who post in ad threads (for drivers and suchlike) for the OP to contact them somehow, and that's usually just because they haven't read the ad properly (and thus ignored the email address/phone number which has been given).

There isn't really any good reason for non sex workers to be on the forum, but giving them their own dedicated section means they're not cluttering up the rest of the board with posts which we just have to waste our time deleting. Or worse, signing up pretending to be WGs so they can start a Spammy PM Touting campaign about how wonderful the agency they're 'working for' is or how they would be brilliant at security because we're all in such mortal danger all the time, and whilst this sort of thing is no more than a tiresome pain in the arse for many of us the consequences for complete newbies could be disastrous as you can imagine. There's some funny people about but to be fair, it's mostly just irrelevant stuff like the above.

Anyway, I'm sure anybody interested will be happy to email, so that'll do us here, I think - I counted close to a dozen threads on this board almost identical to this and we don't need another. Given that the OP is neither a punter nor a prossie and therefore has never used a site like this before before deciding to build one, the phrase 'try walking before you run' springs to mind, but it isn't our problem.

Locked.