The American Male Slave Market and The Group Archive Project

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All About the
Group Archive Project
A project currently being expanded.
ABV2 Members and other visitors to this page should also check out our Samples Page to see some of our most recent original work.

The Beginning: About ABV2

Like the American Male Slave Market, the Anything But Vanilla 2 Yahoo Group (known as ABV2) has long been a resource for the Gay BDSM Community. The Moderators of ABV2, Billrock and Bruce, have proven to be fair, even handed and extremely knowledgeable about the images shared through their Yahoo Group. Both Billrock and Bruce are currently members of the AMSM, and we are all pleased to be able to work together in providing both our memberships with a very exciting set of services.

A Bit of History

The Group was originally known as ABV, but either by intention or by mistake, Yahoo deleted the entire group and the archive of thousands and thousands of images, works of art and messages. Whether this was unintentional, a pogrom against all adult groups or was a targeted attack against the Gay BDSM community remains unknown, and is likely to remain unknown. I simply do not have the facts necessary to make an accusation, and frankly any accusation would serve no purpose what-so-ever. The simple fact of the matter is that the loss of the original ABV Archive was a devastating blow to the Gay BDSM community at large.

Since Yahoo deleted the ABV group archive, they have also instituted both group level and individual level download limits. In short this means that a member of the ABV2 group can only view a certain number of messages each day, and the group as a whole can only view a certain number of messages each day as well. This makes communication between the group members extremely difficult, and the sharing of images and especially complete collections nearly impossible.

An Apologist's View

In all fairness, and as a voice of reason, I must say that I don't blame Yahoo for the actions they've taken, it was HOW they did it that is questionable. I believe, personally, that the decision to delete ABV and other group archives was not in fact a targeted attack, but rather was an effort to control their bandwidth usage... the cost of which must be astronomical. I do think it would have been more appropriate for them to make it possible for the group moderators to download their archives, and export the entire group either to a different self-sustaining or independent domain or to make other accommodations for their group rather than to simply delete the group (or groups) out of hand and without any form of notice. That would have been good net-citizenry, it would have been polite and it would have been a much more respectful way for them to treat the source of a HUGE volume of their traffic.

But these things are always clearer with 20/20 hindsight. In the final analysis, you must remember that Yahoo Groups are FREE to all users. Yahoo must sell Advertising to pay for the bandwidth and make the groups possible in the first place. If they can't sell enough advertising to pay for the amount of bandwidth they are using, then they simply cannot run ANY groups, and that is in no one's best interest - so the best answer seems to have been bandwidth throttling.

The Seed of an Idea

The ABV2 archive started as an idea simply to preserve the messages and images being shared through ABV2. It was originally going to be nothing more than that, but then Yahoo decided to throttle bandwidth and set the Group level and user level limits making it very difficult for those members of our community who simply could not participate in the groups via email.

So we amended the idea to allow members of ABV2 to use the archive to view messages and images, but the bandwidth requirements to make such an allowance were and are so great that we would have to charge the members of the group so much that it became prohibitive. In other words, we simply could not afford to support this service as a free service. However, when combined with the existing AMSM membership, it became very possible that both groups (That is the members of ABV2 and members of the AMSM) could help to mutually support one another.

It is in this spirit of cooperation and community that we are very proud to be able to make this offer to you. If you are browsing the ABV2 archive at Yahoo, and the group or your individual bandwidth restrictions prevent you from browsing the archive to your satisfaction, you may purchase a Membership to the AMSM and access the ABV2 archives as a member of the AMSM.

What are the Benefits to ABV2

Beyond the fact that the archives are being preserved, which alone helps to ensure the continued operation of ABV2 no matter what "mistakes" Yahoo may make in the future, by joining the AMSM, members of the ABV2 group can view all of the messages and all attachments without advertisement of any kind, without bandwidth restrictions of any kind, and with the same ease and convenience as all of the other archives and galleries of the AMSM- and like those galleries this is a completely customizable feature.

In addition, Members of ABV2 will gain access to all of the services and community activities as all members of the AMSM - this includes the T-Groups discussion forums, Slavery Today Magazine/Newspaper - with all the classified ads, photo personal ads and additional services being developed now, as well as the Discount Video store, where members of the AMSM enjoy a full 20% off all videos offered - Currently well over 540 films!

I feel it's important to note that this archive is not intended to replace ABV2, but rather is intended as a supplimentary service to ABV2 Group members. If you do not wish to pay to access the Archives, you can continue to access your group and messages at no charge through Yahoo. You simply must abide by Yahoo's restrictions and requirements to do so.

Thank you for taking the time to read this notice, and Let me be the first to welcome you to the AMSM. Please take a few extra moments to read some of the other articles here, and by all means check out the Special Offers page. We have Quite a significant offer running for you guys. I am certain you will want to remain a member for a long time to come.

Peace,
Master Tentaka