Interview: Doug Parent, the “Adult MySpace” owner

It’s a porn site. It’s a social networking site. It’s an adult community site. It’s Doug Parent’s creation. Doug Parent is the owner and creator of what he and many others call the “Adult MySpace.” I had the pleasure of talking to and interviewing Doug via e-mail, regarding the topic of Reader Appreciation.

Doug Parent left a comment on my personal site last month, and that got me thinking: Dougs’ comment was nice, yet his site was an adult site that many people would object to. How could Doug fit into the concept of reader appreciation? Should Doug be appreciated based on the site he owned?

Doug was kind enough to answer the questions I had for him. Below is the brief interview that took place between me and Doug. Please keep in mind that you may think Doug’s link below is not safe for work nor children.

Interview with Doug Parent – 7 brief questions

Bes: Could you please tell us a bit about yourself and your site?

Doug: I own and operate www.webscutest.com (not work safe), which is a Adult MySpace type site where users are not restricted on what they can post to the site. According to Alexa it is the 50,000 largest site on the internet, we get around 5 million monthly page views. I started webscutest about 11 months ago. I purchased it as a expired domain.

Bes: How do you treat both supporting and disagreeing readers and users on webscutest.com(not work safe)? Do you know anyone out there who has directly opposed the existence of your site?

Doug: I have never been told someone directly opposes the existence of my site, I am sure there are people out there that dislike it though just due to its content. The whole premise of webscutest was to allow people to express them selves any way they wanted without fear of having their content deleted. The users themselves turned it into a adult site, I just followed suit with the description etc. We only delete content that is extremely offensive or illegal, i.e. under the age of 18. Users are only banned if the continue to harass other users after being warned of their actions.

Bes: Are your comments always welcome on other sites? How are you or your comments treated by people who run non-porn sites?

Doug: No they are not always welcome, most of the time my comments are deleted, however that does not stop me from reading the blog or page I placed it on. No in fact I have never been told my comment was going to be deleted beforehand, the blogger usually just deletes it and that is the end of it.

Bes: Your site is considered not safe for work. Do you think people may have a good reason to block you from their sites and browsers? Do you think some blog owners have every right to delete your comment even if the comment is very useful to the topic in question, simply because of your affiliation with an adult site?

Doug: Sure they do, I would not expect anyone to visit my site while at work, and I believe every blogger / webmaster has the right to delete anything they find offensive from their site whether it be a comment, picture movie etc.

Bes: How do you react to people who delete or block you from visiting or commenting on their sites? Do you read commenting policies and rules on site before wanting to participate on those sites? Have you ever tried to convince such people to not delete your comment or ignore your participation from their sites?

Doug: I don’t react usually – this is America after all the owner of a blog has the right to delete any comment he or she chooses to. I usually do not read the posting policies, unless they are clearly posted which in most cases they are not. No I have never asked a blogger to reinstate my comment after deletion even if I think my comment was useful to the discussion.

Bes: Most of the time, other people can realize that you are the owner of a porn site because of the website url you list in your comments. Do you think you will be less criticized or targeted if you commented anonymously without listing any link to your site? Would you be willing to comment anonymously?

Doug: Definitely – I think all comments I post are relevant and add something to a blog, however they are often deleted due to the nature of the link involved. I would not post anonymously, I would rather just use another link.

Bes: Do you think pornographic site readers and non-pornographic site readers can get along on a grand scale? If an anti-porn site owner does allow you to comment on their site, would you be willing to offer some compromise too in order to make sure the anti-porn site owner benefits from your participation also?

Doug: Yes I think we can all get along, I have no problem changing my name or signature on a comment if requested to do so by the owner of a site. I realize that many webmasters and bloggers do not want to link to Adult oriented sites.

Thank you Doug for the interview, and for taking the time to answer these questions.

One of the strongest point of the interview was that the readers themselves felt appreciated and turned the site into an adult MySpace type community. As of this interview, Doug’s site itself is not promoting and catering only to adult content: users themselves are allowed to post and talk about anything on the site, and thus users are the people taking the site into a certain direction. Doug’s users took the site in the direction of an adult community themselves, resulting in more adult-oriented users getting attracted to the site.

For any details or questions for me or Doug regarding anything including Doug, his website, this topic or this interview, please leave a comment below. For the exact original version of the interview, please contact me. If you have any questions of your own, please leave a comment below.