The board should stay around. There is enough stuff going on in hobby Maryland wise that we need our own board.

It does not make sense to have BWI, Baltimore, eastern shore, and other things in the DC board.

I agree with you that Maryland related posts need to be in this board not in the DC board.

A_question,:

Considering the fact you have a geography which over laps multiple markets it would be pollyanna to think there wouldn't be any cross posting. Granted, there are providers who only work Maryland, however by form and function the DC market et al encompasses sections of VA, DC & MD.  Many on the client side tend to get locked into a rigged paradigm of how we work and often it is incorrect. It is a human tendency to see the area which is easy for you access as a market unto itself. Sometimes this is merely a perceptual fallacy and has no influence on a providers marketing choices.

In our case I have associates who's service area extends from Harrisburg PA to Washington DC. Today for example, I have one associate who will see a gentleman for incall  in York PA and another incall in VA late this afternoon. My point is, by virtue of her service area she legitimately is advertised in PA, MD and DC since it is not usual for associates by their choice to be in all three areas in a day or 48 hour period by request. If you live in Frederick MD you are just over an hour away from three different states or sub-markets because of simple geography.

The concept of pick a state and stick to it or pic a fixed location for fixed incalls by specific dates is an old paradigm which many follow and more and more providers are abandoning. The latter is our business model and has been for the last 6 years.  In a way we're like mammals and the latter conceptual thought is like a dinosaurs.  Some dinosaurs were specialists and didn't adapt for whatever reason you like the best, others did.

Leave things as they are. If you have issues with clutter, then adapt your method of time and reading selectivity accordingly.

As for the naysayers (not accusing you of being one)  with issues with our business model (how we do business) I would remind them of a simple fact: " Truth can only proven by results." We've out lived how many agencies and independents over the last 6 years?

Respectfully,

Lee Dreams
"Sine amore, nihil est vita"

Obviously you're not from Maryland , I mean that's obvious.

I'm a Baltimore guy, and it's invaluable to me to have this board.  I appreciate being able to find things geared to my locale, and not have to look at a jillion screens of "Tysons... Tysons... Alexandria... Tysons... Herndon...".

It's probably useful to the guys who can hop into all the DC suburbs to have that agglomeration, but the Baltimore/Columbia/BWI area is a significant chunk of members as well.  Yes, mods could perhaps be a little more aggressive about moving things, but we have a lot of overlap between the areas, and it's convenient to have the separate boards.  I always check this board first, and I've appreciated having it here.

Once it's better established, I think there will be a little more conscious separation, but it's only a few months old right now.

Just moderate it correctly --- too many people do not understand the difference and I for one hate browsing all of the VA stuff when I am in MD

...let's give it a chance to mature a little bit and see where it goes.  I think the Maryland board is a great idea, this coming from someone else who also wants to see what's going on outside of Tysons, Annandale, Dupont, etc., etc.

Moderators do enforce the rules. I will also attempt to address your issues.

When the Maryland board first went up, many providers from the area posted ads on both boards. As a result, guidelines (see link below) were created to ensure that chaos didn’t rein and rules weren’t abused. These guidelines are basically an enforcement of existing TER rules. I can assure you we are enforcing these rules every day.

http://www.theeroticreview.com/discussion_boards/viewmsg.asp?MessageID=1072&boardID=59&page=8

I will be the first to admit that the rules are not perfect but the most realistic at this point. We have discussed several possible solutions internally based on feedback from both providers and gents and the fact of the matter is no one solution will satisfy everyone.

The current set of rules does create openings for providers from both Maryland and D.C. to further market themselves and some have chosen to use these rules to their benefit but still be compliant with TER rules at the same time. I think this is your point of contention and I will address these in the next paragraph but your solution or expectation that Marylanders segregate themselves from the region and lock themselves to their own board just because they have a board of their own is radical.

1. Maryland providers in the business for sometime have spent years growing their business and marketing themselves to gents in the D.C. area. Some expressed reservations about moving to the Maryland board for business reasons. These providers were allowed to continue using the D.C. board as their home board like nothing had changed.

2. New Maryland providers and those who decided to make the switch are allowed to post an ad on the Maryland board once every seven days.  Now if they decided to cross into D.C., get a hotel and provide in-call for a couple days, they are considered touring providers and are allowed to post ads on the D.C. board with dates of their of their visit in the subject lines. The same works for D.C. based providers who cross into Maryland. I can see where some of this gets redundant but that is how the rules are setup currently.

3. Some touring providers may decide to post their availability for both Maryland and D.C. in the subject lines of their ads which is perfectly ok provided their ads meets TER ad rules for a touring provider.

4. During the course of a non ad related discussion thread, providers are allowed and encouraged to include their link within a thread regardless of which board the thread is located. Many providers exercise this right to further market themselves by participating in discussions on area boards and including a link to their website within their post.

In cases where providers try to circumvent TER rules, we moderate them until they understand the rules; their ads are removed or denied if they are already moderated. Are we perfect? No but many times another moderator will catch an ad that violates the rules and will take action or inform the board moderator of any issues.

Regarding Mini Reviews:

TER has strict rules regarding posting of mini reviews. I have attached a link below. In essence, a mini review can only be posted for a visiting provider with fewer than three reviews or NO reviews in the past three months. Mini reviews can only be posted by experienced reviewers with five or more reviews.

http://www.theeroticreview.com/discussion_boards/viewmsg.asp?MessageID=75540&boardID=33&page=

It is certainly possible for a Maryland based provider who meets the above criteria to visit D.C. and have a mini review posted for her. In such a case the review must be posted on the board where she posts her touring ad and not her home board.

If you are unhappy with the current rules, I strongly suggested you post on the Suggestion and Policy board your recommendation or send an email to [email protected]

If you have reason to believe that a provider or gent is violating TER posting rules with their post or a post is not relevant for its current board, I suggest you pm the board moderator with a link to the post and why you believe action needs to be taken. The moderator will either take action or give you his reasons for allowing the post and how it complies with the rules. If you are not a VIP member and can’t PM the moderator, then I suggest you start a new thread on the board and edit your post; directing the moderator’s attention to the offending thread or post and he will respond accordingly.

Now that we have regional ad boards.

The DC board would be less cluttered and the Maryland board would be infested with crickets. Perhaps the DC and Maryland should be combined like old times.