Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics • Hacker News Board

Re: Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

#561

Post by morkalork » Fri, Sep 13, 2024, 4:35 PM UTC

marxisttemp wrote: post #537

RandomThoughts3 wrote: post #242

What I find fascinating/disturbing with OnlyFans and in some way with Twitch and streaming in general is more the client side than the creators. Here are basically people paying, and paying a lot, for parasocial relationships. Because clearly it’s not about the content per see which is a dim a dozen and available for free in trove. I think it says something quite dark about our society as a whole that we have basical…

I feel this way about strip clubs. I’m pretty libertine and think that if you can make money dancing naked, more power to ya, but the few times I’ve been dragged to a strip club all I can focus on is the clientele who as you say largely seem to be chasing this dark, parasocial connection that can never be what they need it to be.

Burlesque shows are a 100% more fun than an actual strip club especially if they incorporate some good ol slapstick vaudeville routines in between the strip teases. The audience is also way less greasy.

Re: Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

#562

Post by IncreasePosts » Fri, Sep 13, 2024, 4:37 PM UTC

jayd16 wrote: post #518

mudita wrote: post #497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It not only doesn’t require interaction, the lack of interaction is what makes is parasocial.

So like, movies are more para social because they have less interaction?

No, because people don't usually form an opinion that the movie cares about them.

Re: Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

#563

Post by MisterBastahrd » Fri, Sep 13, 2024, 4:37 PM UTC

whoopdedo wrote: post #469

qingcharles wrote: post #456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This view isn't matched by the stats. I have a friend who is a successful OF model and only a fraction of one percent of her subscribers ever DM her. A lot of them subscribe, see what they want and then immediately delete their accounts. There's no apparent relationship between her fans and her, for the most part.

>subscribe ... and then immediately delete their accounts Sounds like credit card fraud to me. Bots using stolen cards to scrape OF content. Also easily verifies that the number works before attempting a pricier purchase.

Sounds like normal human behavior.

The problem with subscription sites like that is that paying for a month's subscription gives you access to the entire backlog of the work that a person has been doing for years. There's only so much that an OF model is gonna be able to do in terms of posing before they've done all the angles that someone would want to see. Why pay for repetitive content when you can just pay for a month and download everything, wait a year, and then do it again?

If these sites were smart, they'd implement a 3 month rolling backlog and then a set add-on price for accessing additional months worth of content.

Re: Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

#564

Post by mudita » Fri, Sep 13, 2024, 4:37 PM UTC

jayd16 wrote: post #518

mudita wrote: post #497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It not only doesn’t require interaction, the lack of interaction is what makes is parasocial.

So like, movies are more para social because they have less interaction?

I wouldn’t say that movies per se are parasocial, but if you behave and feel like you have a relationship with somebody in a movie, then it’s probably parasocial.

To a degree it’s also quite normal to have parasocial reactions to personaes from media, it only becomes problematic once people substitute actual social relationships with extreme parasocial relationships.

Re: Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

#565

Post by acdha » Fri, Sep 13, 2024, 4:37 PM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #361

acdha wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of millennials who have conservative views about something, and don’t forget that the damage is done regardless of the motivation. From the perspective of the victim, it doesn’t matter whether the person who just sent their boss the link to their OF is a zealous right-wing Christian or an incel bitter about being turned down. Millennials are more accepting about sexuality on average but a double digi…

I doubt any boss would open an onlyfans link and if they tried I'd expect the company firewall would block it. I could imangine a boss getting links to those videos on some other site that looks innocent [perhaps at home] but the boss is unlikely to do anything as those are what you do in private. The only exception would be if you work for a church where such is not allowed - and even then if it is a much younger yo…

You would be so very, very wrong. Try searching the news and you’ll find plenty of examples of employers who feel they should have a say in what employees do on their own time - that’s most commonly schools but far from exclusive: the most common justification is that this somehow reflects on their corporate image but some will use more overtly religious justifications, too. This is especially common as people climb the ladder, so someone might have a decision they made in college haunt them decades later.

The other thing to consider is that it’s not just whether you get fired but also whether it has other negative effects like creating a hostile workplace with “jokes” or having to fend off harassers who think you’re easy or will acquiesce as the price of silence.

Re: Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

#566

Post by standardUser » Fri, Sep 13, 2024, 4:37 PM UTC

lynx23 wrote: post #122

braza wrote: post #118

Not a moralistic take, but one issue that interests me is the second-order impacts associated with the long tail of producers in OF who do not make a career from it. With traditional adult entertainment, creators are aware of the social ramifications (e.g., social stigma, familial ostracism, difficulty dealing with the future, and so on), and there is a decent theoretical economic framework to measure that. I am not…

Well, those civilians who can think for themselves, especially about the consequences of their actions, are clearly in advantage. I am lacking empathy for those who are apparently so hooked up to the here-and-now that they seem to ignore the future. If you sell your body, most societies will punish you. Thats fine, societies have all sorts of norms we all need to learn.

Historically, many of societies' "norms" have been hateful, vile and narrowly targeted. There is a thousand years of history showing us that we are better off challenging norms than adhering to them.

Re: Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

#567

Post by IncreasePosts » Fri, Sep 13, 2024, 4:39 PM UTC

vunderba wrote: post #452

RandomThoughts3 wrote: post #242

What I find fascinating/disturbing with OnlyFans and in some way with Twitch and streaming in general is more the client side than the creators. Here are basically people paying, and paying a lot, for parasocial relationships. Because clearly it’s not about the content per see which is a dim a dozen and available for free in trove. I think it says something quite dark about our society as a whole that we have basical…

Although Onlyfans is certainly more exploitative, I would argue that this concept of one-way parasocial relationships has existed since basically the dawn of humanity and likely has roots to our earliest fundamental tribalistic nature. I mean look at the extremely popular K-pop bands, fans get insanely invested into these groups, following them, bringing glowsticks to show support, etc. Or the entire Japanese idol mo…

You say one-way parasocial relationships have existed since basically the dawn of humanity, but all the examples you give are of things that have only become popular in, generously, the last century.

Re: Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

#568

Post by steve_adams_86 » Fri, Sep 13, 2024, 4:39 PM UTC

jayd16 wrote: post #523

paxys wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's way worse in the case of YouTube/Twitch than OnlyFans IMO. People have been paying for pornography/sex for millennia. It's just part of human nature. On the other hand an 11 year old throwing money at MrBeast...why?

I'm sure celebrities and socialites and thought leaders and such have existed throughout time ... But we've gotten really good at monetizing it.

I suspect it was always monetized as well, but the internet allows for both for a massive increase in followers and an increasingly easy path for money to move from the followers’ wallets to the celebrities. It seems new or unprecedented, but similar models have existed on smaller scales for thousands of years at least.

Re: Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

#569

Post by standardUser » Fri, Sep 13, 2024, 4:40 PM UTC

Freak_NL wrote: post #342

seper8 wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

That would depend entirely on her circumstances. Is she a professional helping disabled people like my example above? That's laudable. A self-employed dominatrix with a select clientele? Sounds lucrative. A popular OnlyFans starlet just making some money on the side during her studies? Clever. Participating in explicit forms of BDSM porn? If she does so of her own volition, with the consent of all parties involved, f…

Well said, and unnecessarily downvoted for such a thoughtful comment.

Re: Breaking Down OnlyFans' Economics

#570

Post by DiscourseFan » Fri, Sep 13, 2024, 4:40 PM UTC

sesm wrote: post #560

RandomThoughts3 wrote: post #242

What I find fascinating/disturbing with OnlyFans and in some way with Twitch and streaming in general is more the client side than the creators. Here are basically people paying, and paying a lot, for parasocial relationships. Because clearly it’s not about the content per see which is a dim a dozen and available for free in trove. I think it says something quite dark about our society as a whole that we have basical…

> clearly it’s not about the content per see which is a dim a dozen and available for free in trove. I think there is a darker side there: many of those subscribers are minors, who discover this kind of content for the first time. That's why OF models stream on Twitch to expand their audience, there are plenty of kids who came there for Minecraft, but will end up subscribing to OF with mom's credit card.

So we should have a service, instead, that pairs up horny teenagers or puts them in group settings where they can explore their sexuality in a more directly social way? Or what do you suggest, that they don’t have an outlet for these urges?