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Just got this email from Hot or Not: I know we've sent you a few messages about HOTorNOT not being free anymore, but I wanted to send you one last email to explain whats going on.
We made the site free in hopes that advertising could cover the costs of running the site (it costs over $100,000 a month!).
Going free caused all sorts of problems, the primary one being webcam spammers who started trying to hack the system like crazy. We tried all sorts of things like IP blocking and stuff, but none of it worked. I get lots of weird messages on Myspace now too, so I know we're not the only ones getting hit by them.
Long story short, we decided that instead of seeing the site continue to degrade, we'd rather start charging again for now. We had a transition period for 2 weeks where we gave people 2 free messages a day in order to not screw those people who made friends but can't afford the $6 a month, but as of a few days ago, we finished the transition back to the old system. Most of the spammers have disappeared since we did that.
We know it sucks to be given something free only to have it taken back. I promise you we tried our hardest over the last 6 months to avoid it.
For those of you that have already signed up again, thank you, thank you, thank you!!! For those who haven't signed up yet, we hope that you will consider supporting us again and hope that you are not too mad at all these changes. By the way, since we went free for 6 months, there are a lot more non-star members and a lot less star members right now.. meaning star members have a serious extra advantage in meeting hotties. :)
We realize that all these changes piss some people off, but we hope you understand that all of this was just us trying our best to have a cooler website that people would like more. You can hate me for lots of things (and my ex-girlfriends can provide you with a long list of reasons ;) ), but please don't hate us for trying and failing. One person even accused us of going through all of this as some sort of evil, complex marketing scheme.. i can assure you that if we were just concerned about making money, we would never have tried going free in the first place.
For a lengthier explanation of why we had to undo going free, and also to see the level of stress that it's been causing me personally, you can read check out my blog at http://james.hotornot.com.
Anyhow.. I'm already really upset that we failed, and even more upset that some people are accusing us of all sorts of evil things, but if anyone wants to yell at me more or wants further explanation,at the risk of being deluged by phone calls, you can reach me on my cell phone at 415-501-9780... encouraging, supportive calls are always nice too, btw, especially from hotties ;)
sincerely,
james
PS EXTRA NOTE IF YOU GOT AN EXPIRATION NOTICE RECENTLY
By the way, some of you got membership expiration notices last night even though you cancelled ages ago.. For those of you who had star memberships in the past and cancelled them, we basically stopped charging you but we were still giving you the benefits of star memberships (we basically wanted to reward people who ever supported us in the past). But since we are going back to star memberships, we had to finally cut those accounts off, and that is why you just got the expiration emails last night even though you cancelled a long time ago. If you ever liked our service in the past, please consider helping us out by signing up again! Thanks!!
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