Steven...a question.

[flagg4169]

Do you foresee returning to a five day a week update schedule on TGIRLS, FEMOUT and BOB'S?

[GroobySteven]

Bobs never was 5 days a week. When we took it over it was 3 or 4 days a week, but it was split video and photo updates (or 1/2 sets). We moved it to full 4x a week full sets including a regular hardcore every second week.

Femout and Tgirls I don't see changing from the current format - which is 4 full updates (including a full length hardcore on Tgirls.xxx every week, and every second on Femout.xxx) as well as added bonus sets.
It takes a monumental effort to get this much content across the sites each week, and make the budgets work while looking to try new stuff also.

[flagg4169]

Thanks, Steven. The across the platform efforts are appreciated.

[GroobySteven]

One thing - I've love us to be able to shoot more and show more. We've been flexible over the amount of shoots, over the years and trying different things. Adding the orgasm 'one-shots' to BTG and GroobyGirls increased the budget a bit, but they were well received as was moving GroobyGirls to a hardcore a week (very expensive) but it's well liked. The ability to shoot more, isn't just model fees/producer fees, it's that we're at capacity with in-house photo and video editors and that would require new hires. I'm also very wary of not keeping a good balance on Grooby's books. In the event things take a downturn (within this economy could), or banking issues (just Google for the adult industry's problems there or the myriad of other problems, I want to be able to ride any storms, as we have done multiple times over the past 25 years.

If I could find a way to double the amount of shoots, without adding too much stress on myself, and being able to stay profitable and not lower the quality, then I'd love to but it would require some sort of dynamic shift in the industry (a lot more people would need to be paying).

[flagg4169]

I can dig it. The mindset of everything being perceived as free--or as it is best called, theft--drives me up the wall.

[Lifemember]

I second that Flagg. I wish all those freebie sites would get shut down! I can only imagine what could be done with more money.

[Lifemember]

Hey Steven I’m not sure how many VIP members there are but curious if there is an even higher level that we can tap into like elite or exclusive club and pay more for possibly more access?

I’m not sure what that would be exactly maybe sneak peek at model submissions or something but you all are doing an amazing job.

[corbindallas]

I'm trying to think about what's "missing" from grooby, or could make the sites better, and I can think of three ideas that would be very cool and exclusive for it's members:

1. Uncut videos. Some people really like the in-between stuff that is just flat out cut from scenes. I know there's the walking guy on here lol. But for real, all that kind of stuff is edited out of the final product. Stuff like condoms being put on. It's always cut out in porn! Idky. For a finished product fine, but what about an uncut version too?

2. Unused photos. Release the finished sets, definitely, but what about a drop for all photos. There's definitely got to be many that are just cut because they're seen as duplicates or just aren't used based on choice. If members could have access to that too that would be dope.

3. A "MORE OF THIS!" button for all key pages - model, video, pics, and better yet for individual tags. It would be a quick way to for members to steer the powers that be towards what's actually working and appealing about a set. For example, any video with daisy Taylor gets 5 stars. Why?- It's bc of daisy haha. But if we could indicate MORE OF THIS for certain pics or tags it might highlight what we like beyond just the model being hot af.

I'm guessing you guys track what images are downloaded most out of a set and go based on that? Idk how this stuff works but basically adding "more content" without actually filming more content is a win win for us and for you guys.

[Lifemember]

Oh man I’m officially know as the walking guy haha!!!

[GroobySteven]

All valid questions and points. @Lifemember, I don't have the exact count but around 20-25 VIP members. I don't know what further access we can give. I don't think it would be fair to the models to share the submissions (assuming you mean applications), of course we couldn't show rejections but even the models who do come through, they may not be comfortable showing their application photos. We used to have a private VIP forum, and we tried it for a year looking for feedback and such. Grooby100 (aim was to have 100 proper fans of ours) but it became a bit of an echo chamber and didn't really help us much on moving forward, as participation is never as much as we'd like on the forums, and then the loudest members on it, we found were the least spending customers. That's actually something I've noticed via doing customer service, the loudest and biggest complainers, especially the ones who start a dialogue with "I've been a big customer of yours", or "I've been a customer for years", you'll find they join once a year and only on discounts.
It's trying to get the feedback from the biggest spenders, which is the hardest (or maybe they're big spenders because they're happy with what we already do!).

What you need to understand about company is that we never have latency or dead time. There are always projects lined up, and there is always something that needs doing. By bringing the customer service to 100% in-house, and having the management staff run it, we've been able to find out where issue lie faster, and respond to customers needs rapidly thus saving them as customers and helping the bottomline, but that comes at the price of time. Everyone in our company wears multiple hats and is used to doing different tasks, as well as their core jobs. So while there are things we can do to improve, it's going to be a time cost vs reward element to it. We've just redeveloped the sites, to a new look at to help members find and enjoy older content - the reward for us in that, is if people start engaging with the older content, they stay around longer - which is why we've also just started reduxing more video, at a better quality. The longer a customer stays on a site, the more likely they are to rebill. We developed the TgirlTops site based on customer feedback at a time and financial cost, and have to see if that works out. Next up we're looking at a 'History of Trans Porn' site, trying to get all the old (non-Grooby) content, we're looking at developing some different styles of scenes and we're switching to some newer and faster servers. All things which are aimed to increase retention, or bring in new customers.

So to answer your questions @corbindallas

1. That's a horrible idea. LOL. Some scenes flow beautifully, many don't. I think it would be unfair to the performers, it would kill too much of the magic (seeing a girl going into a corner to beat off over some gay porn for 20 mins just to come back and do the cum shot), poop being pulled out, complaints, whines, divas, etc. The complaints a photographer talked to rudely to a model (not knowing the context), the issues of privacy for crew and location, etc, etc.

2. Same as above. We edit bad photos out, bad facial expressions, closed eyes, poop, whatever. It's not fair to show them unedited.

3. We don't track what images are downloaded the most. We could but it would take a full time analyst to deliver meaningful feedback on what works and doesn't, and then to convert that into feedback to the producers. If we were say TransAngels doing one scene a week in a studio, with professional and experienced models, with a crew of 5 and Mindgeek's analysts then it might help but giving even general directions to all the producers can be difficult when every scene and model we work with has different challenges. You can spend all your time looking a data, and still not get it. We may appear to some a bit more haphazard, but that's what works for us and always as. I select every N. American, Russian and European model to work with us, or get reshoots. I base it on my 25 years of experience on knowing what works, and what doesn't (even if it doesn't appeal to me). For reshoots we take a selection of site ratings, feedback on our forums, social media feedback and generally how we feel they went down - as well as if the model as either developed some or not been seen in a long time. Some of it's gut instinct, some of it is experience.
The data would show you that model ABC didn't perform as well as model XYZ over all members, but what it may not show is that ABC appealed so well to 5% of our members as the perfect model, that they will stay with us for another month hoping for another ABC and that XYZ appealed to 90% of our members, but that model XYZ is available on 10 other sites and they can get her there.

We've wanted a tagging system for the members to be able share likes, or a tag cloud on the sites but the system doesn't let us feature that, but it's not that likely we'd use it for anything but the most cursory of feedback.
If you want to register you like/love of a model or a type of shoot, then rate it high, comment on the site, and comment/share a few photos of it here, this is what would give us more impact.

[Lifemember]

Thanks Steven, as always I appreciate the feedback and you don’t have to worry about me! You all have been keeping me happy and a satisfied customer for years.

[MissexSkye]

So to answer your questions @corbindallas

1. That's a horrible idea. LOL. Some scenes flow beautifully, many don't. I think it would be unfair to the performers, it would kill too much of the magic (seeing a girl going into a corner to beat off over some gay porn for 20 mins just to come back and do the cum shot), poop being pulled out, complaints, whines, divas, etc. The complaints a photographer talked to rudely to a model (not knowing the context), the issues of privacy for crew and location, etc, etc.

2. Same as above. We edit bad photos out, bad facial expressions, closed eyes, poop, whatever. It's not fair to show them unedited.


It's actually nice seeing a firm stance on this; every t-girl and femboy that I've ever made content with is extremely uncomfortable with unflattering shots/events being included (for obvious reasons!)



I suppose that I have a question... do models ever shoot with their partners or is it always a pre-determined participant? Also, in your opinion, do top t-girls do as well as the bottom t-girls?

[GroobySteven]

We've shot them with their partners but TBH it's usually disappointing, the best scenes we often get are models wanting to work with a specific scene partner and being their first time together.
I'm not sure what you are asking in the the second part - 'do top t-girls do ..' ?

[MissexSkye]

We've shot them with their partners but TBH it's usually disappointing, the best scenes we often get are models wanting to work with a specific scene partner and being their first time together.
I'm not sure what you are asking in the the second part - 'do top t-girls do ..' ?

I can actually see how shooting with a partner may not be the best idea.
I suppose I probably worded that question a bit obtusely; I meant to ask, are the girls who top as requested/sought after as the ones who don't? I've been back & forth on doing adult work, and thought it would be better to ask someone in your position, instead of bugging my friends.

Sorry about that!

[GroobySteven]

I can actually see how shooting with a partner may not be the best idea.
I suppose I probably worded that question a bit obtusely; I meant to ask, are the girls who top as requested/sought after as the ones who don't? I've been back & forth on doing adult work, and thought it would be better to ask someone in your position, instead of bugging my friends.

Sorry about that!

I think if a model was exclusively top she's probably get less work thus less requested.