Hello Everyone,
I thought that I would take some time to clue everybody into the status and progress of where the site stands, as well as some of my thoughts and plans for the future.
I think most everyone is aware that I had a recent PayPal snafu back in August and I can’t take payments or accept new members to the website at this time. I informed everyone that I would be working to get the proper paperwork and applications filed to be able to use a different payment processor. For those of you who haven’t been following along, that process has been less than efficient and extremely time consuming and slow. As I may have stated previously, basically, I am waiting for the US government and a third party (all of which have already been paid by me) to get something done. So, needless to say, they are in no hurry to accomplish this.
As some of you who have been with me for a while might know, I have been less than satisfied with the company who provides the Webhosting for MartyrBondage.com. A company called Wix. Over the past several years, I have had nothing but frustrations, errors, oversights and relationship damaging interactions with Wix. Let’s face it, they are a big company that is out of touch with the market that they are in. It’s 2022 and they have no way of providing their website administrators/managers (me, basically) with the ability to schedule posts. I have emailed them countless times, explaining to them that I work a very erratic schedule in my career and that I require the ability to schedule posts to maintain a consistent update schedule and ensure my content is brought to you in a timely manner. They insist that this basic and essential feature is not possible. Which frankly is a load of horseshit. If EVERY OTHER website on the planet can do it, why can’t Wix? I’ll tell you why, because they don’t care. They are basically the equivalent of having a website operated by Walmart.
To top it all off, the guy who I have been working with to try to get a new payment processor through Wix sent me an email saying I need to fill out like 5 more things that need to be processed. Why was this not relayed to me sooner? Why did weeks and weeks and weeks go by while we were waiting for other things to get processed that this couldn’t have been brought to my attention? At this point, I’m starting to feel like this is a scam that they just keep adding shit on that I need to get filled out and signed and that there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
While Martyr Bondage was at its peak and operating regularly, I always felt trapped with Wix. Subscribers were paying monthly and expecting new updates regularly, and considering that all the subscribers’ memberships renewed on a different day of the month, how could I possibly move away from Wix and move MB elsewhere?
With all this being said, and after much consideration and contemplation, I have decided that with the current state of the website, now would be the perfect time to move MB to a different platform and to rid myself of the awful, awful company that is Wix once and for all.
Those of you who are fans of real life bondage and are familiar with some of my customs will likely know the bondage producer known as Shinybound. Shiny and a tech partner of his have been in the process of creating a new website platform designed for NSFW content creators, producers and models. In the last few weeks, I have communicated with Shiny about getting onboard with this so that he and his partner can create a brand new and custom designed Martyrbondage.com.
Of course, Shiny’s website Shinybound.com would come first, then other websites would be built first come, first serve. This being the case, I’m not quite sure where I fall in this list or what the time frame is toward getting this process completed.
I know that this is probably the last thing that some of you would like to hear, as I know several of you have been very anxious to join MB (and I cannot thank you enough for your excitement), but I feel that this would be the best thing for the website in the long run. But don’t lose hope just yet. I have considered those of you who have been patiently waiting and looking for a way to join, and I think I have an idea.
Some of you may be familiar with a content subscription site known as Subscribestar.com. A site similar to Patreon, but that actually allows content like what I create. I had joined SS a few years ago between getting kicked from Patreon and the creation of MB.com, but ultimately MB took over the priority. I have since resurrected my SS account and in recent weeks been in talks with their tech team regarding some changes that I think should take place. Namely that their platform is just a continuous scrolling format just like Patreon. Personally, I cannot stand these kinds of formats because older images tend to get lost in the bottom making users have to scroll and scroll forever, and with the size of my images becoming larger and larger, this is not ideal at all. So, I proposed a gallery format to them (something similar to what you see here on MB). Something that the creator (like myself) can choose as their overall look (maybe some people want the continuous scrolling thing). Now, you might be saying to yourself “Why would a website like Subscribestar listen to Martyr and create a gallery format just because he asked?”, and that is a valid question. But I can tell you that they have been extremely receptive to this idea and have responded to me back and forth through several emails. When I first used Subscribestar a few years ago, I was brand new to using them, and had only been a creator for a few days. I was having issues posting larger images to their platform because I was getting a notification that said “max image size exceeded” (or something like that), so I emailed them to say “Hey, I have some pretty large image sizes that I would like to post. What can I do to get around this?” They responded very quickly by saying “Oh… you need your image size requirements boosted up? No problem, we just changed your settings to allow you to post larger size images. It should be good to go.” Sure enough, I was able to post huge images with no issues right away. Initially I thought “What the hell? Why would they just go and do that for me, a brand new user?” but I can tell you, I’ve been very impressed with them in regards to taking care of their creators. They’ve responded to every one of my emails with quickness, professionalism and understanding and to be honest, I have a lot of confidence based on what they’ve sent me regarding the gallery format. I can often paint a good picture with my words and be very persuasive when I want to be, and I think that helped ‘show them the light’. 😁
Anyway, the reason that I mention all this about Subscribestar is that I plan to use them as a redundant format for those of you who are looking to join MB and to see my content. As of right now, there is only a fraction of my art on SS, but it is a work in progress. I plan on posting as much stuff as I can to SS so that those of you who have been waiting, won’t have to wait too much longer. Just remember that they are still currently using their continuous scrolling format until they can get the gallery format in place.
I still plan on keeping the current version of MB up and running while the newer version through Shinybound gets built and formed. There will likely be some overlap time between the two, but eventually, I plan on closing the Wix version down so that I never have to deal with them ever again.
In my opinion, the current state of the NSFW industry is going through a very dark time. I feel it necessary to try to have as many platforms for my content as possible, because you never know when a platform will rip the rug right out from underneath you. I have had it happen more times than it ever should to the whole of our community, let alone one creator.
Anyway, just to reiterate and bullet point everything, because I know there is a lot to read:
A new version of Martyrbondage.com will open with the help of Shinybound’s new platform.
The current version of Martyrbondage.com will stay open while the new site is built (unfortunately without the ability to take payments)
In the meantime, Subscribestar.com will be utilized as an alternative and as a way to allow new members to view content and will stay open indefinitely.
Eventually, the current version of Martyrbondage.com will close once the URL is transferred to Shinybound’s new platform.
Thankfully, all the work, forms, government documents, etc. that I was working on over the past few months are needed to build the site with Shiny, so that time and effort will not go in vain. From what I can tell, all the documents that I need for him are complete and I don’t need to deal with more of that. I had been thinking about leaving Wix for a long time, but I just couldn’t because of how locked in I felt. All the BS in the last few weeks of dealing with them just brought up old resentments and gave me the assurance to know that Wix will never change. Every time I tried to contact Wix, I got a completely different person responding to my emails. It just felt like a ridiculous waste of time and that I was dealing with a ‘big box’ store versus a Mom & Pop shop. You know, like the ' ‘Your call is very important to us, please stay on the line and your call will be answered by the next available representative. Your expected wait time is ‘45 to 75 minutes’’ kind of thing. I was just another number and not a person. I’ve known Shiny for years. Although we’ve never met in person, I already have a report with him and we’ve bounced emails back and forth both professionally and just BSing with one another. I just have to get out of Wix and put that behind me. If I don’t do it now, I will just be locked in with them forever.
For those of you who might be interested in utilizing Subscribestar as a way of seeing content while the new MB is constructed, I have a bit of a question that I would like some input on if possible. Unfortunately, I can’t create a poll here on MB (again, because Wix is terrible (long story)), so if you could, would you please comment your opinion on the two options I will list in the following paragraph? I will likely post a poll to DeviantArt as well, so you can go there to click your vote if you’d like also.
My dilemma is, Subscribestar’s format for uploading content is a bit tedious and takes a little longer than the average platform, and it doesn’t help that I have hundreds of images that need to go up to bring Subscribestar up to date with MB.com. So, my question is, would you prefer that I post images to Subscribestar in the order in which they were posted here on MB, or, would you prefer that I just post things in any random order and get as much newer stuff up as possible? Both options will have their pros and cons.
If I post images in order, the pros are that everything will get posted in the same progression as it was here on MB and it will be a bit more organized for me, but the con is that it will take a bit longer because I have to dig into folders, find the images, then go here to MB and copy the text for the stories and paste that into the post. Things will be a bit more organized this way, but it will probably take me at least 5 minutes to post an image. This might not sound like a lot, but for someone who is limited on free time as it is, this adds up very quickly.
If I just post images randomly, you will be able to see newer content posted to Subscribestar much sooner than if I go through the process of doing everything in order. The downside to this is that there certainly is the opportunity to miss posting some images/stories. I have hundreds of images and it can be difficult to keep track of them all. So some stuff might get missed. The upside is that I can post things in whatever order I want, so if I do miss an image or story that you’ve been anxious to see, you can always email/message me and I will be happy to post it for you.
So if you could, please let me know in what format you would like to see images posted to Subscribestar and I will take everyone’s comments and suggestions into consideration. Please let me know if you see any other drawbacks or benefits to either method, or if you have another idea. I’m always open to hearing suggestions about these sorts of things.
I hope you all understand that this is for the best and will benefit everything in the long run. By utilizing Subscribestar, I think that will help make the wait seem more bearable. If anyone has any further comments or suggestions, I encourage them below. I’m open to suggestions for other alternative platforms or ways to make this work. What I mentioned above will still be the main core of the plan, but I am willing to explore other avenues to try to widen the Martyr Bondage reach.
Thank you all for your patience and understanding. I hope you all have a very Happy Holiday season and a prosperous and stress free New Year,
Marty
