A Brief History of CuddleComfort
Too many pros around here!! They're only in it for the money!! Grumble, grumble. Too expensive! Moan, groan. They don't respond!! They shouldn't have profiles if they're not active! Kvetch, kvetch. Oh, no, most of the pros have been deactivated!! There aren't enough of them now!! Whatever will we do!! Moan, whine.
Your historical context is spot on, @BlueIris !
I think there are a few sides to this. the site placing more stringent protocols in place to receive the percentage that was due them anyway is great, the site exists as a enterprise, if the pros don't contribute , the site cant be sustained. nothing changed other that it became more professional and any pro acting as a business has to have a means of paying the royalty to the site. it will level out give it a few weeks and some pros will return. some will and have become non-pros.
@Jay222 Female Pros have been obligated to the 15% for the nearly 2 years I’ve been around, this is not a new fee. It is simply a more reliable way for the site owner to collect the fees. And those fees are what allow the site owner to offer the site to us for free. Basically we who are enthusiasts and never hire a pro are freeloaders, who are welcomed with somewhat open arms.
The bigger issue for me is the loss to the cuddling community. We just lost a bunch of people we talked with, were friends with, shared personal space with, and cuddled. change takes some adjustment. its a great community
@mickcuddle Thank you for the correction. I thought all pros paid a flat rate per month, but I guess that only applies to male pros. I was unaware female pros paid 15% already. I have only cuddled with paid pros and have put out my share of money. However, it doesn't change the fact that we have lost numerous pros and connections with this change (though I do understand why the change was implemented) and that the high costs are going to limit clients, and thus we will continue to see pros leave the site for lack of business. Just my opinion/observation over the last 6 months. 125-140 (with travel) for 1 hour is steep. I like this site and hope there is a leveling out. The potential for growth is great.
Hello BlueIris :-) it's been awhile! The irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife lol. Hope you are well
@BlueIris its too hot! Wait its too cold! Its just right! Wait no its not!
As a non-pro this thread deepens my sense of disappointment with this site, even though I did meet a person with whom I've connected. I am approached more and more by men who assume I am a pro and ask my rates in the first message and ask to see me the same day. One today, and not the first, told me to get off the site if I refuse to cuddle him, and blocked me. This, I'm sure, is why non-pros are driven off this site. We come here for an affectionate human connection and are treated like commodities.
@snuggleup101 I am so sorry to hear you were treated so rude. It would be great to see more non pro females on this site (and in my area) who are active.
As I mentioned yesterday two men who had visited me had were greyed out with an hour of their visit. They were both men so I'm assuming it wasn't only pro's that were banned.
It's just good business practice to have a direct payment method on file. For those pro's who chose not to do it they aren't serious about their company. Ladies, and men; this is YOUR company. Your business. The only one you're hurting by not renewing is yourself. I know of other professional cuddle services that are truly legitimate and they charge also.
From a woman's perspective and one who has no pro's around to hire either male or female; but did reach out to an inactive pro within driving distance but never got a response. I'm glad to see the culling of chaf. I would also be interested to see the amount of non legitimate pro's that are still around.
There is a huge double standard between the pro woman and the enthusiast woman and I'm absolutely sick and 100% over it. So help me if I get propositioned one more time and have the response be along the lines of well the pro's are business the enthusiasts are flexible or vice versa I will delete my account myself.
This site is broken, and any changes that allow it to become more professional and mainstream I'm all for. All the professional's I have a high opinion of are still here. Including new one's less than 3 months pro.
I did get a message from a pro today, I did notice the new protocols in place for booking. I hadn't visited her page today either, the new warnings popped up when I hit reply. Those are very forward changes @Mark, thank you for those. I have to admit I did entertain a wish we female enthusiasts also had pop up's that require the same acknowledgements the professional pages now have!
@snuggleup101 , I am also sorry to hear that. I feel for the non pros somewhat, again now that they are more prevalent than before. With all the non active pros deactivated, I think it will be more challenging for non pros such as yourself. Even with policies in place to "shield "you from attention, I think this large reduction of profiles will have unintentional consequences. Like someone mentioned earlier, it will eventually level out. Everyone just hang on! It's definitely an eye opener about how many profiles needed addressed.
@snuggleup101 that is also an old tired whine. We as non professional women have had that complaint since the beginning of the site.
The loss of unprofessional pro's isn't making it any harder on the women's enthusiast side. Too this day I still get brisk, rude requests like that. Men on this site must face so much failure they forget what common politeness is. The volume of crass or rude requests hasn't changed since this was put in place. At least not for me.
Personally I tell him off if he messages something like that to me. I used to be polite, try and get a better request out of him but now it's just scram Sam. More than a few men and women don't like me on this site because of my forthrightness that may border on rudeness to those you have never had to hear no as an answer. If you don't like what I have to say don't read it. If you don't want to be polite or civilized in your request to cuddle me don't even let the words tap off your fingers. So what? Again, who needs a mess like that? I'm already messy enough without adding a whack a doodle into the mix.
If he blocked you because you refused to cuddle him you should be glad instead of sounding slightly like you're complaining. Why would you want to risk being alone in a room with a hot head like that? He sounds unstable to me and it's hard to relax when you are worried about what will happen any moment.
My Pro dropped out over the credit card issue, citing privacy concerns. In my opinion, until fees for Pros are reduced, there will be more attrition. 15% strikes me as much too high. Half that is about right. Even in my large metropolitan area (Detroit), there is little selection. Non pros aren't actually available.
I have a question... More of a moral check. How would you handle recently deactivated pros that have your direct contact info contacting you for a cuddle? I know pros have a non-compete clause but as a nonpro do we have an obligation to say no?
Sorry, PaulaDahla, but your post sounds as angry as some of the messages from men now contacting me. I try not to criticize anyone on this site. I will not give a mean dismissal to someone who reaches out to me. I try to embody the empathy this site is predicated on. There is something very wrong with this site if the members, male and female, end up angry and disrespectful to each other. I had certainly hoped that other women here would be more supportive of each other.
My feeling on this is, new pros are using this site to initially promote their business and then go independent. Secondly, more non pros using this site to meet people for platonic relationships they hire will develop into longer committed relationships.
Either way, members see this as a safe place to begin.
Louis
Professionals always ask for ID which I provide. However, the times when I've asked the professional to verify their ID, they didn't want to provide and felt offended that I would ask. Now that Cuddle Comfort is verifying professionals' identity with credit card verification, that puts everyone on a more even identity verifying playing field.
I am in Portland, Oregon area and a few of the cuddlers that I've had several cuddles with are no longer on the website. In the last few days we went from 40-50 professionals in the area and today we are down to nine.
@CuddleBearRob ---- if a professional that I've cuddled with before and is now not on CC Website I know what I'm going to do. I don't see anything in the non-professional agreement stating I can't accept the appointment. If I'm wrong on this, someone please correct me.
@snuggleup101 and @PaulaDahla I don't mind the culling. Luckily, I am getting missed over by the creeper wave left behind so I'm glad for that. I genuinely care for people and I want people to succeed, and as messed up as it is, I will criticize. Keep in mind I don't intend to ridicule, I simply state "what you said gave off this impression" one of 2 things usually happens an it's I'm buddy will basically block me in which case cool! The other is a conversation and that is awesome also! This usually confronts them with what they have said. Some will be receptive and some won't. I don't know if it might help you ladies out but it's been kind of a fun social experiment at the least!
@CuddleBearRob personally, I would stop contacting unless they send you another source that acts as a booking service to sort through. Doing direct seems like it's hitting some grey area that could have some bad results. Just my opinion though.
Also @BlueIris , friggin dead on! Especially after spending the last few days reading through old post! Lmao
i think i can provide some insight here. The structure of how sessions are booked has changed. You must set up annappointment via the booking dashboard. Also, you are required to add a valid credit card to the site. I also think a lot of pros have yet to add their credit information so, their account has been deactivated until they do so.
When this site first started, there were no pros. That evolved. Now we have lost a lot of girls that either preferred some level of anonymity or perhaps they dont have a credit card.
My friends list shrunk by 1/3. Many of those were active pros. I imagine we will see some price creep with fewer pros. And I dont think Mark will realize any big jump in revenue. This site just got worse.
I'm new here. It would have been interesting to see how many pros there were before the account deletions, but I'd only searched with the pros excluded. I'm about an hour from Salt Lake City, Utah. Within 50 miles of me, as of today, there's only one pro cuddler, and she's even farther away, about 2 hours from SLC. In that same area, there are about 2 dozen non-pro men and 3 non-pro women, including myself. That's just not very many options, period.
I kinda wish the inactive non pros were excluded. I know there is a filter but there are several non pros within 10 miles of me and they haven't been active in over a year and its frustrating
It may take a few days for Pros to get their butt back on the bandwagon. I was deactivated for less than 24 hours when I kicked myself for not connecting my credit card earlier as a Pro. From the sounds of things it is a good implementation, especially deactivating accounts that have been abandoned which turn into wasted time for some.
@jay222 I think a cap is a great idea! But a doubt it'll happen. I do find the 15% quite high as well (probably one of the top reasons many fell off even though they should have been paying their part before anyways), especially if you're doing decent as a Pro with getting sessions booked, yet more painful to those that aren't. One booking on average could pay for what some other sites charge per month (very few). Alas, super smart on the owners of the site part since this is still such a small world yet, so why not make a decent profit of it?
@Cuddler97230 firstly thank you for not making a fit when asked for an ID from a Pro. When asked I have a school ID I show that doesn't have my personal address on it and that's usually enough. I do wish there was more of a protocol put in place for the non-pros, but I also understand what we are getting into and how it's more of our job to ensure safety.
All in all I love this platform and it's a fantastic place to begin and hopefully the Pros that were deactivated like me get back on it for the sake of the non-pros that sound like their missed.
As a pro myself… And being on this website for a full year I noticed when I first joined last winter that the wintertime itself seems very hard time to make and keep appointments. I don’t know if it’s just due to the weather etc. but a lot more people will stay home if they think it’s going to snow they have to stay home if it does snow or they don’t want to go out if they think it’s going to snow because I don’t want to get stuck not being able to go back home afterwards… Just a thought. I know this past summer I was very busy but I also was not working full-time. I updated my availability status not only in my profile but under my about me and I still get people trying to book appointments for the middle of the afternoon. It’s tough as a pro when people will contact you without even reading your profile first or requirements for a meeting etc.
The cuddling is obviously much more personal than walking into a hairdresser & sitting down to get your hair cut. I have to go through screening process for safety and comfort. I require to talk to people with a video chat first. If we’re both comfortable with one another and I feel safe with the person then I will schedule a meet in person. If at that point anything becomes odd or creepy then I reserve the right to not invite them back to my apartment for a session. With the people I have cuddled with this is always worked out very well and I’ve never gotten to a point where I meet someone in person and didn’t want to have a session afterwards. Video chats really help. Kim
@BashfulLoner , there is the search option to filter for "last online":
Thanks
As @BlueIris mentioned, I've found it quite bewildering to see the sudden change of heart when it comes to one of the main complaints of this website. It was always how there were too many Pros, too many who are inactive, too many just doing it for a quick buck and how that reduces the community and social feel of this place. Now that we have more enthusiasts showing in results and far less Pros, that apparently is now the problem.
However, I obviously expected this would be a controversial event and I do greatly appreciate the diverse opinions on it here. I recognise there has been some sacrifice but I continue to believe this has been a net positive.
I also recognise that there are likely to be some de-activated Pros who actually do care about the community but had some privacy concerns. I have now addressed this in an email which was sent out moments ago. It explains how to use Privacy.com to generate a free virtual card with no fees that hides your real information from us and our merchant.
I think alot of people who aren't here became pro because they enjoyed to cuddle,and or looked to make some money for the effort they had to put in . The difference with the site changes is they didnt see themselves as a business.
People will and have started to rethink the new reqts, some will not. I feel for the cuddlers that fostered connections with those that left, some were very involved, I'm sure some have contemplated their decision, and are sad to be deactivated,:some I see have became non-pro. Riling off on the costs of cuddling is a common theme. I rather not pay or pay less too. I've had long cuddles by nonpros and am spoiled. In paying for me there is a Cost vs. Benefit Ratio. It is based on what things cost that I pay for in my selfcare. I'd love to cuddle with alot of people and for long hours but I cant afford it. If people work with me great, if not ok too. I dont host unless I'm traveling staying in a hotel or with a nonpro. I'd entertain the idea with a pro if we can negotiate for more time or multi hr rate or I dont do it. I appreciate the upmost someone opening their home to me, their personal space to me and their arms to me. It's still a great community giving cuddle comfort to alot of people in dire need of being held, touched, talked to. I look foward to the community growing larger than before and better.
@Mark "I have now addressed this in an email which was sent out moments ago. It explains how to use Privacy.com to generate a free virtual card with no fees that hides your real information from us and our merchant."
That sounds very useful; I hope privacy.com is mentioned in the sign up process too. Unfortunately it requires users to be US citizens with a US bank account, so it's not a solution for people in other countries.
"I've found it quite bewildering to see the sudden change of heart when it comes to one of the main complaints of this website. It was always how there were too many Pros, too many who are inactive"
For myself, the main complaint was not that there were too many professionals, just that they don't always reply. Pros are my main source of cuddles! If there were five inactive professionals, one of whom I got to eventually cuddle, it's a loss for me if all five disappear.
Not that setting up this payment system is inherently a bad idea; it just has consequences.
"Now that we have more enthusiasts showing in results and far less Pros, that apparently is now the problem."
The net effect for some people is that there are fewer professionals available to them now, and we don't really know if those professionals will ever come back -- and since they are deactivated, there is no way to get them a message. In areas with few clients, I have "woken up" several pros who had been inactive for quite a few months. Two in particular I would love to cuddle when I visit their city. I almost saw one of them once but she had an emergency and had to cancel. Now I have no way of contacting that person (and since there are so few clients in her area she may not feel it is worth the effort to rejoin). Fortunately I have contact info for the other person, and I can encourage her to reactivate.
I'm also wondering how much the requirement for a credit card might put people off from becoming professionals in the first place (though I understand the argument to make sure they are serious about it). Could there be a "grace period" for a few weeks before they require it? Or would that defeat the whole purpose?