#1 November 12th, 2023 04:46 PM

Lancia84

Member

Abbywinters sunsetting... I hope the best for ISM

Hi,

I've got a bad news for every amateur beauties lovers whom had also the idea of ethical porn... Abbywinters stop hiring new model and will use already released matériel due to (mostly) lack of profitability and find the 'right' girl. I would address a kind support to every model or contributor in those difficult times... I hope the best for Ishotmyself. In my point of view, the best beauties are expressed when the model feel self-confident and respected...
Best
L84

Last edited by Lancia84 (November 12th, 2023 04:57 PM)

Lancia84

Member

Re: Abbywinters sunsetting... I hope the best for ISM

I also noticed that some models whom posed for both sites turn back to Ism... Mina B, Otilia, Lilie, Viktoria D... It would be nice to have their feed back about it.
Best

Last edited by Lancia84 (November 23rd, 2023 12:05 AM)

Pegasus899

Member

Re: Abbywinters sunsetting... I hope the best for ISM

Since the move to Amsterdam, abbywinters quickly went in a "porn" direction. It had been raised in the forum's countless times but Garion acted like nothing had changed and didn't understand what everyone was complaining about.

The OG abbywinters was incredible and my all time adult content site so it really is a shame to hear about this. At the same time, I'm really grateful that ISM has stuck true to its values over all these years.

Lancia84

Member

Re: Abbywinters sunsetting... I hope the best for ISM

Hi Pegasus,

It seems that you have a feet in both world... Do you have an updated list with the models whom appears on both site?

Thanks a lot,

L84

Cahoonsfour

Member

Re: Abbywinters sunsetting... I hope the best for ISM

Its funny, I think you can say the exact same for Ishotmyself, ISM has been going down hill and a steep one at that for couple of years.

Everything changed when this website decided to go with phone cameras as the first port of call for taking pics.

Ishotmyself used to be a fantastic website, with truly amateur girls (with the odd model girl exception), high resolution photos.

Now we get low resolution phone pics (not as good as a digital camera) from girls that lets say and I will call a spade a spade, models/porn models from russian and baltic countries with an odd amateur photoset mixed in between - its totally reversed now to what this website was and what it was all about.

It really is sad. This used to be my favourite website. WHY WHY, Why change things when it wasn't broke.

Ishotmyself is now sunsetting.

LeoBloom

Member

Re: Abbywinters sunsetting... I hope the best for ISM

I know nothing about cameras, but when I look at the sets from 20 years ago the image quality always seems to me inferior by comparison.

momerath

Member

Re: Abbywinters sunsetting... I hope the best for ISM

Cahoonsfour has a lot of points I agree with. I have been a member of ISM, on and off, for nigh on 20 years, and I miss seeing as many local contributions (I'm in Australia). Also the quality of photography is a lot more variable at the moment. Please take my comments in the spirit they're meant: in the interests of the great site that is ISM.:-)

redbird

Member

Re: Abbywinters sunsetting... I hope the best for ISM

Its funny, I think you can say the exact same for Ishotmyself, ISM has been going down hill and a steep one at that for couple of years.

Everything changed when this website decided to go with phone cameras as the first port of call for taking pics.

Ishotmyself used to be a fantastic website, with truly amateur girls (with the odd model girl exception), high resolution photos.

Now we get low resolution phone pics (not as good as a digital camera) from girls that lets say and I will call a spade a spade, models/porn models from russian and baltic countries with an odd amateur photoset mixed in between - its totally reversed now to what this website was and what it was all about.

It really is sad. This used to be my favourite website. WHY WHY, Why change things when it wasn't broke.

Ishotmyself is now sunsetting.

You've mentioned this before, and we told you then that a HUGE huge factor that affected our sites was Covid. If it wasn't for a lot of our overseas contributors, it would have been incredibly difficult to stay afloat during that time.

While I understand your disappointment and sentiment that "It's not like it used to be" the truth of the matter is just that we live in a very different world now. OF and the like is increasingly common and here to stay, and to stigmatise and "other" the people that do that or other mainstream porn is just as shitty as saying the same thing about people that have only done work for our sites. I've had people say ATROCIOUS things to me for doing ISM etc, but it's something I believe in and it means so much to so many people. The stigma from doing ANY kind of sex work is always going to be there from those that judge others for doing it, regardless of what it is.

Whether or not these women you've mentioned are models or professional porn actors or on OF etc, they are still PEOPLE. Real people who have thoughts and feelings and dreams. Real people that sometimes frequent these forums. Real people that can see your comments about them, and feel the sting of your judgement towards them.

I get that you miss the digital camera shoots and the "amateur" models on the site, but there's honestly so much content on here that you can still enjoy. I'm sorry that the women aren't to your taste, but that's something that can't really be controlled. At ISM as long as the shoot meets the requirements needed, we accept it - regardless of whether that person is a professional or not.

It could be worth questioning why you feel so strongly towards these women? Could you yourself perhaps be judging them because they do porn? Ironic, I know, given the site you're on, but I get the distinct feeling that it's not just about the quality of shots on a phone vs camera, but rather the people that are doing these shoots. If it's a more "amateur" shoot, you can fantasise that the woman at the local corner shop might do porn, or a cute and shy neighbour, or your friend's hot Mum or something. But having models and OF gals breaks that fantasy a bit hey. Who's to say that someone who does porn often doesn't still get the same benefit and thrill that us amateurs do? It's not for me or you or anyone to speculate at their inner workings and thoughts and motivations about why they do this.

For what it's worth, we've had multiple people on these sites that have gone on to do more mainstream stuff. A few that come to mind are - Angela White, Amarna Miller, and Tindra. For some, ISM is a cheeky fun one-off thing, for others it's a stepping stone towards a larger goal. Both choices are valid.

Babell

Member

Re: Abbywinters sunsetting... I hope the best for ISM

I have not been here for as long as you, so I may be biased because I don't have this nostalgia feeling, but I would just like to say:

Thanks Redbird for this very interesting comment (and for not getting judgmental people getting in your way). I wish it was possible to have such discussions with everyone, and without taboo and hasty judgment.

Momerath, I think the penchant for local girls is very common, so personally, as I'm not Australian, I like to see some diversity.
Everyone has different tastes anyway, so it's impossible to please everyone at same time.

Personally, I think we should not take anything as if it was a due to us. Every contribution is a gift from a person exposing her intimacy, in the way she chooses to. Whether we like it or not is purely personal, but if we don't for any reason, we can just wait for later contributions we may prefer, without judgement.
In my opinion, we should just be grateful for any contribution, because it's contributing to ethical erotica. And take those we really like as a nice bonus.

For photos quality, I think people shoot with what they have best. So of course better quality is valuable, but between relatively lower quality photos and nothing, I prefer the former. Global quality seems ok to me, except for rare contributions.
And if the world is different now than it was 20 years ago, I'm not sure ISM can do anything about it. Seen from a different perspective, it could make the contributions you like even more valuable.

So I really hope ISM is not sunsetting, as you say. Thanks again to everyone contributing to it!

Pegasus899

Member

Re: Abbywinters sunsetting... I hope the best for ISM

Hi Pegasus,

It seems that you have a feet in both world... Do you have an updated list with the models whom appears on both site?

Thanks a lot,

L84

Here is a forum on abbywinters that has the model crossover. If you go back a few pages there is a pdf which seems to be the most complete although still missing some models. I created an updated version but sadly lost it when my NAS was hacked with ransomware.

https://forums.abbywinters.com/vbulleti … gow/page14

Last edited by Pegasus899 (July 14th, 2024 06:14 PM)

Pegasus899

Member

Re: Abbywinters sunsetting... I hope the best for ISM

Whether or not these women you've mentioned are models or professional porn actors or on OF etc, they are still PEOPLE. Real people who have thoughts and feelings and dreams. Real people that sometimes frequent these forums. Real people that can see your comments about them, and feel the sting of your judgement towards them.

I get that you miss the digital camera shoots and the "amateur" models on the site, but there's honestly so much content on here that you can still enjoy. I'm sorry that the women aren't to your taste, but that's something that can't really be controlled. At ISM as long as the shoot meets the requirements needed, we accept it - regardless of whether that person is a professional or not.

It could be worth questioning why you feel so strongly towards these women? Could you yourself perhaps be judging them because they do porn? Ironic, I know, given the site you're on, but I get the distinct feeling that it's not just about the quality of shots on a phone vs camera, but rather the people that are doing these shoots. If it's a more "amateur" shoot, you can fantasise that the woman at the local corner shop might do porn, or a cute and shy neighbour, or your friend's hot Mum or something. But having models and OF gals breaks that fantasy a bit hey. Who's to say that someone who does porn often doesn't still get the same benefit and thrill that us amateurs do? It's not for me or you or anyone to speculate at their inner workings and thoughts and motivations about why they do this.

For what it's worth, we've had multiple people on these sites that have gone on to do more mainstream stuff. A few that come to mind are - Angela White, Amarna Miller, and Tindra. For some, ISM is a cheeky fun one-off thing, for others it's a stepping stone towards a larger goal. Both choices are valid.

I don't think Cahoonsfour intended any judgement or negative thoughts towards women who do mainstream porn. ISM and Abby Winters had a niche part of the market where it was everyday amateur women on their sites. The internet is full of porn and porn stars, but I've been subscribed to AW and ISM (on and off) since 2007 because the everyday women who do this as a once off. It's not saying there is anything wrong with mainstream porn, it's just, in my opinion, what made AW and ISM unique and special.

Head

Administrator

Re: Abbywinters sunsetting... I hope the best for ISM

Indeed ISM has changed, the world has changed.  In the early days most contributors were fairly unaware of porn and the cliches and tropes that go along with that.  There was no such thing as a 'selfie'.  No precedent, no patterns to follow, they just used their creativity and imagination.  And turned out some fkn amazing photos!  Nowadays we do ask the contribs to try and break through the patterns and cliches, but we can't undo what the internet has done.  Almost every contrib now is already experienced in taking selfies, including naked, their mentors being Insta, and their peers/partners telling them what they should do.  So creativity has suffered, unforutnately.

ISM hasn't changed its selection criteria because we don't have any, other than (1) be 18 or over, and (2) give us photos of publishable standard, be naked etc.  We don't choose the contributors, they choose us.   We used to lend out cameras to most contributors but these days, good quality smartphones like an iPhone11 and up, Samsung S20 and up etc. are, overall, better for this application.  They have better tolerance of low light, focus on faces, and are generally optimised for human photography, because that's what they're mostly used for.

About 10 years ago when we began to allow their use, the quality was iffy, but at least they were within the reach of people we couldn't lend cameras to.  We decided that that better diversity was more important than image quality.  When Covid hit, we had no choice, as Redbird noted.  But now, we're finding more contributors have access to phones that can take superior photos to the cameras we were lending out (most recently, Canon G7X) so the quality is dramatically improving again.  Personally I loved the tonality of the Sony S75 used in the early days, but it was clumsy, slow, grainy in low light, and obviously limited in pixels.

ISM has had the privilege of documenting a unique time in history and tracking huge changes.  The die is cast now, and there's no going back.  But our archives are a truly remarkable record which I hope to make available in perpetuity so the cyborgs of 2090 can witness the women (and some men) of the early 21st century discovering themselves, naked.

bikinibriefs59

Member

Re: Abbywinters sunsetting... I hope the best for ISM

I'm new to ISM membership. I like the idea of self-taken erotica, as long as it's erotic (yes, I know, it's in the eye, and mind, of the beholder), but I do wish there were more submissions from more "mature" women. Also, some more "real women's bodies" would be cool. Yes, there are some on the site but, for the most part, the pix are from young (19-24) women. Are there sites that have what I'm looking for?

ISM_editor

Member

Re: Abbywinters sunsetting... I hope the best for ISM

Welcome to ISM, bikinibriefs59!

Here at ISM we highlight women of all ages (over 18, of course), shapes and sizes. In fact, the majority of our first few pages are women in their late twenties and early thirties. As for "real women's bodies" - well, they are all real! I try to schedule a variety of contributors each month to keep it interesting, and hope that there's a contributor to everyone's taste. But, as mentioned previously in this thread, "we don't choose the contributors, they choose us."

As a welcoming gift, I have compiled some artists to introduce you to our site! We have many long-time contributors that may be of your taste and you will be able to see how ISM has evolved over the years. These artists include Lilie, Illenya, Maple, Dwam, Abbi, Mad_Dame and Redbird. These are just some examples but there are plenty more!

Here is a list of other artists (aged anywhere from 35 to 75!) that you can browse at your leisure. Hopefully this helps in exploring the lovely contributors on our site.

Elle_C
Louanne
Emma_J
Shellie
Autumn_C
Ginger_K
Tillie_C
Shakti_M
Julie_C
Rosalie_G
Irina
Lol
Pandaroo
Clare_A
Francesca_L
Andi_R
Sash
Angeline_T
Vicky_S
Kiara_M
Rhiannon_V
Selene_V
Alex_P
Lowena

There's many more that I have missed so feel free to add to this thread!

I also have a couple of mature women coming in September and October, so stick around for those!

Happy browsing.

---

Alex