Recently multiple new or developing sites/platforms have been reported to be in creators DMs, and trying to recruit. Most of these have been dangerous and concerning sites/platforms. This made the team here at Creators Spicy Tea realize that we didn’t have a resource up that covers new platform safety checks.
When you are first looking at a new platform, what are the specific areas you check to make sure the site is safe and above-board? Do you have these checks for yourself? If not, then this resource is crucial for you. In this resource we are going to cover my checks that I do when finding or being approached by a new platform.
Some Steps I Take to Check Out a Site/Platform
Think the bare minimum
I am talking ‘the-bar-is-in-hell’ bare minimum. My checklist is as follows:
- Does the site have structure and is it structured in a easy to follow and use way? If we are going to be spending hours working on a site, it has to be usable.
- Is is accessible enough for my needs? If the text is a pale pink on a white background and I am squinting the entire time to see it, I’m going to have a miserable time.
- All the links, do they click, and do what they say they do.
- Are there pages or posts hyperlinked that go to a whole lot of nowhere? This shows that either the developer got lazy or forgetful. I don’t trust either.
- Is there a contact method available?
- Does it look sketch as all shit? I know this isn’t the most helpful, but we all know those sites we stumble into and then back the hell out of because they just look sketch as all shit. If I get even a hint of sketch, I bounce.
- Do the medias used make sense, or are they still the stock image that came in the build template.
- Are all the important pages such as contact, about, FAQ, help and legal documents available and linked?
- If they link to social media, does that actually link out to anything? Or is it just decoration?
Check the legal documents
This means the terms of service, privacy policies, community guidelines, etc. The big questions are:
- Do they exist?
- Are they publicly accessible?
- Do you agree to them?
Some specific areas in the legal documents will include:
- The terms of service
- So many glaring red flags can usually be found here. For example when we were made aware of a platform that was making promo rounds we were able to get a warning out right away without needing to do much heavy lifting just by reading the ToS, in which they allow underage users.
- It is crucial to be reading these. If they look janky, half assed, and thrown together, it is likely the platform itself will reflect that in how it operates.
- An important area in the ToS is to look for minimum user age allowed on the platform. If it is an adult site, make sure it states 18+. It is also helpful if the platform or site lists how they age verify their users, not just their creators.
- The copyright/DMCA policy & complaint system
- Does this exist? Does it clearly list the steps for how to submit a complaint? If I can’t find this, I get nervous. Starting a platform without having these protections in place for creators is dangerous and shows a lack of understanding of what creators face.
- 2257 Compliance policy
- If I don’t see a 2257 compliance policy statement from a platform, I have a hard time taking it seriously. platforms and sites all must maintain 2257 records for all adult performers and all must state that. That is bare minimum knowledge. If a site or platform doesn’t display that bare minimum knowledge, i have no trust in it.
- Their moderation procedures/reporting system
- I need to know if a platform or site is moderated. I would also like to know if it is moderated just by ai, or if there are actual human beings on the team as well. Ways to check for this if there is not a written policy anywhere is to just see what is being publicly posted? Does it fit their community guidelines and is it legal? If not, then the platform or site is not adequately modded.
- People say fucked up shit and send fucked up shit to creators all the time while we are on platforms and sites. I want to see what they have in place for me to report and protect myself from that shit. If I can’t find this, I am likely not signing up.
Check the social temp
This is usually all done off the site or the platform. I am usually going to be trolling creator community subreddits, deep diving in private creator communities, and on the 10th page of Google before diving into a platform. I want to know way more about them, before I help them make money off me. This usually includes:
- searching the site/platform on instagram/twitter/reddit/etc to see how they position themselves to the public
- searching the site/platform on google/my research bot to gather more of the basics about it.
- searching the site/platform name on the creator community subreddit custom feed curated by Creators Spicy Tea to get an idea of others actual experiences.
Sometimes though, the site/platform will tell on itself. For example a team member from https://cherrypop.io reached out to one of the members of Creators Resource Chats. That member noticed that the site seemed fishy as all hell right away and went in for more info. On their site they have a banner with ‘creator reviews’.
Well the CRC member got curious and tried to look into any of the mentioned creators. and all of them came back inactive. The dm interaction below is their explanation. Well, less of an explanation, more of an admission of absolute lies.
So, this shows us that if the site is listing reviews from creators, we cannot take that at face value and we need to do a bit more digging to decide for ourselves if that review is to be trusted or not.
What if the platform approaches you?
If a platform approaches you, a lot can be inferred from how they reach out. For example if they reach out on social media:
- Are they reaching out from an official account or just some random user account. It is already unprofessional if it isn’t a at least a semi branded account.
- Do they include all the details you need in the first message such as
- who they are and their relation to the site/platform
- their intent to sell you on this new platform
- the link to the site
- what the site is offering
- are they following all the rules and terms of the community they are reaching out to you on. If they are not, they are likely not to care much about moderation of their own rules.
Final Thoughts
If a site/platform reaching out to you feels sketchy, unwanted, or harassing, you can always reach out to the moderation or admin team of any community they found you on. For example if someone says they found you on r/Fetishwantads, you can report that message to the modmail and the team will action those accounts.
The best thing you can do is have your own checklist in your mind ready to go to double check the safety of new sites, before diving into them.
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