EdenFantasys: The Crumbling of a Community
Image Credit: Aag Blog
A few days ago I re-published maymay’s article from Maybe Maimed but Never Harmed, Edenfantasys’s unethical technology is a self-referential black hole. The article not only uncovered, but also proved without a shadow of a doubt the unethical linking technology used by popular sex toy shop and community, EdenFantasys. But this isn’t just a matter of ethics; it isn’t that simple and if it were, some of their most prolific and popular reviewers and contributors wouldn’t be walking away from the site completely because of it. Well, the reviewers who haven’t already been banned by the so-called transparent, honest and accepting forum, anyway.
The way EdenFantasys’ linking technology works is actually quite simple and you don’t need to understand any technological jargon to see what’s really going on. Throughout EdenFantasys’ entire website, as well as their SexIs Magazine, when you click on a link, it works just as it does on any other kind of website. It brings you to the destination it is intended to. That is, if you have JavaScript enabled on your browser, which your browser should automatically have enabled. If you disable JavaScript however, and try to click on a link, it does nothing. While the link looks the same, when you try to click, it does nothing. While you may be thinking “So what? If my browser has JavaScript enabled and I can click on the link, then what is the problem?” Well, Googlebot and search engine spiders do not see JavaScript, meaning they do not see the link on EdenFantasys and SexIs Magazine in any way and cannot give that website credit for being linked on such a prominent website. Not only that, but by hovering over a link on these websites and looking in your status bar, you will see that the link is showing up as the destination of the same page you are already on. They have successfully cloaked links so that if you have JavaScript enabled and you click on a link, it will bring you to that website, but the back-end code is really functioning as giving EdenFantasys another incoming link to themselves. The only one who benefits from this linking technology is EdenFantasys.
What this means is that those who have done off-site reviews for EdenFantasys and have their reviews that they have written on their blogs linked on EdenFantasys, thinking that their Google pagerank would increase because they have been linked by such a huge website, are mistaken. In fact, if you check your website statistics, you will never see an incoming link from EdenFantasys show up. Their unethical technology is not only screwing you out of backlinks that lead to a Google pagerank increase, but also hits to your website completely. Anyone who runs a website of any caliber knows how important incoming links and hits are.
A number of months ago when I was propositioned through my other website to begin reviewing for EdenFantasys, one of the “perks” outlined in that proposition was being linked by EdenFantasys when I wrote an off-site review on my blog. When the woman I initially worked with from EdenFantasys stopped working with the company and after the person who replaced her also left the company, I was contacted by the third off-site review manager for EdenFantasys who once again gave me a run-through of the entire program and spent more time on why it was so great to be linked by EdenFantasys, focusing a great deal on the number of people who are part of the community who would see my reviews and be introduced to my website because of them. After I had been reviewing for EdenFantasys for a few months I received another email by a link manager for the website whose job it is to set up “link exchanges” between their site and blogs. The person whose responsibility it is to set up link exchanges did not even bother to look at my website, because if they had, they would have noticed that not only did I have a text link for EdenFantasys on my website, but I also had a banner present on my sidebar. I am not the only one who has received an email of this nature and what this proves is that EdenFantasys is employing someone to only set up link exchanges with blogs and they receive hits and Google pagerank increases because of the amount of links they garner from other blogs, not to mention that a reviewer must place no less than three links to EdenFantasys in every review they publish on their blog, but EdenFantasys never returns the favor because of their horrendously unethical linking practices. The people who they set up link exchanges with have been lied to and cheated by the entire company.
Obviously, when maymay’s article was published almost a week ago uncovering the unethical linking practices of EdenFantasys, people were outraged. A thread was started in the EdenFantasys forum with a link to the article and immediately, people wanted an explanation from the EdenFantasys staff. This is only natural and something people would expect from any company. Please note that EdenFantasys has gone above and beyond to try to solidify themselves as being transparent, honest and a sex shop you can trust. They showed a very hypocritical nature, however, when they decided to delete the thread that was started about their linking practices when it had gained 28 responses by concerned and respectful contributors. Luckily, a screenshot was taken of the forum before it had been deleted, just to prove that it had indeed been there. So much for that whole transparency thing.
Sex & Law started another thread in the forum asking about the phantom post and why it had been deleted, obviously by the EdenFantasys staff. She noted that there was really no need for the staff to delete a post where everyone was being very respectful of each other and also of the company as a whole. Simply, we all just wanted answers. Well, we demanded answers, just like any contributors of any website would demand answers from a company they are affiliated with that they feel may be giving them the short end of the stick.
After five posts in this newly-created thread, a staff member commented, saying that the thread had been pulled due to “inflammatory allegations.” Let’s take a look at that screenshot again. Where are these “inflammatory allegations,” because I see none. Oh well, EdenFantasys and their dedication to transparency is getting thinner and thinner.
After the second thread was closed for comments, a thread was started by the president of EdenFantasys. It attempted to explain away why the company was doing nothing wrong by misleading people who they have set up link exchanges with or lying to those who were promised real links to their off-site reviews. The response claimed that EdenFantasys’ linking practices are the same as the user-generated content of sites like CNN, USA Today, LifeHacker, Io9, Cele|bitchy and The Indy Channel and mixed this blatant lie with some technological terms that would bore anyone who had absolutely no idea what they meant. It claimed that because EdenFantasys is so user-generated and because the site receives thousands of attempts daily to insert malicious content into the website that the technology they use allows them to remain safe and reliable.
That is another lie. While the threat of malicious content is very real when it comes to any user-generated website, this linking technology does nothing to help avoid the threat of the site being attacked by viruses. Furthermore, if you disable JavaScript in your browser and go to any of the sites mentioned by the president of EdenFantasys in his response, all of the links work. Why is that? Because they are not using the same linking technology as EdenFantasys. They are in fact providing real links to outside websites. EdenFantasys’ technology merely exists to bump EdenFantasys up higher in ranking and in search engine results and those who thought EdenFantasys were being malicious themselves and lying to their community when maymay’s article was published were entirely correct.
I had attempted to say just that in a response on the forum. Twice. Both times my responses were deleted after about five seconds after I pressed the post button. But I shouldn’t take offense to EdenFantasys not wanting the truth on their forum from someone who does not get bored by reading through technological terms and actually understands JavaScript very much, because I wasn’t the only person whose responses were deleted. Five other replies from different people were also deleted and not only that, but a number of people whose comments were deleted were also locked out of their accounts. Britni, Sex & Law and myself were locked out of our EdenFantasys accounts without so much as an email. It has been a few days since this happened and still, no email giving a reason why. But there is a thread in the forum dedicated to it! The post states that a few accounts have been disabled and it’s just a “cooling off period.” And for good measure, because they know that disabling the accounts of those who had the audacity to speak out against their smoke and mirrors response to this whole ordeal is not right and very much against that whole transparency thing they say they’re so fond of, the thread is closed for replies.
This isn’t the only bit of drama EdenFantasys has had as of late. Last week, in the name of transparency, EdenFantasys announced the banning of an extremely prolific and well-known reviewer, Epiphora. They claim they receive continuous complaints about her drama, rudeness and overall negativity, but after going through the forums that Epiphora herself cited in her blog post about her banning, I saw nothing that was worth a permanent banning. Not only that, but Epiphora claimed that she had received no warning of being banned, just a terse email saying that the decision is final. This in itself goes against EdenFantasys’ own policies.
Epiphora’s banning alone had caused some reviewers to take stock of what was really going on behind the scenes of EdenFantasys and were walking away from the site because of it. The most-recent unveiling of how unethical they are, not to mention dishonest to their contributors, reviewers and even the companies whose sex toys they sell, was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Over 16 reviewers and contributors of EdenFantasys’ have since walked away from the site.
If one thing is clear throughout this entire situation, it is that EdenFantasys is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. They do not stand for anything that they claim to and in fact take advantage of those who see them as a company worth doing business with.
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This really concerns me, and the fact of claiming transparency, but deleting discussion topics, seems to imply they want to cover the whole issue up, bury it, and hope that it doesn't reappear. This just makes EdenFantasys look even more guilty in my humble (or not so humble) opinion .
It would certainly be nice to see a company play ball, and help the reviewers and their websites, and EdenFantasys just seems to use and abuse their reviewers
Ugh. I just signed up to review a toy for them. I'll do this one because I already committed, but I won't be doing anymore. I wasn't doing it for the links anyway (though Lord knows I need them), but I'm not willing to support a company who screws so many people that work hard for them and doesn't even seem to care.
I had started putting reviews on my new site essentially to have 1) the ability to format the content however I wanted and 2) to get some traffic. If I had known I wasn't actually going to get any because of EF's linking practices I never would have put them on a different site.
But that's me out. I'm done working with them at all and I most certainly will not be buying from or advocating for them ever again. Screwing people out of something so basic is just ridiculous. Especially when you are getting 3 return links for the ONE you are given, it's not like they are losing out. This coupled with the recent pull with both Epiphora and JustYourAverageGuy has tipped the scale.
hmmmm – this really explains it better than the other posts i've been reading that had all the technical terms i wasn't familiar with. thanks for the heads up – good food for thought.
“In fact, if you check your website statistics, you will never see an incoming link from EdenFantasys show up. Their unethical technology is not only screwing you out of backlinks that lead to a Google pagerank increase, but also hits to your website completely.”
Part of this is true. You do not see incoming links from EF. But hits? You absolutely do. I have well over 300 this year from my EF profile alone, not to mention every single offsite review I've done.
Traffic/hits/views/referrals are completely different than incoming links.
It's a shame when powerful sites like EdenFantasys dump on the little guy. I'm not worried about it because it will all come back on them somehow. The wheel keeps on turning, as they say. I'm glad you found out and warned others, though. That's a public service. No one want to waste time working for incoming links that are NFG.
From what I can see, EF is pretty legit and is passing on link juice. They do have a piece of javascript code to track data, but that's it. You might consider using other techniques to get more traffic instead of being so dependable on only one source. Besides, Google will count the thousand links you have created at EF as one vote, so…
@Rentmen, If you actually understand the way that Google works, Google cannot see any of the links that you or I can see when browsing their website. If you turn off Javascript within your internet browser, and look at the website again, you will see that what were links before, are now just coloured text. You cannot actually click on those links, and that is what Google, and other search engines actually see.
Even though it appears that EF has linked to me, Google cannot actually see my links when they are crawling the website. If I was to link to EF in a similar manner to the way that they link away from their site, I'm sure that they would ask me to hardcode an Text link to their site.
That is the biggest concern that people are having, apart from the banning without notice.
I most certainly will not be buying from or advocating for them ever again. Screwing people out of something so basic is just ridiculous. Especially when you are getting 3 return links for the ONE you are given, it's not like they are losing out.
A fantastic exposing article. Thank you for the heads up!
Ben
Wow. Selfish much? I was contacted to review for them but I never got in on it. Mainly 'cause I don't do many reviews anymore anyway. But wow. I TOTALLY won't be doing ANYTHING for them. Evil site. /stabstab
I'm glad the blog community has outed these bad faith policies by one of the big boys.
we are not against eden or anything to say badly about their sex shop, however, if you are an unsatisfied blogger, we are actively looking for bloggers to write for us.
I am so glad I stopped reviewing for them when I heard how they treated Essin’ Em!
I recommend checking out MyPleasure.com and supporting them with your sex toy dollars. They are a SF-owned company with extremely ethical practices. EF can suck it.
I m glad I came accross this post as well. I was thinking of reviewing toys for EF to get some good backlinks and help others out but not if they are going to work this way. Its better for tjhem if they just did it the right way and passed along some good PR in there links. Thanks for the update I will spread the word as well. Ken
Thank you for this informative article regarding Eden Fantasy’s unethical behaviour. I was completely unaware of their practices until coming across your page whilst researching SEO options for our site. Really amazed that one of the big boys has the gaul to try this on considering how much it could tarnish their reputation. Thanks for the heads up.
Great article, I too was completely unaware of how they operate, this article should sturr things up a bit, great whistle blowing!
I could not care less about anything you just said. I go to there site and I am obsessed with it! I get free sex toys for reviewing their toys and doing all kinds of activities on the site. As long as I get stuff for free is all I care about. They are not hurting me one dang bit.
Great article! Thanks for the heads up!