@showoffzzzz

I certainly agree that a few people seem to be somewhat touchy. It's just a bit of banter, nothing to get upset over. I actually looked up the word "lurk" on an online dictionary, and much to my surprise a new definition has been ascribed to the word: "To read but not contribute to the discussion in a newsgroup, chatroom, or other online forum." So it doesn't really have an offensive undertone at all, all though this perhaps isn't common knowledge.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Lurk

I used to spend more time in the past looking at pics on various sites, and there certainly are a few similar sites to OCC, but OCC is by far the largest. As I spend less time today I very rarely visit them, but each site often offers some variety, which is nice if one "dedicates" an unhealthy amount of time to this hobby. Anyhow, I've began to try to remember to use the thanks button on all the forums I visit.

I've seen this too.
 

When you single left click a pic, it does go to the full size pic. If you use the back button though, it takes you back to the original page. Noticed this a long time ago. The simple fix is to right click and open in a new window. Another option is to view the page, click all over if you want, then go back and click the 'thanks' as you see fit. Another thing that sometimes happens is if you navigate away from the page before your 'thanks' uploads, it doesn't show up. I've also seen 'thanks' fall of if the post has been modified such as a moderator removing a watermarked picture.

I click the thanks for pictures that I actually download and keep. Some members seem to treat this like a video game though and will only post more if they get a certain number of thanks. I usually REMOVE my thanks from these, even if I liked their post.

The fact that this site hosts all the pics themselves is my favorite feature! The third party hosts are notorious for pop-ups, pop-unders, fake virus scans, and assorted other bullshit! When I click a picture on OCC, I get a picture. Not a video-chat ad, no auto run commercials for toilet cleaners and cold medicine. Just a picture in whatever quality it was uploaded in. Anyone who has ever had to re-install an operating system to recover from a virus can appreciate the value of a self-hosted site!

Thanks OCC!


Moderator's Note: I like your last paragraph and I feel the same way as a user of the forum. It is important to note that it is much more expensive to run a forum this way without financial support of advertisers. The pop-ups etc you speak of are the result of post for cash posters. These people do a good job of posting content and contributing to the forums, but they get paid to do it. It is very annoying and your point about OCC is that its simply an old fashioned free adult forum and when you click it you get it without a hassle.

I try not to be a lurker, but the posting standards here are pretty high and it is hard to find material of decent quality, is not a repeat post, or watermarked. Occasionally I find something that does seem original, but then I see another hot thread and get distracted! :p
I will try to reform and download any finds in a special folder. I don't have much money so I can't afford a subscription.

Case study
 

Have patience and the content will come to you!

I was essentially a lurker for almost 8 years. But I visit the site almost every day. I made maybe half a dozen posts in my first 6 years - over that kind of timescale at some point you're going to stumble over something on the internet which you know in your gut needs to be shared on OCC! And if you're visiting the site every day, reading the threads of the stuff you like best, and haven't seen it before, chances are it's new content.

But the real trick is to get a specialism or a niche. Pedro has the beach, Klondike has the nude runs, Dalquaz has the Dare to Bare teens (all original content of course), other people make a living scouring Youtube or Dailymotion or Picasweb or Rajce or a million other image and video sites on the internet for new content. Some members, I'm sure, just post pictures from the links other members post in OCC's Free Links section! That's fine, both the links and the images have value - some people like context and background, others just want to see the boobies.

I'm into Spencer Tunick, as a multiple-time participant so I usually know what is happening in advance and where to find the behind the scenes pictures before anyone else. I've posted a bit of content through that. But that kind of inside knowledge is hard to come by (and sometimes you feel a little bit duplicitous posting it). Now I'm the Winter Beach guy. I saw a series of pictures posted by someone else on OCC, of friends bathing naked. I thought they were fantastic, I didn't just save them and knock one out, I went to the original source to try and learn more about them, discovered vk.com, all the Winter Beach stuff and loads of other content that really ought to be posted here too! That's kept me busy over the last year and garnered me 5000 thanks.

All it takes is a bit of enthusiasm for a specific type of content, a little bit of effort and research and if you find a source no-one else is systematically mining, stake your claim and Be The Guy. But you also need patience, it might take you 8 years until you find it...

A long time ago when i found this site i had a source to mine, it eventually vanished and real life got in the way of porn hunting. But everywhere i used to go the hosts have died and lost all the content, the board tards were too much and amateur seemed to included every fake porno pic of someone less famous than Jenna Jameson.
OCC really is the best and i feel i should say thanks to all those concerned.

I just looked back through this thread which has grown quite a bit. What piqued me the most is this comment above which I wholeheartedly agree with. "The real trick (for a lurker wishing to become a poster) is to get a specialism or a niche". This is how I feel also. Its that way in life also. But really, for a lurker to become a useful poster, find a niche. You 'niche" posters (Of which I guess I am one also when it comes to Fremont, campus stuff) are worth your weight in gold. If all you are into is sexy ladies, maybe finding a "niche" will be a bit of a problem. But if its public nudity you like, or ENF, whole worlds can open up to you if you narrow your focus a little and get to know the search terms that are going to get you niche content. And also remember that to veteran collectors like myself, quality and freshness trump quantity every time. You needn't find a ton of stuff - just one fresh post every couple of months will do. the most recent example that comes to mind is the new Baker 13 run pics put up recently in the campus run thread. Thats a gold mine to me.

Niche posters have definitely made their mark here at OCC. Maybe the "modern era" of niche posting started for me around the time that 69|69 and Pennywiseguy started posting Russian event festival pics. We have numerous guys here now to thank for posting original and niche pics - dedicated collectors who, like daveduchovny, are very familiar with certain events.

I used to collect coins, and at the time, it seemed that no one could possibly make a lot of money doing this. The only way to do it was to narrow your focus and specialize in one area and collect only in that area. Then and only then could you acquire the necessary skill to buy and sell effectively. Well, its sort of the same thing here. :)
OCC is incomprehesively vast to a newcomer, but so is the net overall and the volume of new pics going up everyday. Fresh event pics are relatively easy to mine once you get to know when and where they take place. If the pics have the year "2012" attached and were taken in Nov, chances are they are fresh here.

Fremont threads have, for example, been getting smaller the last couple of years. This means that all a lurker has to do to make his mark at OCC in my mind is to spend an evening or two in late June cruising the net for the latest Fremont pics. In 2012, it only seemed like a small handful of members were actively searching for pics. We could have used more surfers..

Anyway, but thats just one small example. I surf a lot less than I used to, and so when I come here more and more I look to the output of the niche surfers in the E&V and ENF forums. Become one of those guys and I'll be eternally "thanks" - full..:)

Klondike

I have been a member here for less than a year. I visit the site inconsistently. I may visit 3 days in a row and I may go a few weeks between visits. I very much appreciate the regular contributors and I have become more conscious of hitting the thanks button. While I, of course, would have liked full access to the site, I am not in position to join. It is not a financial issue. I thought the compromise had been fair where I could view posted thumbnail and enlarge them but I needed to join to access video content or larger files.

However, I visit today and find I can no longer click on the thumbs and enlarge them. I hope it's a glitch but I fear it isn't. I will likely return a few times to see if things have returned to normal. Im not optimistic. My tastes steer me toward the amateurs and the old Polaroid types. Without being able to enlarge those pictures, it takes away from the enjoyment and therefore, my motivation to visit.

Therefore I want to thanks the many contributors that make this site what it is. It's you that create the traffic. You are the reason this place exists.

Thank you for your polite and complimentary message. We're currently doing another in a series of 24-hour tests. You will be able to download files and pictures again tomorrow.

Fango

I'm disappointed to be labelled as a "lurker" too. I don't have anything to contribute, and I don't know where I'd find material in the first place, but I enjoy the website and the community spirit here. I visit regularly.

I too felt that the 'pictures for free, pay for the videos' subscription model was fair.

I appreciate the bandwidth and storage requirements of a large website like this though.

No Longer a lurker !!!
 

I am getting the hang of things , So to speak..... Myself after having been here awhile
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