There were many, many ads on myredbook posed by a person with no reviews, and the pictures in the ad were not the sex worker providing the service. It wouldn't be hard to sell someone on hooking up with a fictional 18 year old, then delivering a 17 year old who clearly isn't the person from the ad. Personally I avoided these ads, but only because I learned through trial and error that meeting sex workers with reviews was usually a better value.

As a user of myredbook, I used the service for finding sex workers via the classifieds section, and also reading reviews written about sex workers.

i can confirm that as a long time user as well

I used myredbook to connect with, and buy sexual services from, several dozen of sex workers. I'm also a regular HN reader, and this is a throwaway account created just for this thread. AMA (ask me anything).

It asked by an HN moderator, I can provide proof.

Can you explain how you used the redbook site? Did you find sex workers through paid ads or classifieds? Did you rely on reviews of other customers?

If you had a bad experience or if the services weren't as described, did you use redbook to resolve the dispute?

Have you hired sexual services the old-fashioned way, at a brothel, massage parlor, or by picking up someone on the street? If so, how would you compare to the redbook experience?

Was there any indication that the sex workers you met were trafficked, or that they were 100% independent?

Did you participate in redbook discussions on health, legal or political matters, or were you primarily interested in finding suitable partners?

Thanks for posting here, and for answering questions!

I would typically find escorts at the last minute, so I can't speak for what it's like to plan ahead. I'd first search the classifieds for women offering incall (I go to their place, usually a hotel) in San Francisco. Next, I scroll through the ads, only reading ads that have reviews & pictures, looking for the right escort at the right price. When I find an ad the looms promising, I double check the reviews to make sure they aren't horrible, and I also use Google to search for fake images. If everything looks good, I try to contact the escort to book an appointment.

I never wrote reviews on myredbook.

When I visited Australia a few years ago, I visited a legal brothel. All of my of purchases for sexual services were started online. Purchasing sex in Australia was pretty interesting, but I that was the novelty of the legality of the purchase.

I am pretty sure most sex workers were independent, but I have no way of verifying this.

I did not participate in discussions on myredbook.

You are welcome!

My first online paid job was writing fake reviews by the hundreds on that and similar sites like TER (the escort review) years ago. Every review site for sex work is rigged I'm sure I wasn't the only one hired to do it. Feds lately have targeted banks for dealing with sex workers for unknown reasons, like when banks dropped porn valley actress's accounts. Who knows why they decided now to takedown the site and not backpages or TER, and dozens more clones of myredbook.

Most are independent sex workers, you can spot the micros run by gangsters (brosan) that are trafficking women pretty easily.

It doesn't surprise me that many reviews were fake.

Would a site hosted in a country outside the FBI's jurisdiction help? What if it were a Tor hidden service? Do you know how to use Tor or Tails? Do you believe your peers do? (Obviously, I'm not in a position to do that myself; I'm asking in the general case.)

I've used Tor before. If buysex.onion was a quality site, I'd consider using it. I'm not aware of an escort site that is only Tor accessible, and I've never looked for one.

Do you feel that MyRedBook was in any way harmful to the well-being of the sex workers? If not, was it contributing to the moral decay of western civilization?

Prostitution, despite being the oldest profession, seems to not have had a negative impact on the development of western civilization. Western civilization seems to be doing just fine.

I think my red book safer. I personally behaved myself more because I didn't want to get robbed, or shamed in public.

Regarding the decline of western civilization, people have always been horny, and some people need to pay for lovin' in order to address their horniness. I'm not convinced that paying for sex is related to moral decay. Morality itself is kind of a tricky subject.

no. Sex workers are losing business instead. myredbook was the place for them to advertise. they built client network mostly through redbook. If there are negative sides for workers, it'd be them being reviewed as a slacker and losing clients.

i think independent workers are in worse situation to bring clients and have to be dependent on pimps

1. no, it helped them.

2. yes, it facilitated prostitution.