Thread: Partypop=101exoticdancers.com?

I just got a call from a guy who found my listing at 101exoticdancers.com. After telling him that no, I don't do fully nude shows (which he was very understanding of and hey, I don't fault the guy for trying to throw his buddy a rockin' bachelor party), I went to the site myself to find out how I got listed there.

Partypop.com is how. Partypop runs the 101exoticdancers website.

It looks as though they have cross-listed all of their bellydancers onto the 101exoticdancers.com site. Now, if by "exotic" they meant "from another part of the world" and there were hula, samba, flamenco, etc listings, I'd not be nearly as upset, but ONLY bellydancers and strippers are listed on this site.... putting us in line for the same clientele with the same expectations.

I sent them an email explaining my thoughts on this and demanding to be removed from their listings entirely. It's not like PartyPop gigs are paying my bills or anything!!

You all might want to check out what they're doing with *your* listings!! I'm pretty sure I could lose my community center and college teaching gigs if I'm discovered advertised on a stripper-finder website!!

Ooooh dear....that's not good at all. I just found myself along with other Toronto bellydancers on there. Yep, I think a nice e-mail is in order.

It would be a great idea if as many dancers as possible who find themselves on PartyPop's other site send an e-mail to PartyPop demanding that these listings stop; there is strength in numbers. Just a thought....

Wow. That seems really out of line.

In the interest of having all the relevant info out there, this is what is on the home page of 101Exotic Dancers:

101 Exotic Dancers.com is an Internet directory for exotic dancers, male strippers, female strippers, belly dancers, strip clubs, dance costumes, and other ethnic dancers.

101 Exotic Dancers.com is a valuable resource for anyone who is planning a bachelor party, bachelorette party, fratertnity party, sorority party, or any party that caters to an adult crowd.

The popularity of exotic dancers in the U.S. is probably at an all-time high. So many vibrant, multi-ethnic communities across our country encourage the survival of their cultures through language, food, customs, and the arts; music, singing, painting, crafts, and dance. Not only the various ethnic communities encourage their dances at celebrations, but individuals outside those communities hire and invite ethnic dancers to perform at their own functions and parties, too.

At a time where more people are seeking to better understand people of different cultures, exotic dancers of every style can be an important bridge to appreciating another culture. Whether their name is Arabic, Greek, Middle Eastern, Persian, Egyptian, or Turkish; exotic belly dancers are always popular.

Caribbean, Polynesian, and Latin dancers of every country; from Spain to Portugal to Mexico, are also popular as dancing entertainment for all kinds of events. People are drawn to the beat, the music, the rhythm, and the visual treat of dancers performing with professional flair.

From a different school of thought, of course, for novelty, spice, and excitement, many people enjoy the old-fashioned striptease. Exotic male and female strippers or dancers are always in demand when you want to push the boundaries and celebrate birthdays, bachelor and bachelorette parties, and other special occasions.

No matter your style or occasion 101 Exotic Dancers.com will point you to the dancer or dancers that best suit your festivity.
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So...they are *vaguely* acknowledging a cultural side, leaving the door open that they may add latin, polynesian, etc.--maybe at this point they don't have a critical mass enough of these kinds of dancers in PartyPop to warrant those categories.

THAT said...I do think a.) they ought to, when you sign up, allow you to opt out of being listed in more than one site (rather than auto-include Exotic Dancers if you're a belly dancer) and disclose what those sites are
-or-
b.) If they won't to allow PartyPop belly dancers to opt out of ExoticDancer, they should more carefully point out that "Exotic" and "Erotic" are not the same (site lists erotic and ethnic dance), they should get the other ethnic dancers in there, and the home page on belly dance should include something along the lines of for most professional practitioners in the U.S., belly dance is a cultural art, and many do not perform for all male parties.

Well I'd say they must need to change their name! "Exotic dance" has become a standard American euphemism for explicitly erotic forms of entertainment. It's not the original meaning of the word "exotic," nor does the word "exotic" = "erotic" when used in other contexts, but when "exotic" goes before "dance" these days, in this culture, "erotic" is what it means. Nobody''s going to go to a site called "101exotic dancers" in search of "ethnic" or multicultural dance entertainment. If they really mean to offer that, they've got the WRONG name.
Humph! ,m::
Rosette

Sigh....

[QUOTE=Rosette;119789]but when "exotic" goes before "dance" these days, in this culture, "erotic" is what it means. /QUOTE]

Not just "these days." The term "exotic dancer" has been a euphemism for "stripper" since at least the '60s. I remember hearing it when risque jokes were being made on TV shows when I was a kid.

terrible.
i don't care how loosely they tie it to ethnic, ethnic is not the same thing as erotic. i find that offensive anyway, whether it's Latin or Hula or whatever.

We went through this before a few years ago when some of us discovered ourselves on 101exoticdancers (they also cross list all of their entertainers on 101weddings, 101themeparties, and so forth...whatever all their 101whatever websites are called) and we emailed them to complain. They apologized to each person who emailed and removed their listing from whichever websites were requested. They also made an attempt to improve their wording on the site and some of the others, which I think is how they came up with all that cultural stuff - that wasn't there before. They did a sorry job of improving their wording, but they tried.

Unfortunately every so often they do some sort of data refresh process, and it puts everyone back on every website again so that you have to re-request to be taken off. I haven't checked lately to see if my listing has popped back onto 101exoticdancers. I kind of just gave up.....

Originally Posted by Lilladancer

We went through this before a few years ago when some of us discovered ourselves on 101exoticdancers (they also cross list all of their entertainers on 101weddings, 101themeparties, and so forth...whatever all their 101whatever websites are called) and we emailed them to complain. They apologized to each person who emailed and removed their listing from whichever websites were requested. They also made an attempt to improve their wording on the site and some of the others, which I think is how they came up with all that cultural stuff - that wasn't there before. They did a sorry job of improving their wording, but they tried.

Unfortunately every so often they do some sort of data refresh process, and it puts everyone back on every website again so that you have to re-request to be taken off. I haven't checked lately to see if my listing has popped back onto 101exoticdancers. I kind of just gave up.....

I told PartyPop to remove me from that site over a year ago when I found out about the cross listing on Bhuz. I just checked again, and I'm still not on there. However, all the other dancers who are listed with PartyPop under Belly Dancers are - I'm seeing one of them today in fact for a gig, so I'll be sure to mention it to her.

I advertized on PartyPop for a year (took a month break, but will continue again) and although I got a lot of good phone calls that almost always lead to a party, I never got any weird calls, asking for strippers, or just weird questions in general.
They also have other sites, such as 101photographers, 101weddings, or something like that, and I always saw my link there. That's great, more exposure. I first wasn't happy when I saw the 101 exoticdancer, but I think someone here said earlier that you can ask to remove your name from there. And it never became an issue for me.

Well, I just found my partypop listing, which I PAID for in the exotic dancer listings. Nice.

Thanks so much for posting this. I am off to write a pissed off email to these idiots.

Originally Posted by laura 2

I told PartyPop to remove me from that site over a year ago when I found out about the cross listing on Bhuz. I just checked again, and I'm still not on there. However, all the other dancers who are listed with PartyPop under Belly Dancers are - I'm seeing one of them today in fact for a gig, so I'll be sure to mention it to her.

Yeah, I think that was the time when several of us emailed to complain (it seems like a longer time ago!) I just checked and I'm still off too, but I think the guy I talked to told me to check once in awhile because sometimes they refresh data and things might get lost. All in all, they seem to be pretty nice folks and all you have to do is ask and they will take you off 101exoticdancers. I imagine those dancers who are still on it either don't know, or don't care because they're not getting weird calls. I never really got any weird calls when I was on it, which was why I didn't realize I was listed there.

What about a mass mailing asking them to seperate the ethnic from the exotic? I would think that polynesian, latin, flamenco and any other ethnic dance form performers would be as equally mortified as we are to be put in the "exotic dance" category.

If they can have all these eleventybillion "101" websites, why not just add one more for ethnic? It is not an unreasonable request.

Then again, neither is simply implementing the option to CHOOSE which sites you are advertised on when you sign up. They need some good DB management and a slap upside the head IT-wise.

Originally Posted by BabsGrrrl

What about a mass mailing asking them to seperate the ethnic from the exotic? I would think that polynesian, latin, flamenco and any other ethnic dance form performers would be as equally mortified as we are to be put in the "exotic dance" category.

If they can have all these eleventybillion "101" websites, why not just add one more for ethnic? It is not an unreasonable request.

Then again, neither is simply implementing the option to CHOOSE which sites you are advertised on when you sign up. They need some good DB management and a slap upside the head IT-wise.

I agree 100%. They need to give their heads a shake. Putting their customers info on a site for exotic dancers without asking their permission? You don't have to be a brain surgeon to realize that's a terrible idea. Especially if the issue has already been brought to their attention. There's really no excuse for that.

I emailed them last night and said I did NOT authorize using my info this way and that it was damaging to my business reputation and my personal reputation. I mentioned the word libelous. I also suggested they needed to check with people before listing them on a website the public is sure to associate with strippers. Hmph. ,m::

Anyway, I'm still waiting for a response.

Would someone be willing to post a "form" letter of sorts that has worked for them so we can all use and modify for any dancer having this trouble?

And this is why I don't list with PartyPop, or any other online agency.

Honestly, the only reason I list with PartyPop is that since they have such high Google rankings, it brings my Google rankings higher for my classes...

Originally Posted by Lilladancer

Honestly, the only reason I list with PartyPop is that since they have such high Google rankings, it brings my Google rankings higher for my classes...

Same for me. My advertising with Party Pop increases the search results that lead to my website, and it has brought me clients directly.

After sending them a tersely worded email, Party Pop removed my listing from 101exoticdancers, but they didn't have the decency to apologize or even reply to my email. I consider that pretty unprofessional. Not too happy with Party Pop right now.

This is all very creepy. And skeezy. I have to go check to make sure my dance troupe is not listed there "by accident".

Thanks for the heads up, and I am definetly going to write a very terse letter to these people if we are listed with the stripper listings.

I just posted a listing on party pop today and got a sales call. Shane told me that only people who pay for ads get listed on the 101 Web sites. If you have a free listing with just your name and number, you do not. Was he lying? He said with the free account, I will only be listed on partypop (soon to be known as partypoop).

I remember when this came up a while back....at least PartyPop has "tried" to take the "ethnic" part into account.

That said, I've been a paid subscriber to PartyPop for over two years. I get tons of calls and emails, many of which lead to bookings, from my PartyPop listing and I've never once gotten a call looking for a stripper. I just checked and I am on 101exoticdancers.com.

I am sure most people going to that site are looking for strippers, not bellydancers, and can tell the difference - at least if not right away, then when they read our bios (most of us specifically state that we do not perform at all male parties, yes?)

I've been very happy with my PartyPop experience and I'm not going to get too upset over this issue.

Originally Posted by andalee-oriental

I just posted a listing on party pop today and got a sales call. Shane told me that only people who pay for ads get listed on the 101 Web sites. If you have a free listing with just your name and number, you do not. Was he lying? He said with the free account, I will only be listed on partypop (soon to be known as partypoop).

If that's the policy, then they've changed it. When I first found myself on the Exotic Dancer site, I still had only my free listing. I only upgraded to a paid listing a little over a year ago.

Originally Posted by andalee-oriental

I just posted a listing on party pop today and got a sales call. Shane told me that only people who pay for ads get listed on the 101 Web sites. If you have a free listing with just your name and number, you do not. Was he lying? He said with the free account, I will only be listed on partypop (soon to be known as partypoop).

He's lying (or mistaken). I have a free listing and was still listed on the stripper page.

Maybe they just tell you that so that you'll pay the extra cost...I bet they;re lying. You name may get over to 101 sites even though they tell you it won't.

Hey! My old location in Hawai'i is on there! What?! I didn't list with these people.

Originally Posted by andalee-oriental

I just posted a listing on party pop today and got a sales call. Shane told me that only people who pay for ads get listed on the 101 Web sites. If you have a free listing with just your name and number, you do not. Was he lying? He said with the free account, I will only be listed on partypop (soon to be known as partypoop).

Nope, that's wrong. I saw other dancers in my city without paid listings who were still on the 101 exotic dancers page.