Veteran/pioneer From The Beginning

[DireWolf98]

I should have done before I started posting here ...

In The Beginning, there was a book "A Single Man's Guide To Tokyo Night life." It was the first written material in English that I found with advice about Our Hobby.

Within months, around 1994, I discovered the original World Sex Guide (WSG) (http://worldsexguide.org/)

That was before Yahoo Mail existed.

Atta, the WSG webmaster, was located in Finland. Atta would receive e-mailed trip reports & reviews, make them anonymous and post them to the website. As per Atta's recommendation, I purchased an anonymous e-mail service, which also offered the ability to send e-mail with low-level encryption - Pretty Good Privacy (PGP).

Soon afterward, I began sending reports to the WSG and every few weeks they would appear on the website. It was great because we became the global pioneers of sharing info about Our Hobby. For my part, I became a One-Man Wrecking Crew in Tokyo ...

At that time, I also discovered the newsgroup, on Usenet, called alt.sex.prostitution (ASP). I also posted on ASP via my anonymous e-mail service.

On WSG, for example, on the Tokyo page you could:
* read WSG posts
* click on a Usenet search for Tokyo. Atta linked WSG to ASP via a spam-free filtered search.

At WSG and ASP I discovered the website Travel & the Single Man (TSM). At TSM, one member led a rebel group of Asia-centric hobbyists to depart and form a website named after him - BKKnight's Global Village (BGV). Eventually, I stumbled across then then-famous Sam Leong's Forum in Singapore as well as a plethora of Thailand-centric & Asia-centric sites ...

Through the WSG and ASP, I discovered valuable info about Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney and Melbourne. Then, I posted my own discoveries.

Through TSM and BGV, I obtained excellent info about Bangkok and Manila. Through BGV, I met groups of guys who were cooperative and willing to meet me in Bangkok and Manila. I actually met a group of guys in Singapore a few times - they brought me out bar hopping and introduced me to some interesting venues. The camaraderie was nice -- we were not skulking in the shadows. Of course in Asia, various aspects of Our Hobby are out in the open and there is no shame in participating ...

I recently stumbled across TAG and I am happy to contribute when and where possible

 

[Desktop]

I recognized your username but didn't know if it was you. Great to have you here. Your contributions on other sites helped a lot back years back.

 

[TAG Manager]

At that time, I also discovered the newsgroup, on Usenet, called alt.sex.prostitution (ASP). I also posted on ASP via my anonymous e-mail service.

Nostalgia right there.... not for that specific group, I was quite young back then, but I used newsgroups for other purposes and I had a really good time using them.

You and @Wwanderer must have crossed paths somewhere before.

Very happy to have you here at TAG and yes, you should have posted this first -- it puts your other posts in a different light now.

 

[Wwanderer]

You and @Wwanderer must have crossed paths somewhere before.

Yes indeed, multiple times and on multople sites and perhaps more times than we realize because I have sometimes and some places used different screen names, some of them I don't even recall probably. And I don't know how consistent DW has been in his use of screen names.

In any case, I participated in nearly all of the venues mentioned in the OP to varying degrees and recall them fondly...going back to Atta and alt.sex.prostitution etc. I was involved in launching (as we called it back then) the latter under some screen name or the other.

Moreover, I was a regular monger long before p4p had any online presence at all. It was soooo different in those days.

-Ww

 

[DireWolf98]

Yes indeed, multiple times and on multople sites and perhaps more times than we realize because I have sometimes and some places used different screen names, some of them I don't even recall probably. And I don't know how consistent DW has been in his use of screen names.

Yes, we have crossed paths.

I have been fairly consistent with my screen names, although I posted under a different name at asfo.

Things are different now: more gaijin-friendly venues; more resources (like TAG!); and more cooperative guys who pursue Our Hobby.

 

[Mischa Maxwell]

Wow, thank you for sharing that history. I have often wondered how 'hobbyists' got accurate information pre-TAG and pre-TER. Especially if the 'hobbyist' was gaijin!

Much respect.

 

[roots reggae]

I should have done before I started posting here ...

In The Beginning, there was a book "A Single Man's Guide To Tokyo Night life." It was the first written material in English that I found with advice about Our Hobby.

Within months, around 1994, I discovered the original World Sex Guide (WSG) (http://worldsexguide.org/)

That was before Yahoo Mail existed.

Atta, the WSG webmaster, was located in Finland. Atta would receive e-mailed trip reports & reviews, make them anonymous and post them to the website. As per Atta's recommendation, I purchased an anonymous e-mail service, which also offered the ability to send e-mail with low-level encryption - Pretty Good Privacy (PGP).

Soon afterward, I began sending reports to the WSG and every few weeks they would appear on the website. It was great because we became the global pioneers of sharing info about Our Hobby. For my part, I became a One-Man Wrecking Crew in Tokyo ...

At that time, I also discovered the newsgroup, on Usenet, called alt.sex.prostitution (ASP). I also posted on ASP via my anonymous e-mail service.

On WSG, for example, on the Tokyo page you could:
* read WSG posts
* click on a Usenet search for Tokyo. Atta linked WSG to ASP via a spam-free filtered search.

At WSG and ASP I discovered the website Travel & the Single Man (TSM). At TSM, one member led a rebel group of Asia-centric hobbyists to depart and form a website named after him - BKKnight's Global Village (BGV). Eventually, I stumbled across then then-famous Sam Leong's Forum in Singapore as well as a plethora of Thailand-centric & Asia-centric sites ...

Through the WSG and ASP, I discovered valuable info about Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney and Melbourne. Then, I posted my own discoveries.

Through TSM and BGV, I obtained excellent info about Bangkok and Manila. Through BGV, I met groups of guys who were cooperative and willing to meet me in Bangkok and Manila. I actually met a group of guys in Singapore a few times - they brought me out bar hopping and introduced me to some interesting venues. The camaraderie was nice -- we were not skulking in the shadows. Of course in Asia, various aspects of Our Hobby are out in the open and there is no shame in participating ...

I recently stumbled across TAG and I am happy to contribute when and where possible

I'm a little late, but among those in the know-you are Legend!

 

[DireWolf98]

Wow, thank you for sharing that history. I have often wondered how 'hobbyists' got accurate information pre-TAG and pre-TER. Especially if the 'hobbyist' was gaijin!

Much respect.

As my friend Wwander mentioned in another thread, we "worked" neighborhoods. Visited shops and were rejected numerous times. Then we made note of the successes - and shared. Yes, we blazed trails, but there was a small group of guys who also shared. I owed some of my success to those other guys.

"A Single Man's Guide To Tokyo Night life" helped me find a couple of shops - despite its poorly-drawn maps. I also spent one afternoon in Chiba (I think I was in Shin Koiwa) looking for shops mentioned in that book. I found nothing because the maps were bad and the info was dated.

I'm a little late, but among those in the know-you are Legend!

Thanks, my friend.

Of course, as I mentioned above, there were some who helped me ...

 

[Wwanderer]

poorly-drawn maps.

A VERY generous description!

-Ww

 

[DireWolf98]

A VERY generous description!

-Ww

Yes, Tokyo Tower, Shibuya Station and somewhere in between was a "dot" for the shop LOL