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Content
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| Quality : |
18.0 / 20 |
| Quantity : |
13.0 / 15 |
| Entertain : |
13.0 / 15 |
| Updates : |
8.0 / 10 |
| Exclusive : |
5.0 / 05 |
| Download : |
3.5 / 05 |
| sub-total : |
60.5 / 70 |
| Navigation |
| Easy : |
8.0 / 10 |
| Features : |
3.0 / 05 |
| Design : |
3.5 / 05 |
| sub-total : |
14.5 / 20 |
| Other |
| Originality : |
4.0 / 05 |
| Hard Facts : |
4.0 / 05 |
| sub-total : |
8.0 / 10 |
Scoring Criteria New
New Update!
As of Aug 15th, 07, price of a site is no longer factored into the overall score/rank. |
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1. Site looks good too.
2. Quality is very nice.
3. Exclusive material.
1. Videos are DRM protected (though it's better than usual).
2. Could use some growth.
3. No actual photos available.
"A pretty nice site here I'd say that's doing well with their improvements." |
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Well it turns out against my wishes that there's no hot chick named Blake up for review today. In fact, it's not a solo site at all which is even more surprising. Blake Mason is a site dedicated to amateur British men, and Blake Mason is actually two dudes (Jason Blake and Adam Mason) who put the whole site together. The aim to provide high-quality content of these guys, and seem to focus more on the videos (though pics are available as well they say). It'll cost you $23 a month to become a member, which isn't awful if they're really providing decent exclusive gay content.
The member's area is pretty simple, though it looks nice, and it goes right along with what you saw in the tour looks-wise. The menu along the left provides links, though they're not the standard "pictures, videos," etc. The content basically starts right from the get go on the main page so they felt they didn't need them. They also have a search where you can find certain types of guys, or a specific model you like.
With six guys/scenes per page and eight pages up for now (though the last one isn't full yet), there seems to be 44 scenes available right now. That's not huge, but their tour says they update twice per week with something new. There doesn't seem to be any dates in the member's area though, so you'll have to check it out for yourself to see the new stuff.
It looks to me like they don't have actual photos here, just vidcaps from their videos. I guess we'll get right to the good stuff then! They offer a streaming video, and three different downloadable versions of the video as well. All of them are in Windows Media Video format, and all seem to be DRM protected. They give you a generous license to play the video for a year, but I sure wish they didn't have that feature on there :) Quality seems to be quite good, and specs come in around 640x480 and 1500kbps or so. It's well lit, clear, and just looks better than usual all around. Each scene usually has some bonus material as well which is nice.
For extras, you've basically got the guy's bios, and a diary/blog from Mason to check out. Overall it's not a bad site, but there are some big problems here as well. First, we need some growth, and the scenes aren't dated. Second, the DRM will hurt them a little bit in the end score-wise. Otherwise, the quality is quite nice, the site looks good, and they provide a good all-around experience. With some time, and maybe a few small changes (cough, DRM, cough), I think it could be quite a nice site.
| 1st Follow-Up Review |
Review: 08-04-06 |
Woohoo! No one ever listens to us, but these guys did and dropped the DRM from their videos which is excellent news. The site is bigger than before too of course, thanks to their consistent updates. On top of that, we have a quality jump for the videos up to the 1500-2500kbps range and look great obviously. They even have dates on the content now, which I mentioned as being missing last time we looked. It looks like a new video is up every 3-4 days or so by my count. So overall this is a nice jump all around here!
Score increased from 79.4 to 81.7.
| 2nd Follow-Up Review |
Review: 06-21-07 |
It's business as usual for Blake Mason it seems, which isn't a bad thing at all. The updates have continued pretty regularly which has helped the site grow quite a bit since our last visit. A forum has been added as well as some newer Quicktime videos (mp4), so the more options the better. Otherwise things have stayed pretty consistent with some good-quality content, regular updates, and more interaction than before.
Score increased from 81.7 to 83.0.
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