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1
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Capn (0)
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A well thought out review. It is nice to get a perspective from a video guy. For me, it rates probably around the 85 mark as I am a photo phreak. :0)
I do agree about your network point though.
Cap'n. :0)
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06-04-12 01:25am
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2
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MiztaBlu (0)
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REPLY TO #1 - Capn :
Like I said, I did still factor the quality photos into my score. I suppose someone who is into photos more would still be more lenient with their grading, though.
To be honest, the site just feels outdated in many ways. While they do have good content, the Karup sites feel like they are 3 or so years behind the curve compared to other sites. Whether its video quality, production value or just the site design and navigation.
Not a bad site...but could be so much better.
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06-04-12 05:50am
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3
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Claypaws (Suspended)
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Certainly a well thought out review. Like Cap'n, I would put my score around 85 or even slightly higher but I am exclusively a photo guy.
I disagree on the network point though, from the point of view of a photo guy. Unfortunately, Karups seem to have ruined their tour and I cannot see the current number of models. Perhaps you can find or estimate that within the members area. I join this site a few times per year but I am not currently a member. However, it does have a lot of models. If you compare the number of models with say, the DDF network (1868 models), it might not look so bad. And it definitely has more photos than most networks.
I agree that it is more of a photo site than a video site and that is a strong attraction for me. But sites that concentrate on photos have a problem. The problem is that so many porn users only want video. If a group of sites that specialise in photos offer the same kind of network price as the video networks do, they cannot make enough income from their members to keep in business.
Most of the photo specialists do not offer network membership for that very reason. MET, Karups, ATK all have multiple sites without a network and they often have more models than the networks do.
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06-04-12 07:22am
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4
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MiztaBlu (0)
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REPLY TO #3 - Claypaws :
There are currently 1470 models on there that I calculated.
Agree to disagree on the network front. Im not complaining about it too much. Just saying that is what keeps me from staying longer than a month, because other places offer multiple sites for cheaper, and has more hardcore video stuff.
I LIKE pictures, but they certainly arent my main attraction. And considering they videos are a step below other sites...thats why my score is below what you guys give it.
Like I said, its a good site, and possible a great site for you picture hounds. For me...its a site worth checking out, but not a site Id be a regular member of like I am with other sites.
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06-04-12 08:56am
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5
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Capn (0)
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REPLY TO #3 - Claypaws :
I think you raise valid points on the networking issue.
TBH so few sites are available in my niche these days I doubt there would be enough for a network anyway.
Cap'n. :0/
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06-04-12 09:54am
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6
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Claypaws (Suspended)
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REPLY TO #4 - MiztaBlu :
Thanks for calculating the number of models. 1470 is 40% more than Nubiles, which is probably the most similar site. It is about 80% the number of models on DDF network. I entirely agree it has much less hardcore video than a hardcore network. I notice you like Brazzers, Naughty America, Reality Kings, Video Box. Their hardcore is really in a completely different style from Karups or ATK. Your loved networks have a kind of more hammed up, produced style and theme. Karups is more a kind of straight plain sex. This is why I tend to say I would expect ATK (or Karups hardcore) to disappoint hardcore hounds. The networks tend to have "nasty" sex. "Nasty" being a complimentary term relating to rawness of the sex.
I think your review is completely honest about your preferences and readers should easily be able to adjust for their own preferences. For me, a photo hound, it is one of the truly great sites.
I can add two things you might like to try out at Karups, if you have not already done so.
First, the download manager thing is largely a cookie issue. I do not know what browser you usually use on the site. My standard browser is Firefox. However, not all download managers correctly handle Firefox's cookies.
There are two workarounds. One is to add the downloads to your download manager using the Firefox addon, Flashgot. This manages cookies better than most download managers can manage on their own.
The other workaround is to log in using Internet Explorer. You only need to do that once during your membership. Check the box that says "remember me" or "save login" or some such similar thing, I forget exactly what they call it. Then you can close Internet Explorer. The IE cookie is then set and lasts for your entire membership. Download managers that look for IE cookies, which is many of them, then work flawlessly. I discussed this with Karups support and they said they would add it to their help files.
The other thing concerns the split videos. I am sure you already know this but others might not perhaps. If you drop the multipart (usually two part) videos onto the playlist of VLC Player, they follow on seamlessly as if they were a single video. Karups put the legal 2257 stuff only on the first part so there is no interruption from that on the second part. (There might be some very old videos where there is a repeat of 2257 but I think they were mainly on KarupsPC not KarupsHA).
Anyway, good review and I enjoyed reading it for a site I know well and like a lot.
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06-04-12 11:49am
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7
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Claypaws (Suspended)
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REPLY TO #5 - Capn :
Yes Cap'n. We photo lovers appear to be fishing in an ever diminishing pool. I hope we can keep the photo sites alive and that they do not either go out of business or turn into hardcore video sites.
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06-04-12 11:51am
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8
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Capn (0)
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REPLY TO #7 - Claypaws :
Well, I cetainly hope so too; although a resurgence of photosites is very unlikely in the current climate.
Cap'n. :0/
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06-04-12 12:04pm
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9
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MiztaBlu (0)
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REPLY TO #6 - Claypaws :
Thanks for the well thought out reply.
Let me add that I dont dislike the hardcore action. I actually really like it. The sex really isnt much different from what you see on NA or RK. Most of their sex really isnt "nasty" sex. The main difference is the production value. Karups hardcore stuff is right to the point...no real lead up...just gonzo porn for the most part. That honestly doesnt bother me that much because the action on Karups, for the most part, is good. The bland settings and the overall cheapness of the scenes is my issue. Like I said, they do all their scenes in basically the same place and it just feels really cheaply done. Even if they are mainly a picture site, they are still offering this, and I think they should put a bit more effort into it.
The download manager issue isnt a huge deal, but I tried on both Chrome and Firefox with 3 different DMs and it didnt work, so I just did the "save as" method.
And the playing the files in parts isnt my issue. Its having to download each part individually that annoys me...especially since my DM didnt work there.
Anyway...my score of 78 I think is still solid. As I said, I think any fan of the genre should consider giving it a month, but as you alluded to, depending on specific preferences, its another story how long certain people might wanna stay for.
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06-04-12 12:38pm
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10
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Claypaws (Suspended)
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REPLY TO #9 - MiztaBlu :
Hi
I understand your point on the hardcore and that you liked it even though it was outside your usual niche. In many ways, I wish the sites that are good on photos would drop the hardcore completely and say so in their tours. They get more criticism about their hardcore videos than anything else. The presence of hardcore itself makes little difference to me since I do not download it. But, unless the sites do it like the classic hardcore networks which use pornstars and big budgets, they get attacked by people who join expecting a kind of hardcore that the sites simply are not equipped to produce. And I would hate for them to realign their budgets and methods towards satisfying the hardcore niche. You see, there are plenty of excellent sources for such hardcore, such as NA, Brazzers, Reality Kings. Those networks have a huge amount of content too and you can fill many terabytes with it. But there is so much less available in the photo niche. Before long, we photo lovers will have nowhere left to go.
In some ways, I echo your own comment in your review of Naughty America regarding Kentucky Fried Chicken and hamburgers. Hamburgers are to KFC what NA style sex is to Karups. Karups do not have the big titted pornstars or the scene types that NA and Brazzers have and the Karups tour is completely different in style from the Brazzers and NA tours. I think it is unrealistic to expect such hardcore in Karups or ATK. I know I can look at the Brazzers or NA tours and immediately and obviously identify that those sites are not for me. I can understand why they score high in their niche but it is obvious that they have nothing to offer in my preferred niche. I am slight;y surprised you even considered that KarupsHA was worth joining since their tour does not give much suggestion that their content would be what you were looking for. I think it is a credit to it and to you that, when you did, you gave it a balanced review and a reasonable if tough score.
On the DMs point, you say you tried many DMs in Firefox and Chrome. But did you specifically try adding your downloads using the FF Flashgot extension and did you try logging in once with Internet Explorer and saving the login details? If the answer to both of those is "no" then you would not get DMs to work well on Karups. An extra part per video is honestly just one more mouse click once you have used either of my two workarounds.
And if you use DownThemAll in Firefox, you can queue and run the downloads without even adding an external DM. DTA works perfectly on all the Karups sites because the links never time out, your login never expires and so you can even schedule DTA with a bit of effort. And you can set it up for single click downloads if you want to.
I do regard it as a valid criticism when sites will not work with DMs other than DTA. But Karups' actually do work with my workarounds unless something has changed since I last used DMs there.
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06-04-12 02:37pm
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11
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Claypaws (Suspended)
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REPLY TO #8 - Capn :
Maybe the Government could encourage entrepreneurs to set up new porn photo sites and stimulate the economy, amongst other things. Ah wait. That isn't going to happen, is it?
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06-04-12 02:47pm
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12
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Claypaws (Suspended)
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Just an update on the download manager (non-)issue.
I have just signed up to this site as it is one of my regulars and I shall write my own review soon.
Meanwhile, I thought you might like to know that Free Download Manager still works perfectly on this site if you do what I said. I have just tried it.
To summarise what you need to do to use Free Download Manager with Firefox:
Cookies must be enabled in Firefox and in Internet Explorer.
In Firefox, you need the Flashgot addon.
Log into the site using Firefox, ticking the box telling it to remember your details.
Once, and once only, log into the site using Internet Explorer, ticking the box telling it to remember your details. You can then close IE and you will not need to log in with it again for the duration of your membership. In fact, you will not need to log in again with FF either. Your login stays current for your whole membership.
Set Flashgot to use FDM as the download manager.
Do not enter any login details in FDM. It does not use them. It gets all login data from your cookies.
Click any download link.
Tell Firefox to use Flashgot and tick the box to always do it.
Thereafter, you can add downloads to FDM with just a single left click.
I downloaded in full speed mode, two files at a time. Absolutely no problem at all. I will revert to DTA because I prefer it but FDM works fine.
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06-08-12 05:02pm
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13
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MiztaBlu (0)
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REPLY TO #12 - Claypaws :
Thanks for the info clay.
I dont like Firefox though.
Its a not a huge issue downloading via "save as". Was just annoyed that the DL managers I tried didnt work.
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06-08-12 07:53pm
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14
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Claypaws (Suspended)
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REPLY TO #13 - MiztaBlu :
Thanks for the feedback. I think, to be fair to the site though, you are just saying you were annoyed because the DLMs did not work the way you configured them. You might even find that that the IE login trick works with Opera and Chrome too but I have not tried that. I don't like IE but I don't mind having to log in once ;-) I certainly hate "save as".
As a matter interest, what browser and DL combinations did you try?
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06-09-12 03:12am
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