Webcamming

My housemates have all been out of the house this week with either work or holidays. I seized the opportunity to have some private time by plugging in my webcam and broadcasting my naked body to the whole world. Naturally!

I've been wanting to give IFriends a go ever since I first heard about it, but after a few hours last night, I was reminded why that chatting system annoys me so much. They have all of these great features, like the ability to set up a Fan Club (MISSKRISTY is my name over there) that's got archives of snapshots and video clips, but the actual show part is really confusing, at least on the chathost end.

There are 3 or 4 different programs I can use to run the chat. I went with the easiest one last night, Easy Cam, though it didn't feel particularly easy to my computer. Both the video part and the chat console froze a couple of times. Snapping pics for the archive worked sometimes, sometimes it didn't and none of it actually appeared in my archives until long after I'd logged off. Plus there doesn't seem to be any way to delete an image - like, say, the one where I'm half blinking. That one could go!

After I restarted my computer and logged in for the 3rd time, everything seemed to be loading smoothly. I wasn't getting any errors and was able to chat freely with a guest. What was still unclear to me (and I haven't been able to find anything in their FAQ either) is how I can tell who can see what. Guests aren't registered on the site, they're not paying to chat with me. So they should be allowed text chat, but that's it. Maybe a little preview window. There's this knocking sound when someone is looking at your room and it wasn't clear to me when they come IN to your room if they're now paying or not. Can I get naked now? Or does that mean I'm getting naked for the guests too?

I did have one chatter who bought a show with me, but I was such a noob that I didn't realize this until he typed, "I can hear you." Oh...I guess that means I can talk instead of typing! We chatted for a bit and then I started to dance a little, stripping off my lacy negligee. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK! Gah!

There is probably a way to do things like turn off the knocking when someone is checking out my room or a way to only allow 1 guest at a time. I just haven't figured it out yet. I spent more time reading the forums and trying to figure out how to work the damn system than I did chatting with people and, you know, getting naked. *sigh*

Last night definitely made me appreciate the ease that is Private Camz. They have their own issues (mostly a lack of communication and payment hoops to jump through), but their system is very user-friendly. I'm not giving up on IFriends yet though! I want to try out some of the other ways to connect & I'd really like to try broadcasting using my HD camera. I still need to fill out all the stuff on my foot fetish profile, but I think the foot shows would be great using a high quality cam. Normal girlie shows? Not so much. Nobody needs to see every single shaving bump and stretch mark. ;)