I GET BY WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS

"A friend in need, is a friend indeed" and yesterday I was in need of a few friends, mostly due to being frustrated. I wrote a post yesterday out of that frustration, which I since deleted and sought the help of my friends. Within the next few days for those of you on AFF and Community Blogs, you will see three identical posts titled,"An Update From Joy (author51)" Still having a voice here on Blogger and remaining connected with a few of you who are on both forums, I am grateful for.. Yesterday I was beyond frustrated offline and having to reply to messages one by one,from either AFF bloggers who left the site but have since returned, and others asking how I am and if I will ever return. I sent out a call to my most trusted, long time friends and fellow bloggers asking for their help to try to get a Message collectively to one and all on AFF. My Voice does not Carry as far on Blogger, like it used to on AFF..

They heeded my call for Help,and I drafted up an "Update From Joy" to both get my Words out and give me Closure, which I did not realize I needed. I do now...

Getting by with a little help from friends, we all need at times. I am so eternally grateful for those I do have online and off and love them dearly.

For those friends trying to spread the word on AFF with my message and Update, along with those who work behind the scenes, "Leaving The Door Open" if Joy (author51) ever decides to return,I truly Thank You for your friendship and support. It means the world to me.

UNDER THE COVERS CANADIAN STYLE

Thanks once more to our resident "Robin Hood" and his series of Original vs.Cover posts it inspired my own but with a Twist.. I myself did Two different series of posts when on AFF, both featuring the Top 30 Canadian Bands in my own opinion, along with a separate series of the Top 30 single Canadian singers/ artists. This one, I shall be "Uncovering" some of my personal favourite songs by Canadian artists that were either Covered by other Canadian artists/bands or from major artists the world over in the music Industry. Among these though will also be Canadians who covered famous songs outside of Canada and made them their own with as much success as the original one. # 1 - Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen How could I not start with one of the most iconic, covered songs of all time,by Canadian Leonard Cohen. I was no fan as he could not sing a note, yet his lyrics and story telling with his songs and music, made him famous..

It was not until K.D.Lang, another Canadian artist covered it, that I myself preferred the Cover over the original. I have to go with this video, when she sang it at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver during the opening ceremonies..

#2 - If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lightfoot

In my mind, no cover of Gordon Lightfoots songs even comes close but when Stars On 54 did it as more of a Dance tune, I did not mind it.. (Editors Note: When writing this,I had the "Stars On 45" at first in my mind who I thought covered "If You Could Read My Mind" not Stars On 54. Back in 1981, "Stars On 45" did an album that I had bought when I first moved to B.C. at 18 which had combined the Beatles, The Archies, Madness, The Buggles, Shocking Blue, Lipps Inc. and so many others. A Mashup of sorts, back in the day.. It was not until 1998 when the "Stars On 54" covered "If You Could Read My Mind" for the movie about the famous Studio 54, which I have never seen, and is the video below..

# 3 - Cotton Jenny by Gordon Lightfoot

Even though Gordon released this song in 1971 on his album "Summer Side Of Life" , another favourite Canadian artist of mine Anne Murray did a cover of it in 1972 which also became a hit..

# 4 - Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell

Canadian music legend Joni Mitchell both wrote and sang "Big Yellow Taxi" in 1970 and it has been covered by others such as Bob Dylan in 1973..

I am no Dylan fan either for his singing, much like Leonard Cohen. It was not until the Counting Crows with Vanessa Carlton came out with "Big Yellow Taxi" that I thought they did Joni Mitchell justice with their cover of it.

# 5 Into The Mystic by Van Morrison (this one is for Deb.)

Such an amazing song and I am a huge Van Morrison fan. I did not think anyone could cover this song well, up until my fellow Canadian Colin James did and I was lucky enough lat November, to hear Colin do it Live. It gave me chills and in my honest opinion, has surpassed Van Morrisons original of it..The first is an interview Colin did about capturing the essence of how doing his cover of "Into The Mystic" came about, along with Colin's Cover of it..

( He did the above version Live in Toronto's Rock Station Q107 and one I listen to the most.) I have quite a few more songs I want to add, either done by Canadian artists and or bands that have been covered by others, or ones Canadians have covered themselves from the originals that became a huge success also in their own right. That will wait for another post.. I hope you enjoy these covers and their originals also..

FEEL LIKE HELL AND COUNTRY MASHUPS

After a night of drinking too many glasses of Merlot,or having a heated argument with a loved one, I always Feel Like Hell.

Thanks in large part to Cooper Alan, a country star no less, "Feel Like Hell Today" has become my Theme song for life and one I will sing at Karaoke next time I go.....lol. I think "Feel Like Hell Today" is one theme song that fits one and all, both online and off in our daily lives. After listening to this song earlier, I checked out others from Cooper Alan. I had not heard much about him, as I do not listen to country as a rule , nor am on TikTok. Classic Rock of course is what I love out of any other musical jenre.. Cooper Alan became Viral on TikTok for his music it seems, and his rise to fame on more mainstream channels like YouTube, along with his Live shows, soon followed. I can not believe I am saying this,but he is one Country singer, I would actually pay to see Live. His MashUps of country, pop, rap and Classic Rock has made me a Huge fan. He is phenominal and his Mashup Compilation below was well worth the almost 25 minutues it took for me to listen to.. Shout out to our Robin Hood here on his Cover Tunes blog posts as some of the songs Cooper does in his Mashups may become inspiration to you for the future.lol. So my fellow readers and music lovers of any kind, first off on a day you feel like Hell or someone is pissing you off, listen to both "Feel Like Hell Today" or music that resonates with you.. Cooper Alan did for me today, both with that song along with his Compilation below... Do you have a certain Theme song of your own? One that you can relate to about Life, love and the pursuit of happiness? What is your musical genre preference?

( Please, when you have a spare half hour today, give them both a listen.) Music soothes the savage beast and heals all in my opinion, no matter which genre that resonates with us..

THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CANADA AND THE U.S.A - VICTORIA DAY VERSES MEMORIAL DAY

Being Canadian and mistaken too many times to count for being American, became inspiration for this post. The conversation with an American blogger still on AFF and one I chat with offline, is as follows.. Me: I do not have Memorial Day in Canada.Last weekend here in Canada and what is known as our Victoria Day, May Two-Four Long Weekend, we keep seperate from the U.S.A.. We do share Labour Day, and yes being Canadian, I spell it with a "U".. I do so adore my American friends and men like you I would so love to fuck, south of my Canadian border, but we have so very many differences. Our spelling up here and holidays are just two of them. Being separate countries sharing the same Continent, will do that.. He asked me Why? I had "Victoria Day" in Canada last weekend, while the United States "Memorial Day" this weekend paid homeage to it's fallen soldiers.. I ended up sending him links as what makes Canada and the USA totally different both in spelling,holidays and how Canada verses The United States, remember our militarity here in Canada, compared to the U.S.A.

When my thousands of followers on AFF, mistook this Canadian for being American, I sent them links on how different Canadians/USA are.. Made no difference at all either way......

THE OFFENDED CANCEL CULTURE - IF TOO POLITICALLY CORRECT, JUST SCROLL PAST

I had to look up the term "Cancel Culture" for this post. One which only dates back to being used from the late 2010's to now. As soon as I read that, it all started to make sense for this Canadian Baby Boomer born in 1963..

Cancel culture is a phrase contemporary to the late 2010s and early 2020s used to refer to a cultural phenomenon in which an individual deemed to have acted or spoken in an unacceptable manner is ostracized, boycotted, shunned, fired or assaulted, often aided by social media. This shunning may extend to social or professional circles, whether on social media or in person with the most high-profile incidents involving celebrities. Those subject to this ostracism are said to have been "canceled." This 61 year old had a lot of questions when reading the definition about "Who" actually deemed "What" is unacceptable in any Culture at all. No matter which race, religion, sexuality or gender others may identitfy with.. When blogging on AFF and now here, my reputation for writing my own Unfiltered somewhat offensive thoughts, proceeds me. I did not care if they were politically correct. Offending anyone had never been my concern. Walking on eggshells in fear of being "Cancelled" off AFF, or losing readers, fans, viewers or friends, had this lone exiled Canadian, not backing down nor changing to become politically correct just to appease anyone. It is one reason why I am not on AFF, reinstated, nor ever want to be.. The above video by a fellow Canadian and comdedic genius "Russell Peters" inspired this among other things.. I mentioned in my post the other day titled, "The Last One Standing Of The 4 Exiles" between JN, Robin Hood and now Enigma, who are all from different countries and environments, our views and reasons why they are back on AFF, reinstated and blogging while I am not. I was no where near as politically correct and never minced my words no matter any Culture, sexuality,religion, race nor gender. Especially towards any "Cancel Culture" who is young enough to be my child and gets offended. We Canadians, contrary to popular belief are not the "Nice Ones."

HAPPY VICTORIA/MAY TWO-FOUR LONG WEEKEND

A shout out to my fellow Canadians on our Victoria Day/May Two-Four long weekend. Have a good one.. Happy Monday to the rest of you..

THE LAST ONE STANDING OF THE 4 EXILES FROM AFF AND AUTHOR51

With not one, but three of my fellow Exiles standing now on AFF, I had told them at the start of it all I would not ever come back. I wished them all well and only hope the best for them.. I told all 3 of them when it first started, it was JN, spunky and Enigma who everyone wanted back and not myself. I knew that.. It was JN first who was and still is a long time friend, I stood up for on AFF and why I was banned. I do not nor did care when we were all exiled.. What I did and still do care about is them.. My three fellow exiles know that no matter if "author51 is the Last of the 4 Exiles standing, not reinstated nor wanting back, that is my choice. You do You, I will do me and we will all respect each other's decisions and truly know, we 4 stood as one. Knowing what truly happened behind the scenes and screens with reinstatements, convos between Jon and Ali and everything else that happened..

LEARNING TO FLY WITH NO FEAR

With my Flight to B.C. coming up shortly, I am getting extremely excited. Not only due to spending time with my kids, grandchildren and family, but with flying itself. Since the age of 13 and the first time I had ever flown the friendly skies, from Toronto to Sarasota Florida, to see my Dad's Mom who was a Canadian Snowbird, I was and still am fascinated with both flying itself and any type of aircraft..

After that first initial flight in 1976 with my Dad, when it came time for me ( the youngest of 7 originally) to spread my wings and "Fly Away" like a John Denver or Lenny Kravitz song, being an airline stewardess was my first career choice. Back at that time for one reason or another, I had not even thought about becoming an "Amelia Earhart" myself and to truly Learn How To Fly. I ended up flying across the ice on my figure skates with my feet firmly planted on the ground. Both becoming an airline stewardess along with a Recording Engineer after, were not my Destiny..

Fast forward when I moved to B.C. in 1981 and especially Aldergrove in 1990 to raise my children. Aldergrove is a scant 10 minutes away from the Abbotsford Airport and where I fly both to and from, every June. Even though Abbotsford Airport is small with only one terminal, it has one of Canada's largest airshows in the world. Living there all the years I did. My fascination with planes and flying grew.My three kids maybe not, as they did not like the noise level living so close and not having to leave our front yard to watch either all the "Stealth Bombers" come in quietly with practice runs and leave a trail of Noise, behind them, or the Canadian Airforce Snowbirds flying in to practice, just prior the airshow..

I myself was in my glory and cemented any type of Flying at all with no fear.. So with that being said, while I myself Love to Fly anywhere, do you? I once sat beside a woman on a flight from Toronto to Abbotsford who was deathly afraid of flying. During our 5 hour flight from Toronto Pearson to Abbotsford,I kept her mind occupied and the conversation flowing. She became so engrossed, her fear of flying itself became a mute point. We ended up exchanging stories, emails among personal information after,and have been friends offsite since that flight..

THE POWER OF FLOWERS

When first dating my man after we reconnected, he brought me a dozen long stem Red Roses. It was like our 4th date maybe and I had invited him over for dinner at my place.

( I am so glad I found this song as my Moms middle name was Rose, and Wayne Newton was one of her favourite singers bar none.) I Thanked him for the thoughtful gesture and put the roses in a vase. I had already planned after dinner to lay him down on my Bed,with or without Roses..

Flash forward a week and a half later, when he was over and asked me about the roses. Noticing I had no indoor flowers, nor plants of any kind in my apartment at all. It was at that time I told him that even though I loved the gesture and thoughtfulness of receiving bouquets of any flower, all they do is wilt and die in a matter of days with me when indoors, so I toss them. "Duly noted" was his response and said he would not "Bring Me Flowers Anymore."

It is now approx. almost a year later and we know so much more about both our likes and dislikes. Even though he knows mine for both indoor flower bouquets and plants is a no-no, it is a different story when it pertains to outdoors and especially on my back deck.. This is our first full summer together, especially on my new back deck. I took him shopping last weekend to a local Garden Center and bought potted Wave Petunias which do well with the amount of sun and rain always on my deck.. He asked me at that time, which outdoor flowers and plants I liked the most, now knowing indoor ones and bouquets of anything just never work for me.. I told him Sunflowers of any colour had always been my favourite.Not having the lawn nor space myself, Hibiscus, Petunias, Lilacs and Gerber Daisies were a close second. I did not mention Orchids, as we can not grow them here and having orchids as an indoor flower and plant just does not work although I adore them.. He obviously took note and on Mother's Day Sunday, he brought both myself and my oldest sister whom I live with,potted Hibiscus flowers, the exact same colours. I have so much more to say. Having just one lover, who cares about you, flowers, siblings you may live with like I do and goes out of their way, like mine did..

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

Happy Mothers Day to all Moms, be it children or fur babies. I am so looking forward to seeing my children and grandchildren next Month. Happy Mothers Day also to Mothers who are not with us on this earth but forever in our hearts and memories.. A Mothers Love never dies..

SEX, LIES AND SCANDALS - THE ASHLEY MADISON AFFAIR

 

Above, is the trailer for a Netflix docuseries, showing on May.15th, about the "Adult" site Ashley Madison that was hacked and some of the repercussions following the Data Breach..

You can bet, having been a member of another "Adult" site, once it airs, the term "Netflix and Chill" is precisely what I shall be doing and Binge watching it..

I myself was not a member of any type of Adult site until 2014. I  had found out my LTR after 8 years was cheating on me. I kicked him to the curb because we were not  an "Open relationship" couple, nor were we swingers. It hurt like Hell at the time and now has me wondering if he had been a member of Ashley Madison at one time..That was so long ago and far away from present day 2024 and he was no "Superstar."

What happened on Ashley Madison eventually and the Data Breach with the site being a Canadian one which I never knew, just kind of blew me away.. It reminds me of AFF as there are even now, so many similarities. Here are a few which I copied and pasted from Wikipedia.

Ashley Madison, or The Ashley Madison Agency, is a Canadian online dating service and social networking service. It was launched in 2002 and marketed to people who are married (or people in relationships) who are looking for affairs.^[3] The website's slogan is "Life is short. Have an affair."^[2]

The website has been widely condemned for being a "business built on the back of broken hearts",^[4] and is also believed to lie about the size of its userbase by "creating fake accounts, or not stopping others from creating fake accounts".^{[5] AFF anyone?}

Ashley Madison gained notoriety in 2015 when it was subject to a data breach and the personal information of millions of users was released to the public.^[6]

Ashley Madison

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ashley Madison

Type of site	Online dating service Social network service
Available in	Chinese (simplified and traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian and European), Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish (European, American), Swedish, Tagalog, Turkish, Ukrainian
Founder(s)	Darren Morgenstern
Key people	Paul Keable (Chief Strategy Officer) Brian Offenheim (Vice President of Creative and Design) Haze Deng (Chief Revenue Officer) George Al-Koura (Chief Information Security Officer) Srdjan Milutinovic (Chief Information Officer)
Parent	Ruby Corp.
URL	www.ashleymadison.com
Commercial	Yes
Registration	Yes
Users	60 million (as of February 2019)[1]
Launched	January 21, 2002; 22 years ago[2]
Current status	Active

Ashley Madison, or The Ashley Madison Agency, is a Canadian online dating service and social networking service. It was launched in 2002 and marketed to people who are married (or people in relationships) who are looking for affairs.^[3] The website's slogan is "Life is short. Have an affair."^[2]

The website has been widely condemned for being a "business built on the back of broken hearts",^[4] and is also believed to lie about the size of its userbase by "creating fake accounts, or not stopping others from creating fake accounts".^[5]

Ashley Madison gained notoriety in 2015 when it was subject to a data breach and the personal information of millions of users was released to the public.^[6]

History[edit]

Ashley Madison was founded in 2002 by Darren J. Morgenstern. The name comes from two popular female names in North America, "Ashley" and "Madison".^[2]

On July 15, 2015, hackers stole all of its customer data—including emails, names, home addresses, sexual fantasies, and credit card information—and threatened to post the data online if Ashley Madison and fellow Avid Life Media site Established Men were not permanently closed.^[3] By July 22, the first set of customer names was released by hackers,^[7] with all of the user data released on August 18, 2015. More data (including some of the CEO's emails) was released on August 20, 2015. The release included data from customers who had previously paid a $19 fee to Ashley Madison to supposedly have their data deleted.^[8] The fee was also applied to people who had accounts set up against their will, as a workplace prank, or because of a mistyped email address.^[9]

On August 28, 2015, Noel Biderman agreed to step down as chief executive officer of Avid Life Media Inc.^[10] A statement released by the firm said his departure was "in the best interest of the company".^[11]

In July 2016, parent company Avid Life Media re-branded itself to Ruby Corp. and appointed Rob Segal as its new CEO.^[12] In the same month, the company changed its signature tagline from "Life is Short. Have an Affair." to "Find your moment",^[3] and updated its brand imagery to replace the image of a woman wearing a wedding ring with a red gem-shaped symbol as its logo.^[13][14][15]

By 2017, CEO Rob Segal and President James Millership had resigned from their respective roles.

In May 2017, Ashley Madison unretired the tagline "Life is short. Have an affair", and the image of the married woman, symbolic of the company's returned focus on married dating.^[16] In February 2019, the company announced it had reached the 60-million-member mark.^[1] In a 2019 interview, Ashley Madison's Chief Strategy Officer Paul Keable stated that the service helps create up to one million affairs every month.^[17]

Ashley Madison

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the Australian drag queen, see Ashley Madison (drag queen).

Ashley Madison

Type of site	Online dating service Social network service
Available in	Chinese (simplified and traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian and European), Romanian, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish (European, American), Swedish, Tagalog, Turkish, Ukrainian
Founder(s)	Darren Morgenstern
Key people	Paul Keable (Chief Strategy Officer) Brian Offenheim (Vice President of Creative and Design) Haze Deng (Chief Revenue Officer) George Al-Koura (Chief Information Security Officer) Srdjan Milutinovic (Chief Information Officer)
Parent	Ruby Corp.
URL	www.ashleymadison.com
Commercial	Yes
Registration	Yes
Users	60 million (as of February 2019)[1]
Launched	January 21, 2002; 22 years ago[2]
Current status	Active

Ashley Madison, or The Ashley Madison Agency, is a Canadian online dating service and social networking service. It was launched in 2002 and marketed to people who are married (or people in relationships) who are looking for affairs.^[3] The website's slogan is "Life is short. Have an affair."^[2]

The website has been widely condemned for being a "business built on the back of broken hearts",^[4] and is also believed to lie about the size of its userbase by "creating fake accounts, or not stopping others from creating fake accounts".^[5]

Ashley Madison gained notoriety in 2015 when it was subject to a data breach and the personal information of millions of users was released to the public.^[6]

History[edit]

Ashley Madison was founded in 2002 by Darren J. Morgenstern. The name comes from two popular female names in North America, "Ashley" and "Madison".^[2]

On July 15, 2015, hackers stole all of its customer data—including emails, names, home addresses, sexual fantasies, and credit card information—and threatened to post the data online if Ashley Madison and fellow Avid Life Media site Established Men were not permanently closed.^[3] By July 22, the first set of customer names was released by hackers,^[7] with all of the user data released on August 18, 2015. More data (including some of the CEO's emails) was released on August 20, 2015. The release included data from customers who had previously paid a $19 fee to Ashley Madison to supposedly have their data deleted.^[8] The fee was also applied to people who had accounts set up against their will, as a workplace prank, or because of a mistyped email address.^[9]

On August 28, 2015, Noel Biderman agreed to step down as chief executive officer of Avid Life Media Inc.^[10] A statement released by the firm said his departure was "in the best interest of the company".^[11]

In July 2016, parent company Avid Life Media re-branded itself to Ruby Corp. and appointed Rob Segal as its new CEO.^[12] In the same month, the company changed its signature tagline from "Life is Short. Have an Affair." to "Find your moment",^[3] and updated its brand imagery to replace the image of a woman wearing a wedding ring with a red gem-shaped symbol as its logo.^[13][14][15]

By 2017, CEO Rob Segal and President James Millership had resigned from their respective roles.

In May 2017, Ashley Madison unretired the tagline "Life is short. Have an affair", and the image of the married woman, symbolic of the company's returned focus on married dating.^[16] In February 2019, the company announced it had reached the 60-million-member mark.^[1] In a 2019 interview, Ashley Madison's Chief Strategy Officer Paul Keable stated that the service helps create up to one million affairs every month.^[17]

Membership[edit]

Ashley Madison is a membership website and service based in Canada; its membership includes more than 60 million people in 53 countries.^[7]

The company announced plans to launch in Singapore in 2014.^[18] However, Singapore's Media Development Authority (MDA) announced that it would not allow Ashley Madison to operate in Singapore as "it promotes adultery and disregards family values".^[19]

Business model[edit]

Unlike Match.com or eHarmony, Ashley Madison's business model is based on credits ( points on AFF.) rather than monthly subscriptions. For a conversation between two members, one of the members, always the man, must pay eight credits to initiate the conversation. Any follow-up messages between the two members are complimentary after starting communication. Ashley Madison also has a real-time chat feature where credits buy a certain time allotment.

The site allows users to hide their account profiles for free. Users looking to delete their accounts, even those made without the individual's consent, are charged a $19 fee.^[9][20] The "full delete" option claims to remove user profiles, all messages sent and received, site usage history, personally identifiable information, and photos.^[21] The data disclosures in 2015 revealed that this "permanent deletion" feature did not permanently delete anything, and all data was recoverable.^{[citation needed]}

Criticism[edit]

Trish McDermott, a consultant who helped found Match.com, accused Ashley Madison of being a "business built on the back of broken hearts, ruined marriages, and damaged families".^[4] Biderman responded by stating that the site is "just a platform" and a website or a commercial will not convince anyone to commit adultery.^[2][22] According to Biderman, affairs help preserve many marriages.^[23]

Guarantee[edit]

Ashley Madison offered a guarantee that users will "find someone": "we GUARANTEE that you will successfully find what you're looking for or we'll give you your money back."^[24] To qualify, users had to purchase the most expensive package, send more expensive "priority" messages to 18 unique members each month for three months, send five Ashley Madison gifts per month, and engage in 60 minutes of paid chat per month. Compounding the problem is that "more men than women use the service, with the disparity increasing as they advance in age", and "Men seek sex, while women seek passion."^[25] A page on Ashley Madison, entitled "Is Ashley Madison a scam? Is Ashley Madison a fraud?" addressed some of these issues in an attempt to win over prospective customers and teach them best practices for using the site.^[26]

Segal and Millership phased out the guarantee feature on July 5, 2016. It no longer appears on the company website, advertising, or promotion.^[27]

Fake female bot accounts[edit]

According to Annalee Newitz, editor-in-chief of Gizmodo, who has analyzed the 2015 leaked data,^[28] Ashley Madison had over 70,000 bots sending fake female messages to male users. She had previously released an analysis purporting to show that only a minuscule proportion (12,000 out of 5.5 million) of registered female accounts were used on a regular basis,^[29][30][31] but she has subsequently disavowed this analysis, saying that from the data released there is no way of determining how many women actually used the service.^[32] Newitz noted a clause in terms of service which states that "many profiles are for 'amusement only'".^[31]

In 2012, a former employee claimed in a lawsuit that she was requested to create thousands of fake female accounts attractive to male customers, resulting in repetitive stress injury. The case was settled out of court.^[31]

In July 2016, CEO Rob Segal and newly appointed President James Millership told Reuters that the company had phased out bots by late 2015. Segal shared an independent report by EY (Ernst & Young), which verified the phase-out..

Data breach[edit]

Main article: Ashley Madison data breach

On July 15, 2015,^[51] the site was hacked by a group known as The Impact Team. Claiming that its security had always been weak, the hackers claimed to have stolen personal information about the site's user base and threatened to release names, home addresses, search histories, and credit card numbers if the site was not immediately shut down. The demand was driven by the site's policy of not deleting users' personal information following their invoiced requests.^[52]

The first release, validated by experts, occurred on August 18.^[53] Another release was made on August 20, but a 13 GB file – which allegedly contained the emails of Avid Life Media CEO Noel Biderman – was corrupted.^[54] This was corrected on August 21, when the Impact Team dumped Biderman's emails in a separate 19 GB file.^[55]

Some users reported receiving extortion emails requesting 1.05 in bitcoin (approximately $225 at the time) to prevent the information from being shared with the user's significant other.^[56][57] Clinical psychologists argued that dealing with an affair in a particularly public way increases the hurt for spouses and children.^[58][59] On August 24, the Toronto Police Department spoke of "two unconfirmed reports of suicides" associated with the leak of customer profiles along with extortion attempts, offering a $500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the hackers.^[60] At least one suicide previously linked to Ashley Madison has since been reported as being due to "stress entirely related to issues at work that had no connection to the data leak".^[61]

CEO Rob Segal said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that the company was making ongoing investments to enhance privacy and security safeguards, including a partnership with Deloitte's cyber security team. Segal also announced new discreet payment options, including Skrill, Neteller, and Paysafe card..

 I have a lot more info. about what happened on Ashley Madison and the similarities to it when being a member of AFF.

I commented earlier about AFF being a sinking ship, and happy now I will never go down with it as my "Heart Will Go On"..

( Robin Hood, this is for you and others here, who are  on AFF, and now on this site)

..