tacnetwork.com

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Review of The Adult Coalition Network:

Promises and First Impressions:

Alright, it could just be me, but I get a chuckle out of an amateur site called TAC (The Amateur Coalition), failing to consider how many cheap shots they're opening themselves up to, what with the tacky site design and all.  In fairness, the site isn't so difficult to cruise around, despite the cluttered pages, and I generally stop noticing how the package looks once I'm into its contents.  Without question, this one's a sizable network of amateur (usually one-woman) sites, the bulk of which are UK based.  I'll hold back with jokes about English porn being right up there with English cooking and give you the coalition's short list of features:

Over 60GB of the hottest amateur content around

Over 600,000 exclusive amateur pics

Over 1000 DOWNLOADABLE  movie clips

Multiple updates EVERY DAY

LIVE DAILY streaming shows with FULL AUDIO

LIVE CHAT on each site

Regular Members Parties  (Meet the ladies in the flesh)

That's a lot of content and a lot to get through, and thankfully its organized into categories, including: gang bangers, busty, mature, BBW's, girl/girl, fetish

couples, and fetish. Without further ado, let's get into it.

Details:

I spent a few hours just trying to get my bearings here, downloading as many videos as I could along the way.  TAC openly invites new coalition sites, promising to pay one of the highest fees in the industry, though after a serious browsing session it's clear that there's a varied range of content and quality control between featured sites.  On the whole, it's a pretty white bread kind of affair, as you might expect given that you're in the land of English amateurs.  There's no shortage of bellies and hips and 40- to 60-somethings, but whatever your "type", it's surely represented here.  After looking at more than 20 of the network's sites, it's also clear that most do fall fairly close to the norm for photo and video quality.

I'm always a sucker for videos, so I jumped straight in, sampling two or more videos from each of 15 or so sites that caught my attention.  Most of the video sections are relatively small, I'd have to say—some completely empty at this date—and the streaming and download bandwidths are generally better suited to dialup members.  There's generally a choice between dialup and high speed in the video libraries, though I was a bit disappointed to find that the average bandwidth for HQ Windows Media Video short vids seems to be around 221 kb/s.  Granted, I found a nice masturbation video at 690 kb/s at the hot4honey site, but then again, I also found "high speed" videos that played back at a blocky, smeary 96 kb/s.  As with any network of this nature—particularly given the "amateur" distinction—there's bound to be some variation in content quality, though speaking generally, I think it's quite fair to suggest that much of what's on offer at TAC.com could use higher resolution recompression with modern codecs.  Of course, for dialup users this is probably a moot point.

Where the videos were a mixed bag, the photos tended to impress me a lot more.  Again, there's variation, but there seems to be a well-implemented standard here, and most pics come in between 500X700 and 600X800.  It ain't exactly desktop wallpaper material, but all things considered I found the galleries quite sharp looking and the browsing controls quite easy to use.  It's all a bit no-frills, but the TAC designers did a good job avoiding the need for excessive use of the back button, an obvious (but often overlooked) quality in adult web sites.  The claim is that there are well more than half a million pics to peruse.  I didn't have much luck with the UK Exhibitionist galleries, but the original coalition content was certainly up to spec for amateur content and you can surely spend days on end scoping the pics.

I kept hoping to find some lively chat happening, though I seem not to have tuned in at the right time, perhaps given my 6 hr. lag from Greenwich Mean Time .  The camz shows, however, seem quite well scheduled and implemented at present, and there are a lot of little "bonus" nooks and crannies to dig around in once you start linking of the various featured sites.  I didn't locate any goldmines of exciting new content poking around outside of the main content, but I never have found bonus-hunting a particularly rewarding sport.

Parting Shots:

I'm getting tired of whinging—for all you Americans, that's British English for griping—about the shortage of amateur content out there that's kept with up with the times technologically.  Real fans of the genre certainly know that bandwidth isn't everything, and in all honesty, I found the TAC network's quality to be about par for the course, all things considered.  The content is definitely a mixed bag, but it certainly has its moments, whatever your fancy.  I, for one, am excitedly awaiting future installments from Strap-on Jayne, the Womb Raider.  You're certainly advised to spend a bit of time browsing before forking over the $30/month that this one will set you back, particularly as English Erotica isn't exactly a household name.  With the extensive possibilities for actually interacting with the featured amateurs (or becoming one yourself) this "coalition" represents a very robust social network, especially for those in the UK.  For those that want to get involved with other English swingers and amateur performers, this is surely a godsend.  For all others, serious consideration is recommended.

Price:
$29.95 for 30 days, recurring;
$46.95 for 60 days recurring;
$59.95 for 90 days recurring;
$69.95 for 90 days non-recurring

Preview the members area:

2004-07-21

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