Improved onboarding flow

When you first join Tryst.link, you need to complete a couple steps including verification, getting your profile ready, and then submitting it to be reviewed by our team.

We’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how we could improve this flow, make it faster and easier to join the platform, especially for when you need to verify your age. The new flow is easier to use, faster to get through, and just plain nicer to look at!

We’re also Sex Workers, so we understand the concern folks have when sensitive information such as verification is requested by platforms. While we have always had a number of measures, both technical and policy based, to help ensure the security of your data, we also want to be as transparent in our security practices as we can so we have put together this article explaining how your data is handled. The quick notes are that we utilise the use of multiple layers of encryption, auditing, and strong policies along with only storing data in jurisdictions with strong privacy laws and adherence to international human rights conventions.

New this month

• A whole new onboarding that looks better, is clearer where you are up to, and will help improve the speed you can get through verification. We're rolling this out gradually to new users.
• You can now select up to 4 pronouns to be shown on your profile, including variations ("she/her/hers" for example!)

Other changes

• More typo fixes than we can poke a stick at! If you come across one be sure to let our team know.
• We completed some database maintenance.
• Fixed a bug that caused message counts to be incorrect. We also added pages to the message list to make inboxes more manageable.
• Updated some pages on the site, such as ensuring you have a list of all of our real social media accounts.

In the community

There's loads going on in the community and we want to highlight some things each month in our release notes to help bring more awareness to them. Are you involved in an event or organisation, or know of one, we should highlight? Reach out and let us know!

• SWOP Tucsan is looking for sex workers and allies to help plan the 20th anniversary of the sex worker's art festival, November 18-19 2022. Get in touch via swoptucsonaz@gmail.com
• Sex Worker Pride Day is on the 14th of September. Check your local sw org for events
• Live Oak Chicago are hosting a support group for current and former sex workers Tuesdays from 7:30pm - 9pm from the 27th of September through to the 15th of November. Contact Sophia via setling@liveoakchicago.com for more.
• National Ugly Mugs has joined MindGeek’s Trusted Flagger scheme. This means that our caseworkers can request immediate takedowns of your online content across their platforms. MindGeek removes the content instantly and will investigate afterwards.If you want your content removed, the NUM casework team can help you.
• Sw Narrative Salon are hosting Writing Desire online on Monday the 5th of September at 2:30pm AEST. Contact swnarrativesalon@protonmail.com for more info.
• The SW Unconference is running from the 16th -17th of September with loads of awesome events planned. Tickets and more info here.
• Jinhee Kwak is looking for new zine submissions for volume 2 of Be Easy, Stay Safe. Email beeasystaysafezine@gmail.com for more :)
• Save the date, Slut Walk Miami is on it's way! Saturday, 10 December. Register here

Recurring events

• St James Infirmary are running a SW writers circle every Thursday from 2:00pm - 4pm PST. Invite via the "Sex Workers we love you button" found here.
• Magenta in Perth are running meet ups the first Thursday of every month. DM them on instagram for more info
• Sober Sex Workers is running a monthly Zoom meeting every second Sunday at 7pm CST. Request a meeting link via the @sobersexworkers instagram account
• Sex Worker breakfasts Wednesdays 11am -2pm Least London E1. Contact swblondon@protonmail.com for more details.

In the media

• How sex workers bank their money, since Mastercard abandoned them - Faima Bakar
• Imagining a world where sex work is decriminalised - Brit Dawson
• Fashion is readdressing its complicated relationship with sex work - Abigail Moss
• Mapping sex work in Chicago - Sam Stroozas
• One in five sex workers sexually exploited by gardaí, report finds - David Raleigh
• A LinkedIn user who went viral after listing 'sex work' as a professional experience says the industry is just as worthy on the website as any other career - Grace Kay
• Partying on the Picket Line with the Strippers Making Labor History - Katie Way
• Cost of living crisis ‘pushing more women into sex work’ - Sami Quardi
• How Sex Workers And Sex Party Attendees Are Dealing With Monkeypox - Hallie Leiberman
• The Internet's Most Popular Fetish Site Is Flagging People As Sex Workers - Olivia Snow
• Activists Fight to Decriminalize PLWH and Sex Workers in the U.S. - Stephen Hicks
• Aussie mum claps back at critics who slammed her X-rated career - Claudia Popski
• How Queer Sex Workers Can Help Us Learn to Love Ourselves - Raksha Muthukumar
• Juniper Fitzgerald’s Queer Memoir-in-Fragments Examines Her Identities as a Sex Worker and Mother - Stef Rubino
• Missouri sex workers organize to protect their community's access to abortions - Farrah Anderson
• Calls to a helpline for sex workers have gone up by a third since June - Kate Hollowood
• Club Chrome is Australia’s first sex worker-led pole collective - Isabelle Truman
• Sex Workers Struggle to Get Vaccinated Against Monkeypox - Samantha Cole
• Web3 Is Still Censoring Sex Workers - Jessica Klein
• What's it like to date a sex worker? - Justin Perlman
• Porn was never a public health crisis, shitty morals were - Gigi Fong
• She Earned $34,000 In One Month Through Financial Domination - Elamin Abdelmahmoud
• Exploring sex work in Ireland - eight inch heels, pink acrylics and stigma - Lianne O’Hara
• A Statue of a Sex Worker Is a Top Attraction in This German City - Alex Temblador
• The great positivity pushback: how sex negativity became normal - Ione Gamble
• ‘Outfits should go full fembot!’: 4 strippers on the future of strip clubs - Emily Dinsdale
• My 10-Year-Old Just Saw Porn For The First Time. Here's What I Told Him. - Emily McCombs