This week PimpRoll announced yet another gay Black niche site. Thug Connection is the fifth Black site in their collection of thirteen gay venues. The sponsor has already put up a nice collection of promotional materials for the new site, including nineteen free hosted galleries.

Thug Connection is primarily a DVD download site. Below are some example FHGs.

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zBUCKz issued a statement today denying rumors of an acquisition by Pulz Productions.

Pulz, an emerging online media company, under close public scrutiny the past week, did approach zBUCKz with an offer. zBUCKz management subsequently rejected the offer, and no agreement was ever consummated.

“I have been contacted by several individuals in the past few days that were told this was a done deal and that zBUCKz had already merged with Pulz, so I am issuing this statement to clarify our position,” said CJ, Chief Operating Officer of zBUCKz, parent company of Panorama Pacific. “There were preliminary discussions, but no deal was reached and zBUCKz remains a fully independent entity.”

CFO DannyZ added, “We hope this will clear up any misunderstandings. zBUCKz doesn’t want companies making business decisions based on misinformation.”

zBUCKz is the affiliate program for three of the leading gay Asian niche sites - gayasianamateurs.com, japanboyz.com, and boykakke.com. The company also produces a line of gay Asian DVDs.

ObjectCube has just announced what they claim is the most comprehensive download to DVD software on the market.

This software is already in use by some of the bigger programs and is now being offered to studios and video-on-demand providers that are looking to deliver direct-download services to their customers.

ObjectCube Chief Executive Officer Jay Janarthanan says “All they have to do is take a DVD from the shelf, use our software to create an image, and from that image they create a downloadable format. You get all the menus and chapters and everything you would on a regular DVD, but without all the re-encoding,” he says. “It’s the next step in technological evolution.”

In a few cases, users might only be able to burn single copies of movies, or they will not be allowed to download to DVD if it’s been 30 days since a title was purchased. It will be up to each studio or VOD provider to determine which restrictions may apply.

“There are a lot of things happening in the next few years: You’re going to have set-top box players with Internet connections, and you’ll be able to download movies onto your hard drives. But, until that happens in the U.S., this is a great substitute for the next two or three years.” says Jay.

This announcement follows ObjectCube’s release of Version 6 of their Download Manager, which allows users to download large movies at up to 1000 times faster than is allowed by the browsers.

For more information contact Jay((at))ObjectCube.com, or visit the ObjectCube web site.

For the entire month of September, CelebrityCash.com is giving affiliates the chance to make an extra 1000 dollars. Webmasters that send an average of 10 joins per day for the month of September, to any combination of CelebrityCash sites, will earn a 1000 dollar bonus.

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After recently stepping down as communications director for the Free Speech Coalition, Tom Hymes has joined the XBIZ team, where he will serve as publisher.

“I am extremely excited to be joining a gifted staff at such a dynamic and ambitious company,” said Hymes, “and I cannot thank Alec Helmy, [XBIZ founder] enough for trusting me with this position. This is a great opportunity to help a great company, and I only hope I can keep up. Needless to say, I still support the Free Speech Coalition, as all members of the industry should, and will continue to assist that essential organization in any way I can.”

Hymes will oversee all XBIZ print and online publications, including XBIZ World, XBIZ Video and XBIZ.com. He also will manage the production of all printed promotional materials for XBIZ events.

“XBIZ has experienced tremendous growth in recent years, and having a publishing veteran like Tom on the team will be a huge asset that will further boost our rapid expansion,” Helmy said.

Hymes entered the adult industry as an AVN Online staff writer in May 1999, when the sister publication of AVN was launched. He served as AVN Online’s chief editor from July 2002 until March 2005.

During his career, Hymes has been an outspoken advocate of 1st Amendment freedoms and an equally vocal opponent of restrictive government measures such as 2257 record-keeping regulations and ICM Registry’s stalled bid to launch a .XXX top-level domain.

Platinum Bucks breaks into the Gay HD market with the first Gay Cum Swapping site. This site is fresh out of beta testing and the sponsor claims first page conversion ratios of close to 1:100. Cum Swapping Twinks is also part of Platinum Bucks $100 Payout Fridays bonus program that runs from now till the end of September.

If you didn’t take advantage of the Gay Phoenix Forum free registration, which ended September 1st, PrideBucks is giving you another chance to avoid the $149 fee, or $250 fee at the door. Simply send an email to rainey((at))pridebucks.com to be entered into the drawing for a free pass. The winner will be notified September 20th.

The 7th Annual Cybersocket Web Awards nominees have been announced, and voting has begun. Vote for your favorite individual, site, or company, within 12 different categories.

The winners will be announced, during the Phoenix Forum, at the awards presentation on October 5, 2006. The Amersterdam Café will host the annual ceremony.

Veteran mainstream graphic designer Jim Lombardo is now offering his design services to the adult industry. Lombardo’s design firm specializes in box covers, logos, magazine ads, posters, 8×10s, email marketing campaigns, printing services, web design, and more. To learn more about his services, visit Lombardo’s web site.