You can check out my past posts for some lore. The whole reason I signed up here was because I've been doing a deep-dive on the Fratpad since 2022. I can give an overview, and I swear I'll try my hardest to keep it brief:
History:
The earliest available web capture of "fratmen.com" is on November 28th, 1999, launched by "Pavlov's Dog" to sell the first four Fratmen solo tapes featuring Sean, Mike, Chris, and Josh. You could also buy a "Frat Pack," which was a collection of all four on one 90-minute VHS. As far as I know, the tapes were created in 1998 or 1999 and the website is how Hostmaster John had planned to sell them (the sole owner of Pavlov's Dog). The "Alumni Weekend" series saw the first instance of more than one Fratman on screen, and the first one was released by October 19th, 2004. It contained the first ever "duo," a side-by-side (no contact) featuring Fratmen Kenny (Nash Lawler) and Paul (Paul Jerrod/Nixon).
John hired Jasun Mark in 2005 as a part-time video editor, then soon as the marketing director/affiliate manager. I personally believe that Jasun is solely responsible for the early growth and success of the Fratpad. He seems to be a huge part of its DNA. He was closely involved in the Fratpad's official launch on June 15th, 2006, eventually leaving the company in 2008. I'm not sure at which point the idea for the actual Fratpad came about. VoyeurDorm, DudeDorm, CocoDorm, and BoysCondo are the other voyeur cam houses I'm aware of that all precede the Fratpad, following in the example of independent producers JenniCAM and Sean Patrick Live!. Flirt4Free was launched in 1996, carrying on from the "CU-SeeMe" videoconferencing of the early 90s.
I've counted five actual "Fratpads" in total. At the start, the cast was split across two apartments in Hollywood, then they moved into a condo in the same building (and they had at least one other unit, likely one of the first apartments). They moved to their first actual house in 2008—one on Maui—then in 2009, we finally have the big house in Paradise Valley, Arizona. They moved into a smaller house at the very end of 2014 which I haven't been able to track down, but it's around the same area. The final day of Fratpad cams was September 25th, 2015.
Lifestyle:
In general, there weren't actually many rules for how to be a "Fratman" at the Pad. They had to be on camera four hours a day (plus the live fixed cams), and they had to maintain a certain look (every Fratman knows you don't shave anything on your body. They were even advised to keep tan lines when they were living on Maui.) But interestingly, they didn't even have to be naked. The nudity and masturbation sort of naturally emerged, as members would ask for it and the Fratmen would oblige. I'm sure it was generally understood that the Fratmen would at least be naked for showers, as was the nature of the voyeur cam house of the era. All of them were also already used to masturbating on camera, since they'd all have already done their Fratmen solo shoot, and perhaps some FMTV shows (which are the regular hour-long cam shows. FMTV is short for "Fratmen TV", the brand for all digitized non-Fratpad content.)
Members could purchase private shows from Fratmen at the Pad as early as 2006, and this eventually led to "duo privates," where two Fratmen could be paid to put on a show together. These are what turned into the PPVs (pay-per-view). By 2009, "Actives" at the Pad were paid—I believe—a little over $1,000 a week while living there, and it sounds like at that time they would be paid up to $5,000 each for appearing in an official PPV.
Alright, sorry about the scroll, for those passing by. Anyone can feel free to message me if you want to know more, or if you have facts to share yourself! Fratpad is a hobby of mine now for some reason...
