# It seems Tawnee Stone may have died \[she's alive- ed. title\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 31, 2010, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925 "2010-12-31T07:18:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925/61 "2011-01-03T02:12:12Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > 1. Make phony death announcement (but with plausible deniability) regarding long-time most popular Lightspeed girl Tawnee Stone on fan forums, with implication that site may be taken down soon. > > 2. Old fans plus new fans drawn in by publicity rush to buy Tawnee porn while the getting’s still good. > > 3. Profit She hasn’t made any porn in at least six years, maybe more. Her site is totally independent of her. Nobody has said anything would be taken down. So how does your scenario make any sense? ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925/62 "2011-01-03T02:47:38Z")
You haven’t gone to the site linked in the OP have you? 🙂 Steve Jones (alias Steve Lightspeed), who owns the Lightspeed porn sites which include the Tawnee Stone site, posted the following on the OP linked porn-related message board: > [@](#): > > I just heard that our very own Tawnee Stone was in a fatal car accident and is no longer with us. It is a very sad day, she is one of a kind. > > She has thousands of fans, and I will release more details as soon as I learn more. I will make a decision about what to do with her site in the very near future. > > She will be dearly missed by all of us at Lightspeed. RIP Tawnee > > Steve Lightspeed Note that he says he’ll make a decision about what to do with her site in the “very near” future. According to what I’ve read online Tawnee (Tammy) only worked for a year or so around 2001 but still was Lightspeed’s most popular girl from around 2001 to 2005. My belief is that Jones is trying to recapitalize upon the popularity Tawnee has shown in the past with a new generation of viewers, and that he is attempting to accomplish this for free by initiating a rumor that she has died. Pretty clever scheme if true. He maintains plausible deniablity and is under no urgent pressure to take down her site, and then after “Profit” has been attained, he comes back and says much to his relief that the rumor was unfounded and her site will continue to be maintained. That’s how it looks to me anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925/63 "2011-01-03T03:57:58Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > I couldn’t help but picture her in someone’s grimy wood-paneled basement where a hairy, heavily cologned man is cautioning her in a raspy voice not to tell her parents about her “portfolio shots” and preparing to ask a series of increasingly probing questions about her younger sister. I’ve done a fair amount of Googling since this question this issue came up and the reality, based upon information from people who knew her personally from school and so forth, is that she left home after graduating from high school (and without leavig a note for her parents about where she was going) and moved to Arizona, whereupon she answered an ad for nude models placed by the guy who runs the Lightspeed sites in order to pay for her education in accounting. She worked only for the Lightspeed guy and only for a year or so, supposedly in order to pay for her degree in accounting - which she has done ever since and undoubtedly in the face of considerable offers for considerable amounts of money doing porn or traveling the club circuit around the country working as a stripper. So I’d say she is a woman whose feet are planted firmly on the ground and one who’s been calling all the major shots in her life since she graduated from high school. I don’t know about you, but I admire her for sticking with her chosen career path instead of being sucked into the lucrative but often problematic life of a stripper or porn star. And btw, if you’ll watch some of the videos scattered around the net you might be surprised at how cheerful, uninhibited and unselfconscious she was. I don’t really think you’ll find any hairy guys with too much cologne involved in her shoots. And now, lest I begin to appear just a little TOO interested in this subject, I think I’ll bow out of the thread now. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925/64 "2011-01-03T04:49:13Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > You haven’t gone to the site linked in the OP have you? 🙂 > > Steve Jones (alias Steve Lightspeed), who owns the Lightspeed porn sites which include the Tawnee Stone site, posted the following on the OP linked porn-related message board: > > Note that he says he’ll make a decision about what to do with her site in the “very near” future. > > According to what I’ve read online Tawnee (Tammy) only worked for a year or so around 2001 but still was Lightspeed’s most popular girl from around 2001 to 2005. My belief is that Jones is trying to recapitalize upon the popularity Tawnee has shown in the past with a new generation of viewers, and that he is attempting to accomplish this for free by initiating a rumor that she has died. > > Pretty clever scheme if true. He maintains plausible deniablity and is under no urgent pressure to take down her site, and then after “Profit” has been attained, he comes back and says much to his relief that the rumor was unfounded and her site will continue to be maintained. > > That’s how it looks to me anyway. Let’s work this out. The man makes a single post on an obscure porn forum about her death. His cunning plan is for that post to go viral so that within days, between major holidays - a tradionally dead time - the entire internet is so buzzing about a girl who stopped making porn around 2002 that the site will for some reason become red hot again. But he makes sure to stop at one post. Because making two posts, well, that would defeat the entire purpose. One post is enough. That’s how the internet works. Genius! ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925/65 "2011-01-03T05:53:30Z")
I don’t know what your problem is but you might want to Google “Did Tawnee Stone die?” see take a look at how widely and quickly the meme has spread and how many people are concerned about it. And then take into account that Steve ‘Lightspeed’ doesn’t have to pull in a ton of new subscribers to make plenty of cash. Let’s say that due to Tawnee Stone’s newly discovered hotness and the traffic it drives to the “Lightspeed University” site, Steve Jones or whatever his name really is pulls in an average of 100 new subscribers from each of the fifty states (and remember he has lots of so-called cheerleaders and lots of hardcore porn under the Lightspeed University umbrella, and that even the smaller states have millions of residents) and that he charges around $30 per month for subscriptions to his cite. That’s 5,000 new subscribers X $30 per month X 12 months in a year = $1,800,000 per year. All of which has sprouted from the little fib he told on an obscure porn forum over the holiday season. So, who’s your genius now? 🆒 **Disclaimer** : The numbers I just listed were pulled out completely out of thin air and are intended only to illustrate the fact that not many new members would be required for L.U. to turn a hefty profit. Lightspeed’s actual numbers and the costs it incurs in operating (which I wouldn’t think would amount to much more than bandwidth expense) may differ considerably. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925/66 "2011-01-03T06:22:41Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Let’s work this out. The man makes a single post on an obscure porn forum about her death. His cunning plan is for that post to go viral so that within days, \*\*between major holidays - a tradionally dead time \*\*- the entire internet is so buzzing about a girl who stopped making porn around 2002 that the site will for some reason become red hot again. > > But he makes sure to stop at one post. Because making two posts, well, that would defeat the entire purpose. One post is enough. That’s how the internet works. > > Genius! (Bolding added) I’d say that this is the best time to have posted this - people staying up late with no work the next day, surfing the internet. If he was concerned she had died, all he had to do was call her and ask, or look on her Facebook page, or anything. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925/67 "2011-01-03T06:31:02Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Let’s work this out. The man makes a single post on an obscure porn forum about her death. His cunning plan is for that post to go viral so that within days, between major holidays - a tradionally dead time - the entire internet is so buzzing about a girl who stopped making porn around 2002 that the site will for some reason become red hot again. > > But he makes sure to stop at one post. Because making two posts, well, that would defeat the entire purpose. One post is enough. That’s how the internet works. > > Genius! The funny thing about this post is that you’re being sarcastic, but it’s pretty much all true. Assuming she’s alive. Which it seems she probably is. I’ve stumbled across this on a few different websites, without searching for it-- some of them bigger than this. I originally saw it on a forum many times larger than this one. I don’t read porn industry forums. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925/68 "2011-01-03T07:08:41Z")
If I saw a headshot, I’d guess she was 14-15 and if you don’t think the website is playing up on this, you are kidding yourself. If a guy happened to be a fan of hers, it wouldn’t concern me too much. But if he was mostly interested in porn featuring girls like her, it’d ping my “creepy” meter. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925/69 "2011-01-03T07:24:49Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > If I saw a headshot, I’d guess she was 14-15 and if you don’t think the website is playing up on this, you are kidding yourself. If a guy happened to be a fan of hers, it wouldn’t concern me too much. But if he was mostly interested in porn featuring girls like her, it’d ping my “creepy” meter. I think you’re sensationalizing quite a bit, but maybe since we are about the same age, I’ve never seen her as particularly young. Looking at her pictures now, I think I’d guess her to be about 20-22, which if I’m not mistaken is right about the age she was at the time. I stopped checking her out years ago (I guess because she stopped doing new stuff), and had actually forgotten about her when I saw the news of her “death.” ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925/70 "2011-01-03T07:31:03Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > If I saw a headshot, I’d guess she was 14-15 and if you don’t think the website is playing up on this, you are kidding yourself. As has been mentioned previously, playing up to youthful looks is nothing new to porn, but she has never been described as anything but over the age of consent, and she was. [This photo of her](http://www.tu-tu-tu.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/tawnee-11.jpg) seems to be more recent, but you can see she still has a youthful appearance. She’s cursed with it, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925/71 "2011-01-03T15:49:12Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Let’s work this out. The man makes a single post on an obscure porn forum about her death. His cunning plan is for that post to go viral so that within days, between major holidays - a tradionally dead time - the entire internet is so buzzing about a girl who stopped making porn around 2002 that the site will for some reason become red hot again. > > But he makes sure to stop at one post. Because making two posts, well, that would defeat the entire purpose. One post is enough. That’s how the internet works. > > Genius! And your version of events is? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925/72 "2011-01-03T16:23:13Z")
I’m not really following this saga, but I’ve edited the thread title to reflect that she’s apparently not dead. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925/73 "2011-01-03T17:45:47Z")
> [@bup](#): > > And your version of events is? I don’t have a version. I’m just saying that if this was a cunning plan, then it took movie luck, not real-world expectations, to have any of it come true. Do you realize there is not one single hit on her death on Google News? And when I say her death, I mean anything at all about the controversy over whether she really died. Not one story about her, under Tawnee Stone or the supposed real name of Tammy Saris. Not one hit about Steve Lightspeed since an article or two about him battling pirates a few months ago. If you want to drive up hits on your website, here’s how NOT to go about it: 1. Make a single post on a forum. 2. Never respond to any other posts. 3. Never make announcements anywhere else. 4. Never send out a press release. 5. Ensure that Google News has no mention of you whatsoever. I don’t know anything about the real story other than this thread and the couple of links I clicked to from it. I have no speculation on whether the death is true or not. My mind does boggle at the notion that this was a super-duper underground meme storm to drive traffic to a website. All Lightspeed had to do to make that work would be to post. And post again. And post again. And post all over. That might have worked tremendously. The actual scenario? That’s nuts. The internet doesn’t work that way. It never has. The only way you can make this scheme work is to apply the same “reasoning” processes that drive conspiracy theories. I don’t believe in them and I don’t believe in this. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925/74 "2011-01-03T17:58:36Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > My mind does boggle at the notion that this was a super-duper underground meme storm to drive traffic to a website. All Lightspeed had to do to make that work would be to post. And post again. And post again. And post all over. That might have worked tremendously. The actual scenario? That’s nuts. The internet doesn’t work that way. It never has. The only way you can make this scheme work is to apply the same “reasoning” processes that drive conspiracy theories. I don’t believe in them and I don’t believe in this. But that was exactly what it was! The guy can’t continue posting without offering up some facts. Right now he can still say “i guess my sources lied to me/were mistaken”, if he keeps talking that goes out the window. He is trying to make some more money out of his best girl by putting her name out there, it is really very simple and obvious and i really don’t get why you think it is something else. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925/75 "2011-01-03T19:44:15Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Do you realize there is not one single hit on her death on Google News? Yes, I did know. When people started arguing about whether the story is real, I checked there. But it doesn’t prove anything. She’s not exactly a star. Most people have never heard of her. Her supposed death, while tragic to her friends and family, would not be newsworthy. She wasn’t exactly James Dean, was she? She doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page. If she really is dead in a car crash, that’s no more newsworthy that any of the other ~34,000 annual road deaths in the USA. Would you argue that the late and much missed Q.E.D. is still alive, because you can’t find any reports of his death in Google News? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925/76 "2011-01-03T20:34:13Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Would you argue that the late and much missed Q.E.D. is still alive, because you can’t find any reports of his death in Google News? What point are you trying to make? It doesn’t matter in the least whether the death is true or not. What matters is that something that is not newsworthy is not going to drive up sales on a website. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925/77 "2011-01-03T20:59:30Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > As has been mentioned previously, playing up to youthful looks is nothing new to porn, but she has never been described as anything but over the age of consent, and she was. In [pictures like this](http://www.veleirovirtual.com/foto-do-dia/tawnee-stone-a-primeira-ninfeta-da-internet.html), I’m sorry, she looks like a kid. Her work plays this up with the whole “white cotton undies” thing. College girls don’t wear white cotton undies and training bras. Middle schoolers do. It’s a different thing than the fakey pigtails-and-school-uniform obviously fantasy stuff, and I find it a bit creepier. If it’s something you enjoy now and then, that’s fine. But if it’s your primary kink I find that a little bit on the line. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925/78 "2011-01-03T21:32:57Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > What point are you trying to make? It doesn’t matter in the least whether the death is true or not. What matters is that something that is not newsworthy is not going to drive up sales on a website. When the website is entirely about her and hasn’t had any new content in years the news of her death and possible shut down of the site will obviously drive up subs. It is very basic stuff, she was his most popular girl, she retired and now he is trying to think of a way to get more money out of her old stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925/79 "2011-01-03T21:33:46Z")
> [@even\_sven](#): > > It’s a different thing than the fakey pigtails-and-school-uniform obviously fantasy stuff, and I find it a bit creepier. If it’s something you enjoy now and then, that’s fine. But if it’s your primary kink I find that a little bit on the line. But isn’t that your hangup? She worked for a site called Lightspeed _ **University** _, implying that she was a college student. Her gimmick was that she was eternally 19 (which was apparently less a gimmick and more the fact that she only did porn for six months when she was 19). And aside from a youthful face, the rest of her DOES NOT look like a middle schooler in any way. Your post almost reads like the porn hysteria syndrome where some people believe all porn is sinful and should be punished. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2011, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925/80 "2011-01-03T22:09:46Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I don’t have a version. I’m just saying that if this was a cunning plan, then it took movie luck, not real-world expectations, to have any of it come true. > > … > > If you want to drive up hits on your website, here’s how NOT to go about it: > > 1. Make a single post on a forum. > > 2. Never respond to any other posts. > > 3. Never make announcements anywhere else. > > 4. Never send out a press release. > > 5. Ensure that Google News has no mention of you whatsoever. [Here’s the recent Alexa traffic info on TawneeStone.com](http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/tawneestone.com#). His post was essentially free advertising, and took less effort than you or I have put into this thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-seems-tawnee-stone-may-have-died-shes-alive-ed-title/565925.md?page=5)