what you did or did not do and whatever short lived success you had "in the past" has zero to do with today. Google does update its algorithms you know. PageRank does shift between sites every time its recalculated. Pages win and lose every time they do the shuffle and everyone's pages and links that affect everyone else's pages and links gain and lose values which are redistributed across all adult sites (and technically, all web pages online).
you seem to have some misconceptions about search engines. "optimization" means little and the rules change when you have several hundred thousand pages to work with. you can't just take a PR 3 domain and change the page title to "porn" add some blurbs of text and sit back and wait.
and... i'm sitting here looking at their link networks, their paid links etc. i've been doing it for months. i know quite well what they are doing and to what extent. their domination of the SERP's is not an accident at all.... of course, no one is interested. no one really pays attention when they come here announcing they are buying links. no one has the slightest interest in investigating or calculating the potential benefit of those new hardlinks. its all summarily dismissed so 'piracy' can be blamed and not some degree of incompetence.
in the meantime, they are grabbing a bigger and bigger piece of the pie by effectively targeting the most searched adult phrases there are, by executing a painfully simple strategy, day in and day out and making headway on all fronts.
you could say its viral linking that made them rank well. why is redtube.com is rarely found in search results? they were among the first to explode! they still have huge traffic. your explanation dictates that they would be ranking for porn and sex and porn movies and would be at the top... success creates success and so on ... but they're not. why?
its like saying "steroids made him big" and forgetting dismissing or ignoring the intense workouts, the strict diet and carefully planned regimen... all adhered to with a consistent and fanatical discipline.
it just doesn't work like that. at best, steroids only amplify the effects of doing things right. they don't magically transform you without hard work.
no one is explaining why redtube.com is virtually nowhere in the SERP's for sex, porn, porn movies and similar phrase, although they have similar traffic and a longer history and were always claimed to be the first, original thieves and pornhub.com, tube8.com and keezmovies.com dominate.
"they steal, so i lose and its not my fault" seems to be easier to accept.
