Joe ([info]joeatlarge) wrote,
@ 2007-02-01 10:29:00
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Entry tags:internet

Leaving Bear411
There has been a lot of angst lately over the Bear411 site, with several people on my friends list and elsewhere saying they are leaving. The reasons are always the same: the web coding is ugly and absolute garbage, and the owner likes to lord it over the membership by changing/deleting profiles, censoring/reading private mail, atrocious customer service, etc.

In my own experience, when I created the profile I had the "bear" option removed as a self-descriptor, leaving only "admirer" and "cub" as available choices. It's frankly none of the owner's damn business what I call myself, bear or otherwise. Also, one of my ex's who is not a bear but who appreciates bearish types was flatly denied membership on the site. Totally unacceptable.

The only thing going for this site is the fact that it was first and as such has the most members. Yet the site is barely functional. You can't search it in any meaningful way, when you click "next" to browse profiles in a city you keep getting a lot of the same profiles again and again, and so on. It's frankly not worth the trouble, or my money--and I stopped paying quite some time ago.

People seem to be leaving Bear411 mostly for BearCiti, so I'll check out that site...and hope to see/chat with my friends there. I'll also be removing my profile from Bear411. Good riddance.


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[info]writerbear81
2007-02-01 03:50 pm UTC (link)
Yeah, I read all that hubbub yesterday as well. I didn't cancel my bear411 membership yet, as it has the most people by far of any bear site that I've seen. But I did put up a profile on BearCiti, and if it ever reaches the point where it has a number of people comparable to bear411, I'll remove my profile from the latter site. It's awful, for all of the reasons that you just mentioned.

My only complaint thus far about BearCiti is that it seems to be more of an email service than a chat service, but I also haven't really had time to play around with the site yet to figure out all the bells and whistles. Interface-wise, it's leaps about bounds better than Bear411, though. Much prettier. :-)

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[info]furmuslbulk
2007-02-01 03:55 pm UTC (link)
No one will ever be happy with any website, I'm sure. Everyone complains that BMB doesn't have any rulkes about posting an ad- and just "anyone" can get on that site. One former friend said "Don't they have any standards? He's not a musclebear."

But I do think it's crazy for them to only allow you to be 'admirer' or 'cub.' That's dumb, but it's their service, so they can do what they like. The market will decide their fate.

I never look to see how someone self- identifies... bear, cub, top, bottom, etc. I just look at the pics, and talk to the cute ones!

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[info]sunsmogseahorse
2007-02-01 05:54 pm UTC (link)
BMB has a terrific user interface and it doesn't bounce people. I love it. And I really like that they let "anyone" get on the site. It's self defined.

I think it'd be great if Bill and Andy hosted a site for bears of all sorts.

I started to create a bear411 profile a couple of years ago but quit in the middle of it, disgusted by the terrible design. Hearing of the strange behavior of the owner, I'm even less inclined to do so.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]furmuslbulk
2007-02-01 07:26 pm UTC (link)
I think it's the chat feature that I like about bear411. BMB does have a nicer layout though. I just get sick of sending email rather than chatting. I think BMB has a chat feature, but no one ever uses it.

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[info]sunsmogseahorse
2007-02-01 08:19 pm UTC (link)
That's true, no one's ever on the chat on bmb. But that wouldn't have to be true of a bigbears.com site, particularly if guys are migrating from 411.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]e_falki
2007-02-01 04:55 pm UTC (link)
In my own experience, when I created the profile I had the "bear" option removed as a self-descriptor, leaving only "admirer" and "cub" as available choices. It's frankly none of the owner's damn business what I call myself, bear or otherwise.

No shit! It's that kind of heavy-handedness which is just driving more and more men away from Bear411.

People seem to be leaving Bear411 mostly for BearCiti, so I'll check out that site...and hope to see/chat with my friends there.

I know that number of my own friends are now setting up profiles there. There's also bearwww.com as well, which isn't bad.

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[info]mister_don
2007-02-01 08:31 pm UTC (link)
The whole thing sounds rather ursanine to me :)

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[info]dr_scott
2007-02-01 11:23 pm UTC (link)
Hmm, saw you at BearCiti and followed the link to here. You're interesting, so I friended you... it's already working.

(Reply to this)


[info]canis_lupus_va
2007-02-01 11:32 pm UTC (link)
i've only been on Bear411 for a few months, not a paying member though. I'll check out BearCiti

(Reply to this)


[info]lightningman35
2007-02-02 03:34 am UTC (link)
In the great, awesome spirit of free market capitalism, BearCiti and other sites should pour gas on this fire. All a question of supply and demand. And it sounds like the fucker who runs 411 does not understand that he is undermining both (by offering crap services and killing demand). Let the market sort him out! BearCiti, here I come!

(Reply to this)


[info]sevencloud
2007-02-02 03:27 pm UTC (link)
I posted my experiences with bear411.

http://sevencloud.livejournal.com/252113.html

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