Showing posts with label social networking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social networking. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
The Most Popular Nudist and Naturist Sites on the Internet 2/8/11
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Sunday, September 12, 2010
Better Off Dead
The Skinbook experiment seems to have come to a bitter end. All the tell-tale signs predicting doom were there all along, from the ill-conceived (and probably illegal) "Name and Shame" blog, to their infantile response, and not to mention their warped intentions for founding the site in the first place. When the Ning network pulled the plug on any nudity throughout their network, the Skinbook admins tried to start something from scratch, but apparently their egos clashed, as evidenced by this statement released yesterday:
In addition, Skinbook only accepted 10% of its applicants, certainly rejecting a lot of real nudists. One has to speculate whether or not their membership, which they claimed averaged between 35 and 40 years of age, was deliberately skewed by the administrators.
In the case of Skinbook, I'm don't mind saying "I told you so." Maddocks' bitter and vitriolic diatribe, blaming his failure on the nudist community, is despicable. People by nature are divided, it takes leadership to bring them together. What Maddocks and his buddies did was further fragment people who practice the nudist lifestyle, and present to the public a false image of what being nude in social situations is all about.
Just go back to why Skinbook was created in the first place, and you will see why it was doomed to failure. Maddocks explained, "We couldn't communicate on MySpace and Facebook about nudism since we were all kind of embarrassed. So we said, 'Let's start our own forum and call it Skinbook.' The rest is history." People who are embarrassed by their own lifestyles have no business trying to become leaders.
So, good luck to YOU, Karl Maddocks. The nudist community is a lot better off without you now that you have decided to completely distance yourself from the lifetsyle. You were never a nudist, only an opportunist looking to exploit a sincere lifestyle for your own self-promotion.
A message to all members of www.theskinbook.net/h3
It is with much regret that I have come to the decision to bring Skinbook to an end.
Afterall the effort (and money) we have put into saving the Skinbook network; the complaining, negativity, abuse and general lack of support we have recieved from our users has been quite frankly, disgusting... I am no longer prepared to provide the Skinbook network to any members past or present.
As much as we have attempted over the past couple of years to bring together the naturist community and give the naturist lifestyle a positive public image, the treatment of my team here at Skinbook has finally made it clear (to myself at least) why this lifestyle is both fragmented from within and ostracized from without.
What you take this to mean is up to you to speculate individually. For me this revelation doesn`t require an explination, it requires merely a reaction; my reaction being that from now on I see fit only to completely distance myself from this lifestyle (from both a philosophical and physical stand point) and most certainly from ANY medium which serves to promote it.
Good luck in your quests to find unity within your chosen lifestyle... you need it!
Karl Maddocks
For the purpose of legal matters we would like to make clear that we retain all rights to the Skinbook name, logo and any other associated media.Anyone with an ounce of intelligence can see the hypocrisy in this statement. As a network set up to be apart from the existing naturist and nudist organizations, Skinbook BY DESIGN was divisive. In a Time Magazine article, which claimed that Skinbook was the "only genuine" nudist social network, Maddocks is quoted as being repulsed by "single elderly guys in sandals and socks", clearly drawing some sort of line in the sand between young and old, labeling existing nudist resorts as being "cultish and weird".
In addition, Skinbook only accepted 10% of its applicants, certainly rejecting a lot of real nudists. One has to speculate whether or not their membership, which they claimed averaged between 35 and 40 years of age, was deliberately skewed by the administrators.
In the case of Skinbook, I'm don't mind saying "I told you so." Maddocks' bitter and vitriolic diatribe, blaming his failure on the nudist community, is despicable. People by nature are divided, it takes leadership to bring them together. What Maddocks and his buddies did was further fragment people who practice the nudist lifestyle, and present to the public a false image of what being nude in social situations is all about.
Just go back to why Skinbook was created in the first place, and you will see why it was doomed to failure. Maddocks explained, "We couldn't communicate on MySpace and Facebook about nudism since we were all kind of embarrassed. So we said, 'Let's start our own forum and call it Skinbook.' The rest is history." People who are embarrassed by their own lifestyles have no business trying to become leaders.
So, good luck to YOU, Karl Maddocks. The nudist community is a lot better off without you now that you have decided to completely distance yourself from the lifetsyle. You were never a nudist, only an opportunist looking to exploit a sincere lifestyle for your own self-promotion.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
The End of Skinbook??
Yesterday the administrators at NING dropped a bombshell by banning "nudity of any kind" in order to create a "clean" environment, thus effectively neutering Skinbook and other social networks for nudists and naturists founded on the NING platform.
Was it the worldwide publicity for Skinbook recently which prompted this radical censorship? While I am not a fan of Skinbook for various reasons, this vague and Puritanical ban on nudity is disturbing. Who is going to decide what is appropriate of not? How will this "nudity of any kind" be defined? Will male nipples be allowed? What about buttocks, or buttock cleavage? How much of the female breast is acceptable to expose? And what about bare feet? Isn't that "nudity" of a sort?
So thousands of online nudists who are on NING social networks are scrambling around trying to deal with this situation. This chaotic situation clearly opens a door for AANR to establish its own online social network for its members.
This is what happens when the national organizations abdicate their online responsibilities to third parties like Skinbook, which exist merely as a result of the void left by AANR, TNS, and others who have failed to establish an effective online presence for their members. Well, that void is wide open again. Time will tell who will fill it this time.
Was it the worldwide publicity for Skinbook recently which prompted this radical censorship? While I am not a fan of Skinbook for various reasons, this vague and Puritanical ban on nudity is disturbing. Who is going to decide what is appropriate of not? How will this "nudity of any kind" be defined? Will male nipples be allowed? What about buttocks, or buttock cleavage? How much of the female breast is acceptable to expose? And what about bare feet? Isn't that "nudity" of a sort?
So thousands of online nudists who are on NING social networks are scrambling around trying to deal with this situation. This chaotic situation clearly opens a door for AANR to establish its own online social network for its members.
This is what happens when the national organizations abdicate their online responsibilities to third parties like Skinbook, which exist merely as a result of the void left by AANR, TNS, and others who have failed to establish an effective online presence for their members. Well, that void is wide open again. Time will tell who will fill it this time.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
What Has Skinbook Done for You Lately?
The answer is probably absolutely nothing. Skinbook is free to join, and the old adage "you get what you pay for" is apropos.
With no publication, no paid membership, no government liasons, no clubs or venues, and no real philosophy or statement of purpose, Skinbook seems to represent only itself, making a profit from advertising on the site, and selling t-shirts and other paraphernalia in their shop. Have you seen their Twitter feed? It's basically just an advertising vehicle for the Terra Cotta Inn.
You are probably already aware of the poorly researched Time Magazine article on Skinbook, which repeats the website's slogan of being the Internet's "only genuine nudist social network", completely bypassing other established organizations like AANR, TNS, Nudist Clubhouse and ClothesFree.com.
Skinbook fills a void which was allowed to grow due to the fact that AANR and TNS have long ignored the Internet as a means of social networking, preferring instead to organize real face-to-face conventions, gatherings and events. Ironically, Skinbook is now attempting to do the same, claiming that an estimated 800 "Skinbookers" will be getting together at the British resort of Brighton in July. Can the young founders of Skinbook really pull off such a large nude event with no technical, legal, organizational or criminal entanglements? Time will tell.
The problem with Skinbook is that it was founded upon shame, by people who admit to being embarrassed by their nude lifestyles and were uncomfortable on Facebook. 25 year-old co-founder Karl Maddocks also expresses some disgust for "elderly guys in sandals" at a nudist "colony". Such age discrimination is not only troubling, it's contrary to all accepted nudist and naturist philosophies. Maddocks also inferred that nudity should be primarily for the young and fit, admitting in a Times interview that "he works out regularly and that part of the joy of stripping off in his twenties is “we’re all going to look crap naked one day”.
In contrast, AANR and TNS profess that all bodies are good, all ages are welcome, and that nudists and naturists should be proud of their lifestyles.
There is also no way to know if the people you are communicating with on Skinbook are actually who they profess to be. The screening process, which appears to be completely arbitrary based upon the whims of the founders, rejects 90% of all applicants. This has to raise a red flag about the sort of people the site is attracting in the first place, but it also raises the question about how many real nudists are being shut out. A thread late last year on the ClothesFree.com forum alleges that some nudists were banned from the site, and those that managed to get an account found the site to be nothing more than a "meat market."
On another nudist forum under a subject called "Banned from Skinbook", one member alleges that Skinbook "was a much better place before all the pervs showed up." Yet another nudist forum is filled with people claiming to have been banned from Skinbook for no reason.
It is also reported that Cheri Alexander, founder of the Travelites non-landed group in South Carolina, has been banned from Skinbook. Cheri issued the following statement: “Skinbook is no longer going to be as genuine. The Admins are only now allowed to moderate photos. We can no longer moderate posts, blogs, members, nor can we remove members who are not acting appropriately."
Facebook has been struggling with privacy issues since its inception, so you can imagine the potential for misuse of personal photos and information on an amateurish site like Skinbook. Witness the very real attempt by Skinbook's administrators last year to establish a "Name and Shame" blog, exposing real people attempting to open a Skinbook account who did not meet the approval of screeners, and blackmailing them for a public apology. "Skinbook also encourages female members to “name and shame” any lecherous men."
Do you really want to place your personal photos and information in the hands of such reckless amateurs? If they simply don't like you, or disapprove of something you said or did, they can ban you, suspend you, and even expose you.
Established nudist and naturist organizations, who continually fight for nude rights, have solid network affiliations with respected nudist venues, and represent established nudist principles and philosophies, need to establish their own social networking online for members. AANR and TNS are both on Facebook but with marginal success, at best. Allowing sites like Skinbook and True Nudists to assume the mantle of representing nudism is a failure of organizational leadership, and a lack of foresight and imagination.
Instead of creating a "meat market" for those who are "nude curious", AANR and TNS could start their own joint NING account for card-carrying members only, establishing an online means where members could make new friends and promote their groups and venues to each other. More unification, less division.
I once thought that Skinbook was part of nudism's future. I now believe that such rogue nude networking sites only serve to further isolate people from engaging in real social nudism, allowing them to live as "fantasy nudists". There is no way to effectively measure just how many of Skinbook's members are only these fantasy nudists, and how many are out practicing social nudism in the real world.
Nudists and naturists deserve a real, safe online social networking site with clear and established guidelines. It's a shame that when so many people and organizations are working so hard to make nudism and naturism more acceptable in society, Skinbook gets written up in Time magazine merely because it's trendy. Nudists and naturists deserve far better than this superficial, self-serving marketing ploy known as Skinbook.
With no publication, no paid membership, no government liasons, no clubs or venues, and no real philosophy or statement of purpose, Skinbook seems to represent only itself, making a profit from advertising on the site, and selling t-shirts and other paraphernalia in their shop. Have you seen their Twitter feed? It's basically just an advertising vehicle for the Terra Cotta Inn.
You are probably already aware of the poorly researched Time Magazine article on Skinbook, which repeats the website's slogan of being the Internet's "only genuine nudist social network", completely bypassing other established organizations like AANR, TNS, Nudist Clubhouse and ClothesFree.com.
Skinbook fills a void which was allowed to grow due to the fact that AANR and TNS have long ignored the Internet as a means of social networking, preferring instead to organize real face-to-face conventions, gatherings and events. Ironically, Skinbook is now attempting to do the same, claiming that an estimated 800 "Skinbookers" will be getting together at the British resort of Brighton in July. Can the young founders of Skinbook really pull off such a large nude event with no technical, legal, organizational or criminal entanglements? Time will tell.
The problem with Skinbook is that it was founded upon shame, by people who admit to being embarrassed by their nude lifestyles and were uncomfortable on Facebook. 25 year-old co-founder Karl Maddocks also expresses some disgust for "elderly guys in sandals" at a nudist "colony". Such age discrimination is not only troubling, it's contrary to all accepted nudist and naturist philosophies. Maddocks also inferred that nudity should be primarily for the young and fit, admitting in a Times interview that "he works out regularly and that part of the joy of stripping off in his twenties is “we’re all going to look crap naked one day”.
In contrast, AANR and TNS profess that all bodies are good, all ages are welcome, and that nudists and naturists should be proud of their lifestyles.
There is also no way to know if the people you are communicating with on Skinbook are actually who they profess to be. The screening process, which appears to be completely arbitrary based upon the whims of the founders, rejects 90% of all applicants. This has to raise a red flag about the sort of people the site is attracting in the first place, but it also raises the question about how many real nudists are being shut out. A thread late last year on the ClothesFree.com forum alleges that some nudists were banned from the site, and those that managed to get an account found the site to be nothing more than a "meat market."
On another nudist forum under a subject called "Banned from Skinbook", one member alleges that Skinbook "was a much better place before all the pervs showed up." Yet another nudist forum is filled with people claiming to have been banned from Skinbook for no reason.
It is also reported that Cheri Alexander, founder of the Travelites non-landed group in South Carolina, has been banned from Skinbook. Cheri issued the following statement: “Skinbook is no longer going to be as genuine. The Admins are only now allowed to moderate photos. We can no longer moderate posts, blogs, members, nor can we remove members who are not acting appropriately."
Facebook has been struggling with privacy issues since its inception, so you can imagine the potential for misuse of personal photos and information on an amateurish site like Skinbook. Witness the very real attempt by Skinbook's administrators last year to establish a "Name and Shame" blog, exposing real people attempting to open a Skinbook account who did not meet the approval of screeners, and blackmailing them for a public apology. "Skinbook also encourages female members to “name and shame” any lecherous men."
Do you really want to place your personal photos and information in the hands of such reckless amateurs? If they simply don't like you, or disapprove of something you said or did, they can ban you, suspend you, and even expose you.
Established nudist and naturist organizations, who continually fight for nude rights, have solid network affiliations with respected nudist venues, and represent established nudist principles and philosophies, need to establish their own social networking online for members. AANR and TNS are both on Facebook but with marginal success, at best. Allowing sites like Skinbook and True Nudists to assume the mantle of representing nudism is a failure of organizational leadership, and a lack of foresight and imagination.
Instead of creating a "meat market" for those who are "nude curious", AANR and TNS could start their own joint NING account for card-carrying members only, establishing an online means where members could make new friends and promote their groups and venues to each other. More unification, less division.
I once thought that Skinbook was part of nudism's future. I now believe that such rogue nude networking sites only serve to further isolate people from engaging in real social nudism, allowing them to live as "fantasy nudists". There is no way to effectively measure just how many of Skinbook's members are only these fantasy nudists, and how many are out practicing social nudism in the real world.
Nudists and naturists deserve a real, safe online social networking site with clear and established guidelines. It's a shame that when so many people and organizations are working so hard to make nudism and naturism more acceptable in society, Skinbook gets written up in Time magazine merely because it's trendy. Nudists and naturists deserve far better than this superficial, self-serving marketing ploy known as Skinbook.
Friday, October 30, 2009
The Most Popular Nudist and Naturist Sites on the Internet
This summary is not available. Please
click here to view the post.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Bye Bye Skinbook
In response to the many members who are against Skinbook's risky "Name and Shame" blog, the administrators offered the following:
Well, I just deleted my account.
In short, we (the founding members of Skinbook) are SICK of it. Seriously. Final-straw-type sick of it! To the point where everyday we hover the mouse pointer over the "delete this network" button.
Well, I just deleted my account.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Outta There
TrueNudists.com has made the move from being a free site to a subscription based service, so today I cancelled my account. This leaves Skinbook to rule the roost, let's hope they can maintain control as they grow quickly. Last I checked they were approaching 7,000 members.
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