This article is intended primarily for people who run fetish and BDSM related groups online, particularly those using the Yahoo Groups service which we've probably all heard the rumours about recently. It's also relevant to people running small events or other groups that don't yet have an online presence. Finally, I hope it will interest people who use this kind of group service to stay in touch with other people in the fetish scene, through one or more of the many groups that now exist...

The short version: I'm thinking of offering a service something like the eGroups / Yahoo Groups sites - but I need to know (a) if people are interested, and (b) what people would want from it.

Background

When I set up this site, I was working with a friend who was going to help with the programming work and expense involved. Just as the project got started, his work life became unexpectedly busy and he had to take a back seat on the project (he still helps with editorial work and writes the occasional review, but otherwise doesn't have time to get majorly involved). However, he did contribute some good ideas in the early stages, one of which is the main topic of this article...

Original plans

Our original plans for the site went something like this:
* News and reviews articles
* Reader feedback on all articles
* Events list
* Links to useful resources
* Bulletin board areas for events promoters

Current position

The first two are pretty much complete, and seem to be working well - we could always do with more content, but the basic idea is doing okay.

The events list is getting there, but there are still a lot of events that don't keep me informed, and I'm not sure how valuable this resource is because of that. I'll keep plugging away at it, because it's one of the main things I'd want to see on a fetish site that I was using (most of ukfetish.info is designed to offer things I'd like to see on a site I would use, in the hope that these are the things other people want too).

The links section is very weak - I haven't had time to scout around for good sites to link to, so I've really only added sites that have come to my personal attention, and there are so few links that although I've put them into categories, they all still fit on one page... there should be a page for each category, perhaps even more if it was really done well, with regional pages for things like clubs, but that will have to wait for a while...

By the way, I know that Informed Consent does both of the last two things, and does them better than ukfetish.info does... but I think it's worth keeping them going (for now at least) as linking off site a lot could get messy, and it might be nice to have more than one location to get this kind of information.

The last item, bulletin boards, was my friend's idea, and has not even been started at this point. However, when the recent fuss with Yahoo groups being rumoured to pull the plug on all adult groups started up, this idea popped back into my head - because as far as I'm aware the groups service is mainly a mailing list with archiving, combined with a bulletin board sort of service...?

The interesting bit...?

Now, I don't use groups much, so maybe I'm missing something here, but what ukfetish.info could probably quite easily do (if I put my mind to it) is supply any UK fetish or BDSM group with some webspace, an announcements board, mailing list(s) and web-based archiving of those lists, with no advertising on the bottom of emails or on the webspace etc., and the reassurance of being hosted at a kink-friendly site...

If the groups service supplies other features, it's quite possible we could offer them too. I'm not sure what volume of data is stored on these groups, or shifted through them per day, but hopefully it would be within the capacities that my server can cope with.

Funding

This, as with the rest of ukfetish.info, would be funded out of my own pocket - I do the work on the code for free, and I pay for the server hosting myself. The reason I do it, is that I like the fetish scene, and I don't think anyone else is supplying the kind of service I do... feel free to correct me if I'm wrong of course (I know Informed Consent is a very very good website, but it doesn't do quite the same things as ukfetish.info as far as I'm aware - although I could do with getting such good events listings and resource links as they have!)

The reason I fund it all myself is that I wouldn't trust a website that published reviews if it was being funded by someone in the fetish industry... and let's face it, who else is going to fund it? Porn adverts, I refuse to even consider - the web is drowning in them and I don't intend to help. No matter what kind of advertising was on offer, I wouldn't consider it, because adverts slow a site down and clutter its appearance, and I want ukfetish.info to be nice to use - sites with adverts all over them aren't nice to use in my opinion, so, no adverts.

That pretty much leaves my pocket, but that's okay - I spend a few hundred pounds a year to keep the site online, it's not a huge sum when you spread the cost out over the months, and even if it gets more expensive, I should be able to afford it given my current salary (or hopefully, a better one by then!). The time cost is more substantial and I carefully don't keep track of it... but everyone needs a hobby, right? *grin*

What do I need from you?

So, why am I writing this article instead of just announcing the new service? Well, this is going to involve some hard work on my part if I decide to go ahead and start writing the code to support offering this kind of service. I need to know if anyone's interested before I commit significant amounts of my time to it! I also need to know what features you all get from your current groups, and what ones you consider most important. That way, I can get the crucial stuff together first, then if Yahoo do pull that plug, you would have a place to go...

What next?

I've put the idea to a lot of people by email, and referred them to this article... If you've not looked at this site before, have a look now and see how easy it is to contribute to the discussions on here - they are threaded in a similar way to a newsgroup, so following conversations is fairly easy. Creating a user account and logging in before you start posting messages will make sure you have a unique name/nickname that is password protected and other people won't be able to pose as you.

I hope I can help you to do the things you want to do, without fear of being shut down or messed around by a non-kink-friendly hosting service.

I look forward to hearing people's opinions...

Regards,
Denny