FetLife
| Type | Social Networking |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Vancouver, Canada |
| Website | http://fetlife.com/ |
| Type of site | Adult Social Networking |
| Registration | Required |
| Available in | English |
| Current status | 24/10/11 Active |
 |
The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for web content. Please help to establish notability by adding reliable, secondary sources about the topic. If notability cannot be established, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. (March 2011) |
FetLife is a social networking website that serves people interested in BDSM, fetishism and kink. It describes itself as similar to Facebook and MySpace but run by and for fetish enthusiasts. It is also private in that membership is required to view content, although since membership is free the level of privacy offered by the site is relatively minimal. Most notably, the site is not indexed by search engines.
Paid membership includes the additional feature of access to videos uploaded by other members. Alternatively, members who offer donations to FetLife are granted access to videos as well. As of October 19, 2011, the site claims the following statistics:[1]
| 1,060,465 | members |
| 4,504,746 | pictures |
| 35,683 | videos |
| 1,455,682 | discussion threads |
| 33,087 | discussion groups |
| 3,986 | event listings |
| 511,211 | blog posts |
Contents |
[edit] History
FetLife was launched in January 2008 by John Baku, a software engineer in Montreal, Quebec.[2] Frustrated by attempts to find women who had the same sexual interests as he did, Baku created a website in 2007 called “FriendsWithFetishes”. While working on release 2.0 of FriendsWithFetishes, Baku decided to launch it as a separate site and named it FetLife.[3]
Unimpressed by existing dating sites catering to alternative sexuality, he set out to create a “non-dating site”. Baku designed the site to be an online community rather than a dating site. For example, he deliberately limited the search feature to prevent the site from being used only for matching users with specific characteristics. Another community feature Baku added is a group of volunteer greeters that welcome new members individually.
Visitors to FetLife see a front page featuring photos submitted by members specifically for the front page.[4]
[edit] Features
Members may create a personal profile and list which fetishes they are "into" or are "curious about." They can also upload pictures and videos, including sexually explicit ones often rejected by other sites. They can write journal entries (called Writings), and send and receive private messages (called Conversations) with other members. Users can create "fetishes" both for genuine and satirical purposes.
Groups on FetLife are subject categories in which users may start Discussions. Events are listings of in-person events such as conventions, workshops, parties, and meetings to which members can RSVP as going, maybe going, or not going. Members must join the particular group in order to comment on "Discussion" threads.
Members may "report" illegal content as well as terms of use violations to the administrators of FetLife.
[edit] Technology
FetLife runs on a custom NGINX variant of the Ubuntu/Debian distribution of GNU/Linux; it was adapted from the brightbox version.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ "FetLife home page". http://fetlife.com. Retrieved October 19, 2011.
- ^ Zanin, Andrea (September 4, 2008). "Facebook for the kinky: Montreal-based FetLife.com networks fetishists of the world". Montreal Mirror. http://www.montrealmirror.com/2008/090408/news1.html. Retrieved 18 October 2009.
- ^ Blog, Sexual Deviants Living In A Web 2.0 World.
- ^ The FetLife front page picture
- ^ nginx-fetlife on Github
[edit] External Links
- Fetlife homepage
- What FetLife Has Done - Submissives Guide
|
||||||||||||||
