Squirt - Site Review 

squirt.org

Domain: squirt.org
Since: 1999
Based: Toronto, Canada
Run by: Pressnet Inc, part of Pink Triangle Press
Market: Gay and bi men, all ages over 18 especially 35-64 bracket

Cruising guide
Chat/Cam
Video
X-rated Stories
Search

Style

Squirt is both a hook-up site and a site to get off.  It is about sex, period, and unlike some of its competitors it does not pretend to be anything more than it is.  Log in to Squirt and you’re faced with several pictures of big dicks in your face straight away.

The whole site has a friendly approach with tongue-in-cheek touches such as stick men in various sex positions to put on your profile to show what you’re into, and a screw facing horizontal, pointing up or pointing down to show whether you’re versatile, passive or active.

Branding is in red, black and white and is nicely done, although site navigation was a let down.

Not only do you have both a vertical and horizontal navigation bar, but you also have drop down boxes and further seemingly random buttons.  Add this to Squirt’s unique terminology and way of categorising things and you’re left with a very confused user.

Squirt has a slightly more mature feel in age than some other more twinky sites. Read the rest of this entry »

Gaydar: Site Review

Gaydar

Domain   gaydar.co.uk (also gaydarguys.co.uk)
Since        1999
Based       Richmond, UK
Run by    QSoft Consulting Ltd (Richmond, UK)  Gaydar founders: Henry Badenhorst, the late Gary Frisch
Market    Gay and bi men, 71% 18-35
Dedicated Who’s Online
Chat
Video
Mobile  (gaydarmobile.co.uk)

Also

Radio station (gaydarradio.com)
Magazine-style website (gaydarnation.com)
Lesbian dating (gaydargirls.com)

Style

Gaydar logo

Gaydar is a collossus amongst gay dating sites, with a huge membership delivering a lot of choice to gay guys cruising online.  If you’re looking for a shag then, quite simply, Gaydar does what it says on the tin.

If you’re interested in romance, or in making new friends, forget it - Gaydar comes with a reputation - and that reputation is a cruisy one.  The fact of the matter is that Gaydar’s empire - radio station, bar, club, online magazine, charity work, sponsorships and more - has been built on the back of guys looking for sex. 

The style of the site itself is efficiently geared around this concept.  Who’s Online is the heart and soul of the site - with tens of thousands of guys listed at any one time.  The site appearance is functional rather than exciting, in the brand’s trademark orange and greys.

Gaydar have strived to deliver an enormous amount of information as efficiently as possible, the trouble is that the sheer volume of this information overwhelms the site.  How I long for a picture, or graphic!  Oh, go on!

Whilst they have achieved a great sex-finding site, it is worth pointing out that the best sex requires chemistry between the partners, and no amount of online form filling or fetish tick-boxing can measure this!  Gaydar may be able to deliver shags in quantity, but what about the quality? Read the rest of this entry »

Ladslads: Site Review

Ladslads

Mothership Blog takes a look at Ladslads in the second of our series of gay dating site reviews

Ladslads

Since   2006
Based    Admin/management: UK    Server and holding company: USA
Run by    Ladslads LLC (Nevada, USA), but credit card payments to Panremmus Software, Wales
Market    Gay and bi men - mostly younger, mostly UK and Ireland
Blogs
Chat
Video
Mobile

Style 

Ladslads gay networking

Ladslads has a fresh, clean appearance and offers a youthful site that is very much geared toward gay networking.  The light white and blue palette gives an open, approachable feel to the user, although it feels very bland without the strong cohesive identity of more heavily branded sites like Fitlads or Mothership

Ladslads is very big on encouraging networking - partly through its ‘friend finder’ service (which also acts as an outreach to recruit more members), and by blogging.  One regular user we spoke to said that the younger guys and the older guys didn’t really ‘gel’ that well and tended to keep apart.  He went on to say:

“…the site has no soul, no camaraderie, it’s a shallow, fuck n chuck, look-at-me site”

Read the rest of this entry »

Fitlads site review

Fitlads: Site Review

Mothership Blog takes a look at Fitlads in the first of our series of gay dating site reviews:

Fitlads

STATS

Fitlads home page

Domain  www.fitlads.net
Since       2003
Based      Edinburgh
Run by   David and Joe Ltd
Forums
Chat
Video
Mobile
Quarterly magazine
Basic store selling promotional merchandise

Fitlads Style

How to have sex with a watermelon in the Fitlads magazine

Fitlads claims to be the UK’s second largest gay website after Gaydar, although Ladslads has got to be nipping at its heels.  Fitlads‘ style is young, scally and horny - so if you like the white chav and sportsgear look then you’ll probably like Fitlads.

Fitlads does have a very fresh, street approach with statements like “I’m a nob” (forgotten both password and user name) and “Bollocks Mebbe you typed it in wrong”, and the overall branding is very ‘council estate’ with brickwork and graffiti-like text.

Recently Fitlads appears to be pushing sex more - with a porn video site (a skin of the Homoactive porn site), and even making their own porn DVD.  Their quarterly magazine also has a lot of sexual content and tips - like the correct way to have sexual intercourse with a watermelon!  This sexual emphasis works well with their brand. Read the rest of this entry »