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.
Fitlads Site Features
Fitlads forums
One of Fitlads strongest features is its forums. Simply laid out, easy to navigate and lively. The key strength of their forums has been the way they are almost a hybrid of forums and chat.
Fitlads also has live chat rooms which are outsourced to an external provider - and if you upgrade you get cam chat too, although presumably a lot of guys will simply use msn for free.
Profile management is basic and not user friendly, and you are limited in the information you can record. Searching on Fitlads is also very basic, and you can’t search by fetish or interests, for instance. Who’s Online is terrible - there may thousands of guys shown online, but you try finding them! You can only scroll page at a time, and no one is going to bother going past page 2 or 3.
The logged-in home page is cluttered and has a very amateurish feel. However, Fitlads version 2 has been promised for ages now and Fitlads say that these drawbacks will be overcome when v2 goes live later this year.
A couple of nice features are the Events page (although it could be more heavily used) and the Links page where Fitlads list links to other gay web sites - although no link to Mothership Gay Dating though 
Free or Paid
Fitlads free membership is fairly generous and you can use the site well without paying at all. If you do upgrade you get goodies like bookmarking, full size photos, video and cam chat. Their July £35 annual membership special offer is still running - either they are struggling or maybe competing with Mothership, who remain cheaper
Ups and Downs
Fitlads launched at the right time with the right brand, and enjoyed very impressive growth for the first 4 years or so. However lately their star has waned a little.
Their biggest problem is Ladslads - a technically more advanced site launched in 2006 directly on Fitlads’ turf - aimed at young, fit UK lads. Not only that but Ladslads have grown very aggressively and Fitlads have suffered directly as a result.
Last year they famously suffered a DOS attack (denial of service) which crippled them for 2 weeks and cost a fortune to sort out. Basically their server was overwhelmed by thousands of co-ordinated malicious automated service requests.
Fitlads co-owner Joseph Hill
One of Fitlads’ owners Joseph Hill made a mistake when he criticised Jade Goody on YouTube before she died and he got into very hot water. It appears that Fitlads didn’t handle the customer service complaints well in the aftermath. However, that said, the telephone support they offer is a nice touch, providing they’re not arguing with their members.
The site seems to be extremely caucasion in ethnic mix. Do black guys use Fitlads? Why not?
It is very hard to get any internet traffic figures, however Alexa.com has shown Fitlads in steady decline for a year. Fitlads claim on their home page that Hitwise rank them as the number 2 gay site in the UK - however Hitwise also do not provide reliable traffic statistics either. The only people who know their real traffic figures are the web site owners themselves.
Fitlads - the Future
Fitlads version 2 is crucial for their success. Will it provide the functionality and user experience that is superior to Ladslads? It needs to.
Fitlads also plans to launch an iphone application, but who knows if there will be enough users to make it pay.
Fitlads’ recent emphasis on porn sexes things up, and puts clear blue water between themselves and Ladslads.
A plus is their unique styling and brand which is distinctive and memorable, and the sneak preview screenshots for V2 look good.
Fitlads Gay Dating Site Summary
Good: Forums, value for money, strong theming, phone support, quarterly magazine, Fitlads mobile site, loyal users
Bad: Clumsy outdated site, basic search facility, dull profiles, limited market, lack of ethnic diversity and stroppy customer service
by David Abrehart
(c) Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Look out for future reviews of other gay dating sites
Related posts:
Fitlads members claim harsh treatment after Jade Goody Video
Gaydar updated
Mothership a dirty word on Ladslads
Hot gay guys
Ladslads: site review
Gaydar
What do you think of Fitlads? Please feel free to comment below:
April 16th, 2012 at 1:01 am
In my opinion, some of the most vile and rude admin of any website Ive been on!
January 2nd, 2012 at 10:01 pm
I had a profile on Fitlads since 2005 its definetly NOT young n horny guys id say the majority of profiles are elderly guys.
Also the moderators are very good at interefering on random topics and issues and dishing out their own version of punishments my account was deleted for a message I sent to a fellow member they moderator got involved as if we were in a kindergarden then duly deleted my profile
PLEASE AVOID THE SMALL MINDEDNESS OF THIS SITE & ITS OWNERS
May 24th, 2011 at 8:50 pm
It’s high time this site was closed down. The Fitlads ethos seems to be as rude as possible, and that’s just the staff. A good mate of mine recently complained to admin for a racist comment and when he complained to admin, they didn’t even reply for a week. And all they said was basically. “it’s a gay website for “chav” type lads, so if you’re easily upset, please don’t use the forums. When my mate said this wasn’t good enough, the site owner Joe Hill replied, “look, admin have looked into this and give you some helpful advice, but if you want to make a huge deal out of it, then please just leave. Otherwise I shall simply delte you”.
I can’t understand why my mate got such abuse from site moderators. The racist member was deleted, but I think it’s quite disgusting that such arrogance is given to members, especially when they are paid members.
May 22nd, 2011 at 11:50 am
Ok, you join up, and after a month or two you get deleted by admin - no warning, no reason. it\’s down to the site owner Joseph Hill, and he routinely deletes members for no other reason but they disagree with him or he\’s in a bad mood. When you challenge him he says \"if you don\’t like it, leave\" and if you email admin about the unfair deletion, you just get blanked. Calling them on their helpline is no better. As soon as you ask why you\’ve been deleted, they hang up on you.
April 25th, 2011 at 6:08 pm
Be very careful with the info and pics you put on Fitlads
September 22nd, 2010 at 5:38 pm
I did have a fitlads profile ages ago and used it for escort work. I then did not use it for months. The account was eventually deleted as I had not renewed my membership. I had no problems with that as I was no longer escorting and decided that a new profile was probably best. Anyway Ive tried to rejoin today and have been rejected within minutes even though when my original profile was removed I had a POLITE email from the admin asking if I wanted to keep the account or not. Today all I got was a message in a tone that was nothing but nasty from a female admin support.
Fitlads need to pull their socks up
September 7th, 2010 at 1:20 pm
Yeah a prevailing theme of fitlads is to abuse any that the other “fit” i.e scrawny lads think are lacking in the looks department. Also the rascist comments if said in the outside worl would have the police round at your door. Most of it goes unchallenged by the owners but perhaps that beacue Joe is one of the most abusive arrogant individuals one would ever come across. Try making a complaint about the abuse that goes on. The site is much like its owner, simply thrives on abuse.
September 7th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Hey, I have used fitlads since 2004 and used ladslads since 2006… Fitlads wins hands down, it’s not just full of chavs and when you send a message it gets delivered instantly.
Ladslads seems to have a 20min or so delay from you sending a message to it being recieved, they do not delete anything such as vids when you ask them to and although the search features seem better and snazzier; they are not. the nearest me online bit reports people who are not online, you are reported there up to 2 hours after going offline.
With fitlads you get a free to use (or cheap if you choose to pay) service that is simple and fast to use and does exactly what it sets out to do. I would not change it for any other gay dating site in the world. Thanks joe and david you are doing a great job, keep it up!
March 9th, 2010 at 11:30 pm
I really liked this site for a couple of years. The forums used to be what made it better than the other sites, but unfortunately the tone of these went seriously downhill, getting more and more ageist, racist, and making some pretty vicious jokes about disabled people.
I deleted a few months ago because I got fed up of paying for a site where too many of the users were starting to get so nasty to each other, though that may be par for the course these days on these sites… Not sure if they’ve in any way dealt with the users causing the trouble but hope so; would otherwise remain the great site that it used to be!
March 3rd, 2010 at 12:38 pm
i was a long standing member of fitlads and i have changed to ladslads. Fitlads forums are a disgrace, bullying, racism and slander - and they all get away with it. from the maddie mcCann jokes to the “haha jade goodys dead” - and its hardly surprising they ! fitlads = a certain calibre! ladslads does NOT allow bullying in the forums i have noticed nor does it allow sick jokes, i know where im better off now!
August 22nd, 2009 at 12:35 am
lol er thanks lilly
any more serious comments on this review welcome too!
August 19th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
I DO NOT UNDERSTAND!
If the fitlads website is such a good place to meet men for naughty-naughty’s, hehehe, why would those very same men be so desperately lonely as to require the services of a melon for some hankypanky!
It’s become very, very clear to Lilly that all the little men who are yearning to poke a big, dumb, bloated fruit should head over to fitlads.
I NOT EAT FRUIT SALAD FOR LUNCH!
Hehehehehe.
My name is Lilly!
August 17th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
See my forum post
August 17th, 2009 at 7:19 am
sex with an watermelon is cool.