Boyz has launched a new friendship website called Beboyz. It’s a unique way of meeting new friends based around shared hobbies, sports and pastimes. We asked David Bridle, the managing director of Boyz, to tell us more about what makes Beboyz different.
Hi David, how is Beboyz different?
Beboyz is not a sexual hook up or a dating site. It’s a website designed to help you make friends based around your hobbies, sports and interests. We felt that the market for sexual meet ups was already well serviced by some of the leading brands out there – and so we wanted to offer something different to Boyz readers and more broadly to the whole LGBT+ community.
How does Beboyz work?
At the heart of Beboyz are our interest tags. This is how our members describe what they are interested in and what they like doing with their spare time. We have well over 350 tags – and growing! – and they are divided into 4 main categories: sports, pastimes, culture and travel. These are then subdivided into sections; so for instance sports is divided into ball games, watersports, extreme sports, leisure sports, martial arts and watching sport. A category I really like is pastimes which is divided into indoor and outdoor interests, collecting, pets, crafts, dancing, games, learning, TV & film, volunteering, hobbies and lifestyle interests like yoga, massage and veganism.
Can members suggest new interest tags?
Absolutely! We created the original tags list based on as many hobbies and pastimes as we could find, but we are not the experts on what people like doing and we may have left out lots of interests which are really popular. So we are inviting our Beboyz members to let us know their suggestions for tags and we will add them to our list for other members to choose from.
Is Beboyz now open for new people to join?
Again, yes absolutely! We had an initial beta testing period in which, very kindly, lots of Boyz readers helped us test out our technology including choosing interest tags, but also creating your profile, messaging, liking and befriending members and adding You Tube videos and photo albums. We felt confident that Beboyz was working well so we launched officially in mid May.
Have a lot of people joined up?
We’ve had a good number of early sign ups and we are really pleased that our new members are using the tags system to describe their interests but are also very happy to write in their profile description what hobbies they are particularly interested in. It is also noticeably an older group of users who have signed up so far, mainly aged 30 to 55. It is early days, but we are optimistic we can build a unique online community for Boyz readers.
Can LGBT+ sports and interest groups also join Beboyz?
They certainly can! In fact we’ve already had a couple of groups sign up: Zumba Aerobics Dancing for the LGBTQ Community and the Spinder Gay Spin Cycling Community. Our programmers are working hard on creating a new ‘Group Profile’ which will allow LGBT+ sports and interests groups to tell Beboyz members more about their group. Until it is fully functioning, we invite any LGBT+ groups to join up using a regular profile and then we’ll move you over as soon as it’s ready.
You ask people to use their real names and if possible to put up a face picture, why is this important?
Like on Facebook, we think it’s important people are themselves on Beboyz. We want to create a friendly, kind and supportive online community for our readers to talk openly and passionately about their hobbies, sports and interests. You might think you’re the only gay guy in town interested in say steam trains, metal detecting, conjuring or keeping hamsters but if you go on to Beboyz and search under the appropriate tags, you might find that’s not the case – especially in a few months time as more and more members join up.
How can Boyz readers join up?
It’s free to join for the first three months, just go to beboyz.com. You get full access to create your profile and you can add your tags. You can make other members a friend and send them messages. We send you an email alert when someone sends you a message. Full membership after your trial three month period is less than £1 a week on our annual plan.
What are your hopes for Beboyz?
I want Beboyz to feel like a members club. Beboyz is about making new friends with people who like to do the same things as you. It’s very important to me that our members feel safe and supported in talking about their hobbies, sports and interests – whatever they might be. It’s a simple idea, but true, that friendships where people enjoy playing the same sport or following the same hobby, tend to last much longer. Our job at Beboyz is to help bring you together.
Sign up and get your FIRST THREE MONTHS of Beboyz membership completely FREE at beboyz.com.
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