REfugees from The Secret Naturist Society

[jbeegoode]

There is a loss, perhaps temporary or perhaps not, of the Secret Naturist Society website. The alternate emergency yahoo site is shutting people out stating that one must be a "moderator" to use it. We had at one time discussed using this as a spot to hold up in the wayward storm. Here I am.

Does anyone have any information about the site and its manager?

Anybody have any good free range roams to report lately?
Jbee

[Greenbare Woods]

Hi Jbee. 

I looked up SNS site on Whois.  The registered host for SNS was a server called "host.org."  That server doesn't seem to exist any more.  The registered owners of "host.org" are disguised by another blind site. 

SNS was run by a guy who called himself "lookee" or "LookeeMe."  He also had a site called "Lookee.org.  Its gone too. 

There was another site called streaking.org, which i thought was run by the same person and is still there.  It has a front page message from someone calling himself Jonathan Byrd. 

Streaking.org also has a yahoo group, oldest post 2 years ago.  There is a link to a Tumbler group, http://streaking.tumblr.com/.  Oldest photo a year ago. 

Maybe Mr. LookeeMe moved to Tumbler and discontinued support for his old web sites.  Would have been nice if he told people.  Maybe he got arrested for streaking, or maybe just lost interest for whatever reason.  He hasn't been active on his forum for years.

I'm thinking that the SNS members could move here.  This is a good forum too. 
 



 

[nudewalker]

Jbee, I was about to PM you through another forum when the post here was seen. Since I have the SNS page as a favorite it's no problem to try to check but I will now have to add this site. On the last computer crash when most of my stuff was lost I forgot to add this site and had to reset my password! I'll be looking for updates from all the usual cast of naturists!

[Greenbare Woods]

I'm not sure that SNS will ever come back, but this forum is a good one too if it had more traffic.  Perhaps all the lost naked people from SNS could be informed that we have moved here.   And a big Thank You to our hosts. 

[Karla]

I'm not sure that SNS will ever come back, but this forum is a good one too if it had more traffic.  Perhaps all the lost naked people from SNS could be informed that we have moved here.   And a big Thank You to our hosts.

You're welcome.

I know that we could have done more to build this forum up but to be honest I had enough stress from doing that before on another forum about the environment. I spent 3 years before finally closing it down. That too had an exodus of people from yet another forum that were discarding members that were proving troublesome and that was both a blessing and a curse. It meant that we could build a community but unfortunately the community had very little interest in the core subject.

When we had Naked Munros it was really great having a guestbook that people signed, it made the whole thing worthwhile. We had a lot of trouble stopping the guestbook on this site from being constantly spammed by bots. So we threw up a forum instead. It was more a fire and forget thing, we knew that it was going to be quiet and if it took off then great otherwise it was just a more richly featured guestbook.

What I learnt from modding other discussion forums is that you really need a number of people to moderate it to share the burden and there needs to be strict rules about etiquette. That is unless you can be guaranteed an influx of regular new members to replace the ones that get fed up and leave. If you don't have this then the rules should basically be about not causing offence because after a while there's only so much you can talk about the core subject and off-topic chatter starts. It's a natural consequence of having a community. That and cliques forming which put off new members but you can't stop that happening.

When we decided to bring back Naked Munros another thing we decided was that it shouldn't be about just us but about free range naturism. Having a forum was one way of achieving this. Unfortunately events have conspired against us since getting back to Scotland. We bought a car to get to the highlands but it broke down a few weeks later and we're just about to buy another one. Once we do that we can start getting more updates. We also need a new copy of Adobe Photoshop elements to do the rest of the updates. We've also had very little time recently for one reason or another.

[midnightrider]

Hi Karla, I know about the moderation of a forum, I did it for many years at the SNS site. But we had a very easy and friendly group of people. I often stayed at  the background just removing double posts and keeping the forum clean.  I agree that there should be more than one person doing this as it is a daily job. But I always enjoyed reading the great reports that people had posted, and the nice conversations as well. Personally I don’t think the site will return as I cannot reach the owner at all. That never happened before. I hope he is still o.k. and in good health.

Cheers,
Paul

[eyesup]

I also used SNS as a main source of naturist info and conversation and am also grateful that Karla & Stuart have this forum we can use as a refuge.

I hope many of the old site's members remember this forum and can pop in for a visit and I will try to mind my manners and not knock into anything precious.

Paul, if you ever do get in touch with Lookee, tell him we wish him the best. I seem to recall you mentioning once he was have health issues. Also let him know we appreciate all he did all those years as the host for the SNS site.

Duane

[midnightrider]

I surely will Duane.

Cheers,
Paul

[jbeegoode]

Gack! ooh...This all sounds so final. I'm in denial, or haven't lost hope. The therapist (me) has me digging out and brushing up on my grief and loss procedures, just in case.

I have been shopping for a place to set up a blog/website to post my adventures with DF for awhile. I have been learning the lingo and procedures for a simple one the last couple of weeks; it looks like a good easy to use format. I'm certain that I'm getting it down. There are enough old stories to refurbish and a new one each month that I could post something new each week for about two years. So, with that in progress, those SNS posts will live on. I'll link to a forum, could be this one, for participation/discussion. I just plan on posting/entertaining and maybe help change for those among us that don't yet know that they are naturists and that they can roam free.

Thank-you for safe harbor,
Jbee

[nudewalker]

Gack! ooh...This all sounds so final. I'm in denial, or haven't lost hope. The therapist (me) has me digging out and brushing up on my grief and loss procedures, just in case.


I know Jbee! It seems as if we have lost a home and with all the rain we have been having these are good days to go back and reread some of your adventures with DF on the SNS site. However, thing change and life goes on so we adjust!

Karla, I hope the influx of us refugees doesn't make you nervous having to moderate this bunch. It seems that the free range naturists are less bothersome than some I have seen elsewhere that frequent resorts and such. Anyway thanks for providing a safe harbor to us wandering souls.

[midnightrider]

Finally some news, I got in touch with one of Lookee’s friends and he will contact Lookee and his wife to find out what happened.
So fingers crossed…

Cheers,
Paul

[eyesup]

Hopefully it's nothing serious. The fact he didn't mention a illness is a good sign.

If it's a hardware issue as opposed to a missed payment I can see that running into some serious ca$h though.

But like you said, fingers crossed.

Duane

[jbeegoode]

Finally some news, I got in touch with one of Lookee’s friends and he will contact Lookee and his wife to find out what happened.
So fingers crossed…

Cheers,
Paul

Thank-you for the update. The site is important to all of us. Settling the mystery is a deep part of settling grief and getting acceptance and moving on. It is like having a loved one lost and wondering if he or she is alive or not. If revival is there we certainly want to know. There is a site a gathering place for what are old comrades and there is Lookee, who has been among us in varying degrees and always a benefactor for like more than 15 tears...er, years.
Jbee

[Greenbare Woods]

Finally some news, I got in touch with one of Lookee’s friends and he will contact Lookee and his wife to find out what happened.
So fingers crossed…

Cheers,
Paul

I hope he hasn't had some serious medical problem.  If Lookee is no longer able to support the SNS web site, perhaps he can turn it over to another of the regular users.   

[yeldew]

Jbee said “The site (SNS) is important to all of us”.

I agree wholeheartedly.

SNS was my first introduction to the fact that my preference for walking unclothed was shared by so many.  It also gave me so much information about things like cover-up clothing options.

Being in England, the postings of Mark in Yorkshire, before he stopped posting, were inspirational.

I am a bit of a lurker, and cannot post very often. 
This is mainly because of the time I spend looking after my wife, whose dementia is now quite advanced.

But I’ve now found the FRN site, so hope to stay in touch for many years to come and continue my own small amount of free range naturism.  I hope too that some of the other members of SNS find us here soon.

Norman.