Manhunt.net
Encyclopedia
MANHUNT.net is a social networking website
operated by Online Buddies, Inc., that facilitates same-sex introductions. It is owned by its founders, Jonathan Crutchley and Larry Basile. The site has over 4 million profiles worldwide, over 1 million of which are in the United States. It is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts
, USA.
, business declined when more men began to go online to find partners. According to Crutchley:
The company now serves all of North America
, the European Union
, Australia
, Latin America
and more, continually expanding. The website is available in English
, Spanish
, French
, Portuguese
, and German
. serves Japan. As of December 2006, an independent tracking agency ranked MANHUNT as the largest LGBT
-targeted site online, surpassing long-time leader Gay.com
.
In early 2009, MANHUNT released its first major upgrade in 7 years. The upgrade modernized the site's look and feel and included many sought after features, like the addition of penis
length to members' profiles and sexual position preferences.
. However the majority are sexually explicit and include nude
photographs and graphic language and are by patrons that are seeking to hook up
. Certain terms of disparagement are automatically censored
by the software. References to illegal drug use (such as “PNP
”) are also disallowed, as are all phrases that might be construed as being related to prostitution
(e.g., “I am generous” or “I am looking for generous...”) and those that refer to unprotected sex such as barebacking
. This is enforced with keyword filters, but code words (which gay men must resort to use in social situations) have continued to evolve to circumvent these filters.
and Matthew Rush
. The company believes using porn stars comforts the amateur models.
Compared to similar sites, the average length of the videos is longer. The demographic of models is also more varied as it depends on interested members and with whom they wish to meet. Instead of gay-for-pay
models, the site uses out
members as models.
. One advocate at a center run by the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts
was quoted in the Boston Herald
as saying "In comparison to lots of other sites, it's light-years ahead."
Nevertheless, MANHUNT does not prohibit members from advertising a preference for unsafe sex practices through phrases such as “bareback
only.” Manhunt provides a chat room titled "bareback" for people interested in unsafe sex. MANHUNT's general manager told New York Magazine:
, Police Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit said "We've definitely seen an increase in online dating crimes in the past five years," and added that victims of internet dating crimes are "overwhelmingly men cruising for sex." He also noted that criminals are often technologically savvy and create profiles using fake information and other people's photos, making them difficult to trace. MANHUNT's general manager said the company is limited in how it can respond to incidents because of liability
and privacy
issues: "We get phone calls from all types of people making all kinds of claims...We could be put in a liable position if someone's accusations are not substantiated."
In one case, a Richmond, Virginia
, school board chairman's MANHUNT profile was discovered by a Richmond Times-Dispatch
reporter. This led to the chairman’s resignation as chairman, although he remained a board member and expressed that "he displayed an inappropriate lack of judgment." Accounts of the incident seemed to indicate that the chairman's resignation was a result of a perceived breach of decorum
rather than a violation of any law or ethical standard.
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
operated by Online Buddies, Inc., that facilitates same-sex introductions. It is owned by its founders, Jonathan Crutchley and Larry Basile. The site has over 4 million profiles worldwide, over 1 million of which are in the United States. It is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, USA.
History
The official launch date of the Manhunt venture was April 1, 2001. Originally a telephone dating service limited to the Boston areaGreater Boston
Greater Boston is the area of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts surrounding the city of Boston. Due to ambiguity in usage, the size of the area referred to can be anywhere between that of the metropolitan statistical area of Boston and that of the city's combined statistical area which includes...
, business declined when more men began to go online to find partners. According to Crutchley:
We decided if the business was going to continue in the long run we needed to put up a website, have guys use the website, and, if it was going to be successful, get them to pay to use the website...The potential’s global, and we’ve reached the tipping point now where there are more subscribers outside the U.S. than in the U.S.
The company now serves all of North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
and more, continually expanding. The website is available in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, and German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. serves Japan. As of December 2006, an independent tracking agency ranked MANHUNT as the largest LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
-targeted site online, surpassing long-time leader Gay.com
Gay.com
gay.com is a chat, personals, and social networking website catering to the LGBT community. The site is a digital brand of Here Media Inc. In addition to community features, the site features LGBT-related news and features. As of September 2005, San Jose Mercury News ranked gay.com as the most...
.
Newest Features
In mid 2008, MANHUNT made video chat available to members after popular request.In early 2009, MANHUNT released its first major upgrade in 7 years. The upgrade modernized the site's look and feel and included many sought after features, like the addition of penis
Penis
The penis is a biological feature of male animals including both vertebrates and invertebrates...
length to members' profiles and sexual position preferences.
Characteristics
Some profiles are of a non-sexual nature and explicitly state that they are not cruising for sexCruising for sex
Cruising for sex, or cruising is the act of walking or driving about a locality in search of a sex partner, usually of the anonymous, casual, one-time variety...
. However the majority are sexually explicit and include nude
Nudity
Nudity is the state of wearing no clothing. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic. The amount of clothing worn depends on functional considerations and social considerations...
photographs and graphic language and are by patrons that are seeking to hook up
Casual sex
Casual sex or hooking up refers to certain types of human sexual activity outside the context of a romantic relationship. The term is not always used consistently: some use it to refer to any extramarital sex, some use it to refer to sex in a casual relationship, whereas others reserve its use for...
. Certain terms of disparagement are automatically censored
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
by the software. References to illegal drug use (such as “PNP
Party and play
Party and play , also known as a chemical session, chem session, or simply as partying, is a phenomenon and subculture of recreational drug users who play together sexually, either one-on-one or in groups....
”) are also disallowed, as are all phrases that might be construed as being related to prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
(e.g., “I am generous” or “I am looking for generous...”) and those that refer to unprotected sex such as barebacking
Barebacking
Bareback is a slang term to describe acts of sexual penetration without the use of a condom.The term comes from the equestrian term bareback, which refers to the practice of riding a horse without a saddle...
. This is enforced with keyword filters, but code words (which gay men must resort to use in social situations) have continued to evolve to circumvent these filters.
Spin-off
In 2008, Manhunt launched OnTheHUNT, a sister site dedicated to filming and hosting actual MANHUNT members having sex. The site solicits requests from members to become models and pays up to $1000 for a session. Models can generally pick their scene partner for the shoot which are filmed in members' homes by porn stars such as Jeremy HallJeremy Hall (pornographic actor)
Jeremy Hall is a gay pornographic actor, model performer, director, and producer. He has appeared in numerous videos for Falcon Entertainment, Channel 1 Releasing, Titan Media and Jet Set Men. In 2008 Hall launched Club Jeremy Hall. The site was nominated by CyberSocket Web Awards as 'Best New Site...
and Matthew Rush
Matthew Rush (porn star)
Matthew Rush is a retired bi-racial American pornographic actor who appeared in gay pornographic films and magazines. He is also a bodybuilder and personal trainer under his real name...
. The company believes using porn stars comforts the amateur models.
Compared to similar sites, the average length of the videos is longer. The demographic of models is also more varied as it depends on interested members and with whom they wish to meet. Instead of gay-for-pay
Gay-for-pay
Gay-for-pay describes male or female actors, pornographic stars, or sex workers who self-identify as heterosexual but who are paid to act or perform as homosexual professionally. The term has also applied to other professions and even companies with the same core concerns and criticism in place...
models, the site uses out
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
members as models.
Health
MANHUNT.net partners with hundreds of community health organizations worldwide under their MANHUNT Cares brand. Each partner has a MANHUNT Cares approved health profile, and the organizations' ads appear on the site alongside members' personal postings. Many of these are partner notification profiles serve as anonymous intermediaries that allow members to inform each other when they may have come in contact with an STDSexually transmitted disease
Sexually transmitted disease , also known as a sexually transmitted infection or venereal disease , is an illness that has a significant probability of transmission between humans by means of human sexual behavior, including vaginal intercourse, oral sex, and anal sex...
. One advocate at a center run by the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts
AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts
Founded in 1983, is a not-for-profit, community-based health organization whose mission is to stop the epidemic and related health inequities by eliminating new infections, maximizing healthier outcomes of those infected and at risk, and attacking the root causes of HIV/AIDS.Based in Boston, it is...
was quoted in the Boston Herald
Boston Herald
The Boston Herald is a daily newspaper that serves Boston, Massachusetts, United States, and its surrounding area. It was started in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States...
as saying "In comparison to lots of other sites, it's light-years ahead."
Nevertheless, MANHUNT does not prohibit members from advertising a preference for unsafe sex practices through phrases such as “bareback
Bareback
Bareback riding is a form of horseback riding without a saddle.Bareback may also refer to:* A type of rodeo event* Bareback , an act of unprotected sex* "Bareback" , a 2003 glam metal song...
only.” Manhunt provides a chat room titled "bareback" for people interested in unsafe sex. MANHUNT's general manager told New York Magazine:
It all boils down to personal choiceFree will"To make my own decisions whether I am successful or not due to uncontrollable forces" -Troy MorrisonA pragmatic definition of free willFree will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long...
. We believe that people have the right to PNPParty and playParty and play , also known as a chemical session, chem session, or simply as partying, is a phenomenon and subculture of recreational drug users who play together sexually, either one-on-one or in groups....
or not to PNP, to use condomCondomA condom is a barrier device most commonly used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy and spreading sexually transmitted diseases . It is put on a man's erect penis and physically blocks ejaculated semen from entering the body of a sexual partner...
s or not use condoms. What we hope is that people will back up their choices with responsible behavior. We provided an empty site and our customers have filled it. But the majority of them don’t PNP or bareback [...] what we hope is that people will back up their choices with responsible behavior.
Public mentions
The commander of the Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, Police Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit said "We've definitely seen an increase in online dating crimes in the past five years," and added that victims of internet dating crimes are "overwhelmingly men cruising for sex." He also noted that criminals are often technologically savvy and create profiles using fake information and other people's photos, making them difficult to trace. MANHUNT's general manager said the company is limited in how it can respond to incidents because of liability
Legal liability
Legal liability is the legal bound obligation to pay debts.* In law a person is said to be legally liable when they are financially and legally responsible for something. Legal liability concerns both civil law and criminal law. See Strict liability. Under English law, with the passing of the Theft...
and privacy
Privacy
Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively...
issues: "We get phone calls from all types of people making all kinds of claims...We could be put in a liable position if someone's accusations are not substantiated."
In one case, a Richmond, Virginia
Richmond, Virginia
Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...
, school board chairman's MANHUNT profile was discovered by a Richmond Times-Dispatch
Richmond Times-Dispatch
The Richmond Times-Dispatch is the primary daily newspaper in Richmond the capital of Virginia, United States, and is commonly considered the "newspaper of record" for events occurring in much of the state...
reporter. This led to the chairman’s resignation as chairman, although he remained a board member and expressed that "he displayed an inappropriate lack of judgment." Accounts of the incident seemed to indicate that the chairman's resignation was a result of a perceived breach of decorum
Decorum
Decorum was a principle of classical rhetoric, poetry and theatrical theory that was about the fitness or otherwise of a style to a theatrical subject...
rather than a violation of any law or ethical standard.