Is Bear411 about to close down?

Bear411 has closed down its site to all but paying members Are they running out of money?

• Gay rights are women''s rights.\ \ Stop the violence against women on DataLounge.

• the site has been having trouble holding onto their subscribers the site isn''t well run

• according to the site it is no longer free to join

• I just logged on fine and I do not pay.

• does anyone know how to contact bear411 they have been billing me for 5 months fora subscription thati cancelled in january, please help Roger coolcat3rd@yahoo.com

• I've been a member of B411 since 2001 and it's been run and kept the exact same way all this time.%0D %0D It's antiquated, slow and is run by a guy who really seems to have vengence and mood swing issues.%0D %0D I was a paying memeber and supported the site every year until three years ago, then I took a year 'break' from paying, paid last year, then took another 'break' this year.%0D %0D I know that a lot of guys all over the web, especially those on the Bear411 FaceBook page complain of the owner/webmaster and how he'll ban/delete profiles on a whim. He's known to stalk around the web and if he finds someone taking issue with them, remove your profile.%0D %0D It really is sad because it was the first real presence on the web for bearish guys. Unfortunately in recent years, it's become more infested with the circuit crowd who aren't pretty circuit bois anymore and who want to pose as 'bears' because they've gained crix belly or no longer want to shave.%0D %0D Then, of course, you have you giant, obese guys who join but still, the site has been welcoming to them. Those guys should have a place online also.%0D %0D Hopefully a real site will come along that will do the same thing, which won't gouge people and will be true to giving bearish guys an alternative to the hook-up sites like Manhunt, etc.%0D %0D Oh, one thing I've also always liked about Bear411 is that it isn't necessarily site aimed for guys hooking up. You have those of course, but there are some incredibly nice, genuine people there. Couples looking for legitimate friends, guys who want honest dates, etc. %0D %0D Kinda sad it's become such a shit hole of a site.

• good riddance!

• I been tried to get on bear411 for a monthly but it will not let me on there the sent me two email said i had 40 message that i need two check them but i can't not sign on why is that. I just got a new email today said i had 5 messenger still can't check them

  Terry

• [quote]I been tried to get on bear411 for a monthly but it will not let me on there the sent me two email said i had 40 message that i need two check them but i can't not sign on why is that. I just got a new email today said i had 5 messenger still can't check them Come on, now. Try a little bit harder, Terry.

• Bearwww is super popular in Europe , not sure if there are a lot of profiles from N America

• r 6, thanks for that. A few years ago, my application for membership was rejected because I wasn't "beary" enough.

• This thread is strange. I've belonged to Bear411 for years. I've never paid and have no problems with the site at all.

• I've had similar issues with both bear411 and gayroughnecks...emails saying i've got messages long after I asked to have my account deleted. I did some research on the domains and found out that the domain owner had had tons of complaints against him but the gov't has no recourse since their servers are located off-shore. I consider all of his sites to be scam sites.

• "Gay rights are women's rights." No, they aren't.

• Bear411 is a shit site.

• The mobile app Scruff is a billion times better.

• Have given up trying to delete my account, so now am letting anyone who contacts me to go to "Bear Central" instead....

  Anonymous

• They don't delete your account so their membership shows higher than it is. They also share your "membership" with other sites to make those sites look better. Outside of Manhunt, A4a, Dudesnude, Planet Romeo and BBRT, the rest are pretty much fake.

• lotsa bear cock out der

• I just got my account deleted and it was pretty hard to do. The site says that theyremove profiles if they aren't touched for 90 days, but that didn't work. So I ended up bad mouthing the site on the web page. Placing ad for biggercity.com and promoting voting and donating to Obama, which is against the sites terms of use. That was the only thing that worked, after my emails to the site failed.

  Mike

• I'm a white guy and just posted some random black man's image lol. maybe it'll get deleted. BTW, it's not true if you don't touch your account for 90 days it'll get deleted, I didn't touch mine for 6 months and just received a password reminder email. yea so i logged in and changed the picture. if it works, good. if not no one will recognize it :D

  schaggle_tooth

• Bear411 became a nightmare when I was trying to change my location from NYC to Porto, Portugal. When I was trying to do it, a promp simply appeard saying that "only payin members" could do this kind of change. You know, there is good pub and bad pub and bear411.com doesn't have any. I felt offended by not beeing allowed a simple change such as location. BEAR411 sucks. TOTALLY

  powertaurus88 on bearwww

• Anyone have a problem with the search function on B411? Sometimes when I search by member name, it comes up as invalid.

• This is a shit site....they won't let me in today with out paying. i never liked the site but liked a few guys on there. it is so second rate any way. it doesn't even save any messages. now i am reading on here i can't delete my account. i can't even see how to get their email. wtf i hate the stupid fucking bull shit sites. i never had any problem with big muscle bear...andy and bill are awesome..never again. does anyone know how to get a profile off of bear411 or how to contact them?

  jack%20begley

• I don't pay and I just logged in fine.

• OK the whole site sucks big time there is nothing entertaining about it. eventually he will shut down that site you got be smart enough not to stay there , have a fucking life,do something more creating with your life instead spending hours and hours worth nothing meeting people on line that you are more likely not to ever meet.

• Bear411 became a nightmare when I was trying to change my location from NYC to Porto, Portugal. When I was trying to do it, a promp simply appeard saying that "only payin members" could do this kind of change. You know, there is good pub and bad pub and bear411.com doesn't have any. I felt offended by not beeing allowed a simple change such as location. BEAR411 sucks. TOTALLY by: powertaurus88 on bearwww I need to change my location and can't do it, how did you update your new location?

• I used to be on there when I was chubbier (screen name: Cubbish). They're the same old whores on any other 'social' site- just fatter (and the usual 90% bottoms/10% tops). Very nazi-ish about pounds and hair. I think it's odd to be a bear and ONLY be attracted to other bears. It's a sort of alternate-universe narcissism.

• says I got one message and it wont let me read it I assume they suspended me or blocked me from using I not paid at all account was set up 2008 now 2012

• Been a member for years, never paid. There's an even - odd schedule, free members can only view bears online and search on even number days. Supposedly this is to cut down on bandwidth usage. I'm met some good guys on there (friends), and some hot hookups too.

• no this is different. If you try and sign on it gives a message that sorry, they are only allowing VIP priority members access now. But it says I have 12 messages. After about 2 seconds of this message it signs me back out. This has been going on for 2 days and my partner has same problem as does my best friend who just texted me. Apparently they are doing something with servers or something

  WTFagain

• the 2 second message says 'temporarily' but who knows?

• I thought it was beard411. My bad.

  Tom%20Cruise

• I keep reading this as "Is Beard911 about to close down?".

• I've been a member there since 2001 and in all that time, 'Buddy' the site admin/owner, hasn't changed it a bit, except maybe a little tweak here and there. He's got a horrible reputation online and is super vindictive, deleting members who he personally dislikes, etc.. I pay for the site for about a year, and then go nearly a year not paying for it. I'm currently in a paid mode because, while I'm not what many people would call a 'bear', I love the site and want to see bears have a good, somewhat descent place on the web to go. That said, the site has become infested in recent years with aged muscle/club queens who post shit like "No offense guys, but not into heavy set/big guys who don't workout..." etc. etc. WTF?!? THESE assholes come to a bear site and post this shit? And "Buddy" lets them stick around while kicking other off or denying new members because they're not 'bearish' enough, (i.e., they won't pay). I would fund a new, serious competitive site if I had a partner who would help design and code the backend.

• I've been a member for a couple of years and the site hasn't changed at all,it looks and works just like it did when I joined,I don't think it's high on the moderator's priority list.

• R36, As I said earlier, it's the exact same look now as it was in late 2000/early 2001. It's never changed with maybe the exception of him adding those little emoji style characters you can insert into your messages. You still have no way to save messages and retrieve them on command or anything like that. I think the site is more of a priority than it seems, I think the guy just doesn't care. It's a priority for him as far as the money. Take a look around the site, it's all over the friggen planet. It truly is the only site of it's type and a huge number of those guys pay for it. Trust me, Buddy is making money off of it. He's always at bear events all over the world. He just doesn't give a fuck about the look and functionality of the site. Plus, he has such a huge membership, he can be nasty to people. Another reason I wish sites like BearCentral.com would have made it.

• Is anybody else still having issues with the site?

• bump for bears

• R15, I second that. terrible confusing layout, really bad site

• Try GROWLr, bitches. I have no issues with Bear411 (even as a free member) Bearwww is part of bear411.

• Growlr sucks R41 and is too app driven. BearCentral was off to a great start and they put a LOT of effort into the design and function, only they didn't make instant messaging a highlight of the site; it was too discussion forum and article driven. Bear411 thrives because it's been around a while, but if somebody launches another site to directly rival it, only better, 411 would suffer a giant sucking sound of members leaving or going dark on him.

• Yes, something has happened since yesterday. I have been on that site since the mid 90's, and almost never had a problem logging in for messages. Even if I got an "access is restricted" message, 5 seconds later on another try I could get in. Since yesterday, there is no logging in, just that constant "reserved for priority access members" message. I guess he has decided to pull the plug for nonpaying guests, and it would have been nice to have a little warning of that. I agree with all of the criticism of the site op. He's a complete asshole, in my experience, banning pictures for arbitrary and capricious reasons, never improving the site in any real manner, and never once responding to any inquiry. It would be nice if there could be another ad-supported site for bearish guys, with similar or better features and functionality, not managed by a tyrant.

  Anonymous

• I would also point out that the site is quite insecure! Even if your profile is private the pictures in it can be retrieved by anyone knowing the URLs. And since the passwords can only contain letters and numbers, they are very easy to hack. As a member I'd be concerned that someday the entire user database will be made public, especially if I were still in the closet. One benefit of the security issues is that you can get most of the paid features for free if you know even a little javascript.

• It's called primetiming for "contributions", dear. One would figure you'd be aware of the practice.

• I've noticed messages not being delivered, based on their content - try including the word 'Scruff'! No warning message or anything, it just goes into the ethers. This behavior exactly fits the anti hacking legislation we have here in the states - he should be criminally prosecuted.

• I'm a non-paying member on BEAR411...for several days now it won't let me log on....only for paying members now. Well, how do I get to BEAR411 so I can now become a paying member??????

  Marc

• Why can't I sign onto BEAR411??? I've been a non-paying member for a good 7-8 years now and about a week ago the sign in page is not coming up. It keeps telling me to post a profile. Well, I already have one!! Anyone know what's going on with BEAR411?? Any ideas on how I can get to the sign in page??? TazMarc69@hotmail.com

  Marc

• Works for me.

  Non-paying%20member/r41

• WOW! OMG!!!!!! I give you, ''PiggyPhilip' - obviously she has absolutely nothing to hide.

  http://www.bear411.com/piggyphilip

• That's probably the worst bear site ever. If there was a "delete my profile" button then the site would die quickly. There are other sites like e.g. bearpassion.com where I get all service for free and I am able to remove my profile immediately.

• I rejoined so I could find some old friends. It wasn't too bad a few years ago, but it has relly gone down hill. I have been able to get online, the first time was for about an hour, after that, I have been able to get a few messages sent, if I'm lucky. And it doesn't really matter if are paying, my husband was having the same issues and he was paying. I was able to get my old account deleted, but that was several years ago, and it took about 6 months. I have accounts with several other sites, and haven't had problems with them, paid or not.

• has been horrible for a while, and now yes - he only wants paying members - so be it

  wanttoplay

• @anonymous looking to fund a replacement. We can design and build;) Let me know if interested.

• says I got 4 emails wont let me look at them says I now have to pay 10.00 for one month or more and I had sent received mail for more then months now this is rediculouse

• I just logged in. No issues. Read/responded to the two msgs waiting for me.

  non-paying%20member

• Have loved this site for about 10 years but agree with what others guys have said; the webmaster there is, for whatever reason, drunk with power. And even though the site is a visual mess, it seems to have survived as the go-to website for bears around the world. Though I really think he hangs on to old profiles that have been abandoned for a long time.

• R54, you a pro dev and design web developer? You looking for a partnership in this, or just a client? You've got my attention. :)

• Just tried to log in with no success. I log in 3 or 4 times a week but no more. Could have sent out an email about changing access. How RUDE just to lock people out. It's F%^$#ing amazing!

  http://bear411.com

  TheChef970

• Bear411 would not accept my profile some years ago, but I don't remember exactly why. Just remember thinking the man running the site was an asshole. Bigger City is great, and EVERYBODY can join, Chubs, bears, chasers, lookers, or whoever. Bearfront is good too, and same people have silverdaddies.

• no its not closing stop the roomers dude and I wanted to cancell my account but it would not let me so I just dont go on but to check messages

• I just cancelled my account the other day. Just type DELETE ACCOUNT in your profile, and that should work. You might also want to include the URL to your profile on another social media site as that will also get your account deleted.

• I want quit for this page bear411 I cant,somebody know whit legal terms how delete this account.IS NOT LEGAL THE BEAR411 NO TELL BEFORE THE PEOPLE,