A Tale of Two Message Boards

[TotallyOz]

Many years back, I think around 2000, I met this guy named Hooboy at my NYC apartment. He ran the Male4malescorts website. He came to my place for a party. I had around 20 plus sexy models from NYC around and he was fascinated at the guys. We became instant friends. I had started building code to make a competing site (the maleescortreview.com) but meeting Hooboy and becoming friends, caused me to stop building the site and become friends. We traveled to Brazil together with my boyfriend at the time and then to Asia. We had a blast. I participated in his message board and was an avid poster.
    
On one trip to Bangkok, Hooboy introduced me to Stef. I fell for him instantly and a few years later, we started gaythailand.com together.

Hooboy died in Bangkok. I was with him the night before he died. I was in route to USA when he passed. As soon as I landed, I heard the news from his BF. I jumped back on a plane and headed to Amsterdam to meet the BF and help him with the apartment. Stef met us there as well.
    
The webmaster at Hooboy's website and others wanted to take the site from Hoo's family without compensation. They didn't even want it to go to the BF who he was with for a long time. I offered a 6 figure sum for the purchase of the site to the family. They did not know the value of the site or anything else when this happened. It was a bit of a mess. The family allowed the webmaster to continue to run the site with them receiving all revenue for a while.
    
After this, I started up the Male Escort Review site. I have attached a few screen shots here. This was what was on the site I believe around the early 2000's.

GayThailand was sold and I continued to run MaleEscortReview. After several years, I changed the name to Boytoy.com   It was a name that I thought would be a better fit and easy to remember while the new owner, Firecat ran the GayThailand site.
    
Firecat and I were friends about as long as Hooboy. We met in Montreal when I was on a trip there. I traveled to Brazil, Thailand and other places with him. He was a good man who was good to me. He ran the site with his BF for years but when they broke up, he needed more help with it and eventually lost interest. He was going to close the site and the forum but I asked for a forward to GayGuides.com
    
Firecat, Hooboy, and I were in Thailand together on multiple occasions. Hooboy and I chatted a lot about the sites and technology. Firecat and I chatted a lot about bars and clubs.
    
Firecat also know Stef from before I even knew him. Yes, it is a small world.
    
MaleEscortReview became Boytoy and that is now GayGuides. GayThailand was once ran by me and then others and now it is GayGuides. Two board merged together who had a long history and similar interests. That is the long, dry tale of two boards.

[spoon]

Thanks for sharing this interesting history about the site. It has been a major help for newbies like me planning my first solo gay trip to thailand. 

[TotallyOz]

Ah, another interesting tidbit of gay Thailand history. On my first trip to Thailand, it was Firecat who introduced me to GayButton's board. It was an invaluable resource to aid in my first trip to LOS.

GayButton was also a moderator on this board for a while many years back and a friend when I was living in Pattaya. That would not have happened if not for Firecat. I would not have met Firecat if not for Hooboy as it was a post on Hoo's board and a trip to Montreal that helped Firecat and I connect. If I can throw Kevin Bacon in here somewhere I would.

[Cany10011]

Thank you for your dedication and providing a wonderful forum!

[Lonnie]

14 hours ago, TotallyOz said:

If I can throw Kevin Bacon in

Him?

[flguywest]

This is Flguy and not only can't I log in I was wondering where are Latin America Forum and Europe forums from Boytoy?

[ggobkk]

The Stef you mention is he the one in the screenshot of the Male Escort Review?  Where is he now?  

 

[ggobkk]

Now that I asked my Stef question, thanks for the background history to the site...I remember Hooboy's site and the Male Escort Review site and the encounters that developed from contacts made through them.  It's a smaller world every day 

[TotallyOz]

4 minutes ago, ggobkk said:

The Stef you mention is he the one in the screenshot of the Male Escort Review?  Where is he now?  

 

He is doing well. He is back in EU. He is sexy as ever and always sweet. He visits Thailand occasionally and doesn't seem to age.

[TotallyOz]

6 hours ago, flguywest said:

This is Flguy and not only can't I log in I was wondering where are Latin America Forum and Europe forums from Boytoy?

It was brought over. You may not be using the right login. PM me and I'll help you recover as well as merge the two accounts.

[ggobkk]

Stef and I got together a couple of times when he was visiting San Francisco or between planes.  Sexy and sweet is an excellent description.  Love to see him again...ah, time passes.  Glad he doesn't seem to age!  

 

 

 

[richincali]

Thank you for the great background story. It's interesting to hear how the 3 key players have worked individually and collaboratively to develop these sites over the years. They are invaluable to so many people, and I wish you well with the integrated site. Seems to have gone smoothly!

[seajoc2]

interesting...thanks for the backstory

[lookin]

Glad the new site is up and running like a Swiss watch!  

I started infesting the HooBoy site just before he left, and this one when it was still MER.  Both sites had - and have - their charms, usually owing to who's posting at the time.

Before this latest Gay Guides incarnation, Boytoy and my browser seemed to have declared war on one another.  For a few months, I couldn't log in and then, for a few more months, I couldn't log out.  The last message I got at the top of my sign-in screen was:

 

Warning: require_once(../index_forum.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/boytoy/public_html/forum_top.php on line 6

Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required '../index_forum.php' (include_path='.:/opt/cpanel/ea-php73/root/usr/share/pear') in /home/boytoy/public_html/forum_top.php on line 6

 

No matter what I did, the message wouldn't go away.  It seemed to have something to do with a Forum_Top and I figured perhaps OZ was off in India interviewing some new programmers.  I made a little puja that it wasn't really a fatal error and figured I'd check back from time to time.

A few days ago, somebody posted directions for getting into the new Gay Guides site but, in spite of assurances that the new site would recognize me, this was not the case.  My posts were all there from days gone by, but the sign-in screen said it had never heard of me.  And my avatar was nowhere to be found.

I had been ghosted by a bot.  

Good thing OZ was on-line, as he knew just where the problem was and what to do about it.

                   

 

So, year after year, site after site, bug after bug and post after post, we persevere.  Kind of amazing, really, to think of what keeps us coming back.  

[TotallyOz]

2 hours ago, lookin said:

Glad the new site is up and running like a Swiss watch!  

I started infesting the HooBoy site just before he left, and this one when it was still MER.  Both sites had - and have - their charms, usually owing to who's posting at the time.

Before this latest Gay Guides incarnation, Boytoy and my browser seemed to have declared war on one another.  For a few months, I couldn't log in and then, for a few more months, I couldn't log out.  The last message I got at the top of my sign-in screen was:

 

Warning: require_once(../index_forum.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/boytoy/public_html/forum_top.php on line 6

Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required '../index_forum.php' (include_path='.:/opt/cpanel/ea-php73/root/usr/share/pear') in /home/boytoy/public_html/forum_top.php on line 6

 

No matter what I did, the message wouldn't go away.  It seemed to have something to do with a Forum_Top and I figured perhaps OZ was off in India interviewing some new programmers.  I made a little puja that it wasn't really a fatal error and figured I'd check back from time to time.

A few days ago, somebody posted directions for getting into the new Gay Guides site but, in spite of assurances that the new site would recognize me, this was not the case.  My posts were all there from days gone by, but the sign-in screen said it had never heard of me.  And my avatar was nowhere to be found.

I had been ghosted by a bot.  

Good thing OZ was on-line, as he knew just where the problem was and what to do about it.

                   

 

So, year after year, site after site, bug after bug and post after post, we persevere.  Kind of amazing, really, to think of what keeps us coming back.  

Glad you are here and glad you have the patience to work through these kinks. It is often not easy to run a site with the browsers and OS changing fast, but it is something we try to keep up with as fast as possible.

I know guys in that pic. What year was this taken?

[lookin]

2 hours ago, TotallyOz said:

I know guys in that pic. What year was this taken?

It was from this recent ad, so probably not too long ago.

You are the Condé Nast of gay travel.  

[caeron]

I'm glad you did end up making your own thing without all the nastiness that eventually took over the Hooboy forums.

[Ethanmiami]

Thanks for background.