As we head into autumn, and the weather tries to figure out if it is going to be hot, or rainy, or windy, or cold, or humid (ie which all happened today!), we thought we’d post a site we just encountered that perhaps has been around for ages and we simply failed to notice!

We are talking about http://www.truenudists.com/ – a site that tells us it is THE place to be if you are a true nudist (as the name of the site would suggest!!). So, being the good nudist Interweb citizens that we are, we decided to create an account for FBANAVic, and take a look around on your behalf!!

On the surface it looks OK – nice layout, seems easy enough to navigate, plenty of ad space, some warnings about blank profiles, a group called “young nudists against pervs”, a gallery, an easy-pay-monthly “upgrade your account” payment page, a… hang on, what?

Yes, it all started to get a bit strange after we scratched the surface – there are apparently thousands of members, and the avatar/profile pictures tend towards males (probably not unexpected), but there a bunch of things that made us raise an eyebrow!! Try these on for size and ask yourself if these would even be an issue if the member base was really made up of “true nudists”:

- Why is there a gallery? Nudists might occasionally post a picture of places they’ve been or want to share with other nudists, and often don’t feel compelled to include a photo of themselves, from the neck down only, in some strange pose..
- Why is an “account upgrade” of $US 4.95 per month required to see more than 5 pictures in the gallery?? OK, we’re being facetious, we already know the answer to that (although, to be fair, it could also be used as a barrier to simply stop the free porn surfers! But then why have a gallery at all?)
- There is a search function, which includes a sort feature. Nothing exciting you’d think, except 2 of the choices are “popularity” and “picture count”!!
- For a site that has a very high proportion of male members, the sample gallery pictures seem to have a bias towards containing women!! Are we expected to believe that the women are submitting so many images of themselves that their pictures are more likely to be “randomly” selected from the photo pool for display to the free account holders?? For example, 6 from 6 images of “Home Nudists” sorted by username returned all women!! AMAZING!!!

There were a bunch of other issues as well – you can search for other Australians, but the site does not cater for the states/territories, so you’ll have to wade through the 1400 or so current AU members. There are sooooo many groups as well, and many of them have less than true nudist kind of names!! Groups like “nudists who like to be naughty”, “nudists who enjoy great sex”, and “love to show you my nude body club”…

Don’t get us wrong, if we had to sit down with a blank sheet of paper and think about what the requirements for building a nudist forum site would be, it’s obvious it’s not an easy task – particularly since we suspect the monthly charge option for account upgrades is part money-maker, part “keep the free porn hunters out”. We can’t begrudge the site wanting to cover costs and make money, and they are not really responsible for how the site is used (much like an ISP is not responsible for torrents, and the Australian Government is not responsible for filtering our Internet or telling us how to be good parents…).

Our conclusion – hunting for true nudists on truenudists.com is a bit needle/haystack for our liking, you’re better off heading to the beach and chatting to the actual nudists sitting next to you!!

Get to the beach while the weather lasts!!

As Victorians get a sudden reminder what cold weather feels like, we thought it might be an idea to post an article on the best beaches to go to around the world. Sadly, our own beaches are pretty awesome but clearly didn’t make the cut compared to these amazing destinations!!

If you want to escape the chill, check out this link and dream of nicer places to be!!

As a side note, one of the beaches just near Miami has its own lifeguards and police – We wonder how dune dwellers would respond to active security measures at our own beaches, such as private security?? Hmmmm….

Thanks everyone who turned up to help us with Clean Up Australia Day Point Impossible 2010 – a good turnout again this year, a few more than last year which is nice (yes, it’s getting more popular every year, even when the weather is threatening!!). The weather was kind enough to hold off, we collected 9 bags of rubbish, and every year it seems there is a little less mess to deal with – a good result overall!

In particular, thanks to Dave for organising proceedings and getting the gear all together – a fine job In Rob’s absence (while Rob is enjoying the balmy conditions in the US currently!!). Also thanks to Jenni and Co for providing food and chats after the event, a tasty bite to eat rounded out a productive day!!

Thanks too goes to Mike Bodsworth from the Great Ocean Road Coast Committee (GORCC), who dropped down to have a chat and thank us for our efforts!! Mike also mentioned that it would be a great idea to revisit the “Friends of Pt Impossible” idea that was floated at previous community and council discussion forums – it’s certainly a good idea, one that we all support, but it would be most effective if we had more local beach users willing to step up and be active participants in this idea!!

The few of us who have been the most vocal and active supporters of the beach are not actually locals – at the beach fight workshops to save Point Impossible from closure, your beach was represented by two attendees from Melbourne’s South Eastern suburbs and one from Bendigo!! Come on Point Impossible beach users, we know there are a lot of you who are local!! And you don’t even have to be nude to participate – helping out on the clean up days, or planting days, all goes to show you are simply supporting a great beach valued by ALL users!!

There is a plan to do a tree planting some time towards the start of winter, to try and get some new trees established in the most damaged sections of the dunes – volunteers are needed to participate, it’s definitely a worthwhile way to spend a Saturday for the good of the beach and the environment!! Keep an eye out on this site, and the new Facebook group for further news!!

And don’t forget, CUAD will be around this time again next year, so keep your calendar free!!