Website Reviews

This week I decided to look at a few websites of interest to the GLBT community. Some you may have heard of, but there are a few new ones here!

Lesbianation (http://www.lesbianation.com)

Offers: message boards, chat rooms, news, personals, the chance to earn points which can be used at the Lesbianation E-Shop area, email between members

What I like: the overall layout is easy to read, the message board topics are various and interesting, the columnists and news articles are extremely well thought out and put together

However: call me spoiled, but I’m used to web communities offering me a personal email address. Lesbianation email can only be used between other Lesbianation members. The points that they offer you are a nice plus, but I still haven’t figured out what you do with them. Maybe if I bought something from the E-shop, I get a discount.

Gay.com (http://www.gay.com)

Offers: message boards, chat rooms, news, articles, a new personals section, email, webpage hosting

What I like: I love free email, and having a user@gay.com address can’t be passed up! The webpages are hosted by a variation of Homestead.com, which is where I host my own website—one of the best free site hosts on the ‘Net. The chat rooms are a great way to meet other Gay.com members. Also, you can get Gay.com in your language or location, such as gay.com en espanol, gay.com in the UK, etc.

However: the message boards leave a lot to be desired. Not enough people posting, and I just don’t like the layout. I like the chat rooms, but they tend to freeze up on you every now and then.

Midwest Wymn (http://www.tripod.com/midwestwymn/)

Offers: A message board, chat room, member profiles, offline get-togethers (usually located in the Indianapolis area)

What I like: The entire site is very easy to maneuver around. Each page is password protected, so that random spammers can’t post or harvest your email address for their own personal use. The founder seems to be making a sincere effort to create an online home for lesbian/bisexual/questioning women in the Midwest.

However: most, if not all of the offline get-togethers seem to take place in or around the Indianapolis area. I know Indianapolis is at least 3 hours away from me—too far for most offline meetings. This isn’t the fault of the founder, but of me and the other members—we need to create our own get togethers in our part of the Midwest. Chicago, anyone?

PlanetOut.com (http://www.planetout.com)

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