"The name ‘Side B’ comes from the term used to describe one of the two sides of a phonograph disc, particularly the 45 rpm. Usually, Side A is the most popular song and gets the most airplay on radio stations. The less popular song is found in Side B.
"In comparison, the global community sees the heterosexuals as the Side A’s. They’re more popular and widely accepted. They have dominated the ‘airwaves’ until recently, when the less popular, homosexual life began getting its share of the ‘airplay.’ This flipside to life are the Side B’s, the homosexual life. Aside from the metaphor, the letter "B" in Side B stands for bisexuals. Variations in the local languages include binabae, bakla, bading, bayot, and baklush, among others. Since all these words start with the letter ‘B,’ we adopted the name Side B for our yahoo group.
"Side B was founded on Nov. 7, 2001, by three friends, two of whom work in the same office. The other is a friend of one of founders. We would meet for lunch and discuss the ongoing debates, discussions, arguments, jokes, news, latest finds on gay establishments, photos, whatever, in the Yahoo groups and MSN communities. One day, we were teasing each other about the idea of putting up our own group. We selected two catchy names for it, and the next thing we knew, we just did it!
"My friend and I set up the groups separately. The other group didn’t do well, but Side B attracted considerable membership even from the very start. Moreover, the members participate actively in the discussion. We deleted the other group and retained Side B with my two friends as co-moderators. We wanted merely a Yahoo group that is relevant to the needs of the gay community. We wanted a group where we can advocate freedom of speech responsibly. We also wanted a no-nonsense forum where ideas and opinions blend with the diversity of its members.
"The members of Side B are mostly gays and bisexuals. I cannot disclose much information since many of them would rather remain discreet. We’ve had straight members before who wrote to us letters of thanks for making them understand a gay brother and a gay son better. We also received another letter from a woman whose fiancée turned out to be gay. Our membership base is more than 8,000. As of last year, it has reached more than 8,200. Apart from this figure, we have 6,933 subscribed members on bouncing status. I have not included them in the 8,200-plus figure. Moreover, part of Side B went to its sister group of 2,500 members, who opted only for photo exchange.
"All the continents are geographically represented. However, the bulk of our members comes from the Philippines and its neighboring countries, the United States, and the Middle East. In fact, our site has created Internet traffic in the Middle East such that some of their servers have blocked the Side B website. When this unfortunate thing happens, our members have no other recourse but to receive individual mails.
"A small number of members are involved in charity events; other give donations to institutions. These are our rich members, but they are very discreet. Our main problems are the flamers, or the troublemakers in the forum. It’s quite difficult when one is a neutral moderator. We cannot please everyone. We treat them with diplomacy and reason. But if they are unrelenting, they get moderated and/or removed from the group. We also get threats from time to time. We get them from a) banned members, b) moderated members who freely use foul language in the forum or via e-mail, and c) members claiming to be owners of the photos posted in the group. We dismiss the threats. As for photos, we remove them immediately upon showing proof of ownership/copyright documentation.
"Furthermore, we get complaints for a) ads posted repeatedly in a short time span, b) messages with high KB size file attachments, and c) virus attachments from members and spammers. We try to regulate ads and messages with big-sized attachments. Moreover, spammers are banned, if not moderated, as in the case of members whose e-mails have worms and viruses."
On the other hand, Rigoritz is the moderator of Queer_Factor, which I joined when it was still called Pinoy_Encounters. The members write erotica in English and Tagalog. But it is the erotica in Tagalog that blows my mind. Tagalog goes right into your guts, your loins, or whatever it is that gets your hormones roaring and raring and raring to get out. This is the e-mail I received from Rigoritz.
"Like a phoenix, Queer_Factor was born from the ashes of the first group I created, Pinoy_Encounters. Technical issues compelled me to close that group. As the name suggests, it is a gay group. My fondness for writing gave birth to these groups.
"Queer_Factor began last Aug. 13, 2004. Our members number more than 1,800. They are mostly gay and bisexual professionals who are in the closet. The group serves as their outlet in expressing their experiences and fantasies without prejudice. Our main focus is the promotion of Pinoy gay erotica. We have posted and distributed more than 500 erotic gay and love stories to our members from the two groups.
"Controversies? Plagiarism is the issue that hounds us. Since our stories are not copyrighted, other people would use them for personal gain. In fact, some tabloids had the nerve to reprint our stories in toto, without attribution to our group. Well, justice has been served in a way, because these tabloids have stopped publishing since then. I am proud to say that most of the beautiful gay love stories as well as the most controversial and erotic ones now spreading in the Internet originally came from our group, courtesy of our creative writers and contributors."
Bravo to Rigoritz, then, for giving space to Pinoy gay stories of love and erotica in cyberspace. I have not yet written a gay erotic story for them. Again, I repeat I did not write "Ang Kuya Kong Balbon" ("My Hairy Elder Brother"), which my stalker spread in the Internet, using a fake e-mail address called danton_remoto@yahoo.com. Reliable information has reached me that the vile person who prodded my stalker to spread this has been dealt his karma.
And if one day I will write erotica, I will proudly put my name there. I have just finished five storylines for a series of short novels that will be published soon. They will have sex in the city, queer as folk, love and erotica, la dee dah.