Thank you and goodbye.
So, as the saying goes, all good things come to an end and with a heavy heart this post is to tell you all that tieguyuk.com will be closing it’s doors in 2018. This is a long post but I think after 16 years online I owe the members that. For the most part I’ve had a blast but truth be told, the last couple of years have just been a constant battle. Censors, new rules and regulations, idiocracy from small minded people has all just ground me down. I’ve had emails from people informing me they’re telling all their local schools about my site (because all gay guys are paedos apparently). I think that says more about the people that have an issue with it than it does about my site. A never ending fight with our increasing nanny state over what can and can’t be shown and believe me, it’s only going to get worse. Add to that the constant battle with people sharing passwords and posting my stuff online and it’s just not fun anymore. I put my heart and soul into tieguyuk for years because it was a passion, it was exciting, it was fun. Now unfortunately it is none of those things.
I never had any interested in creating a porn site and so I always steered clear of nudity and kept everything playful. As most of you probably know it was a free site for years but it got so popular I was forced to create a members area to help pay for the hosting, bandwidth, sessions etc and for a long while it was perfect. A great, fun hobby that was paying for itself. That’s all I ever wanted from the site but I was always lumped in with these huge big commercial sites, run by corporations that have staff and legal teams and I’m expected to abide by the same rules and pay the same rates as them. I can’t. It’s just me and a PC. I just can’t do it all anymore.
One Christmas eve at 5pm I received an email from Epoch informing me that my site wasn’t compliant and changes had to be made. They demanded those changes at 5pm Christmas eve and threatened to stop taking payments unless I made them immediately. The site barely covers costs as it is. So there I was, while everyone else was out enjoying themselves working on the site but did I complain? No. So I started to wonder what I was getting out of the site. Was it what I wanted? Is it what I want? And the answer is no, not anymore. I’ve tried to keep it going best I can for the last couple of years because I know how much some people enjoy it but I’m just going through the motions.
You may be surprised to hear I haven’t tied anyone for years now and I never will again. It’s not me, it was never me, I just enjoyed seeing pics of clothed guys tied up and at the time (remember this was nearly 20 years ago) the only way for that to happen was for me to make them myself and it just snowballed. The more I was exposed to people in the ‘scene’ the more I realised I just wasn’t interested in being a part of it. I wasn’t a ‘dom’ or a ‘top’, I wasn’t into leather or rubber and PVC was a turn off. I didn’t consider myself a ‘slave’, a ‘bottom’, a ‘dog’ or a ‘pig’ and found it all to be very stereotyped and a bit cringe. You would think that gay men would be more accepting of minorities considering we are one ourselves but they really aren’t. The reality is very black and white. You have to choose a box to fit in and so tieguyuk became somewhat of a persona. A persona I slowly started to resent.
It became harder and harder, people assumed I lived and breathed tying guys when I didn’t. People wanted to be my friend because I was tieguyuk but I wasn’t. I became distant from anyone I’d met via the site because of it. I felt like a fraud but didn’t want to let people down that enjoyed the site so I tried to carry on. Well 16 years on I think it’s time to start thinking about what I want instead of what everyone else wants from me and it wasn’t an easy decision to make. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it immensely, I did, especially the photography side of things. I took pride in creating what I considered to be exciting images, they weren’t just randomly taken. I always took time to try and create exciting pictures. I got a kick out of posting something on my blog that I knew would get a good reaction but now we live in a world where it is just not worth even posting a clothed, fun, consensual bondage image in a free area for fear of backlash. Another nail in the coffin.
I’d like to thank every guy I ever had a session with. I never had a bad one and I always enjoyed every minute of it. Thank you to anyone that has helped or contributed in any way over the years, there’s too many to mention. You are all amazing for helping tieguyuk become the site that it is, every single one of you and I wish you all every success in everything you do. And last but by no means least thank you to all the loyal members for your support over the years. Without you the site wouldn’t have flourished. I wish it could continue and I hope you don’t hold it against me for moving on but my decision is final. It’s time to say goodbye.
The site will no longer update with new content. It will remain open until the new year so that those of you with an active subscription can continue to enjoy the huge amount of content currently available. Those of you with recurring memberships please cancel the next rebill. From here on in I will not be answering emails, I need to enjoy the holidays too guys. It’s time for me to put myself first for a change.
I will update the blog with a proposed closing date when I am able.
Thanks for the memories,
TieGuyUK.
