Site News
90-Year-Old's Coming Out Story
Posted Jan 03, 2022 12:34PM EST
Ken Felts, who came out at age 90 and found love again shortly after, has published his memoirs. Here's a couple of links:
https://store.bookbaby.com/bookshop/book/index.aspx?bookURL=My-Handful-of-Stars
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59928433-my-handful-of-stars
A great reminder for the new year that it's never too late to be yourself.
2021 On OlderGay.Men
Posted Jan 01, 2022 5:54PM EST
Happy New Year! I hope you've had safe-but-joyous holidays with loved ones near(but not too near), and that 2022 has better days in store.
I sat down today to look back on what we did last year, and was happy with a lot of what I saw. Some highlights:
- One of our members who's a lawyer offered to weigh in on the problems older gay men face.
- We were hit with our first round of spam accounts. And our second. Thanks to everyone who's taken advantage of spam reporting to help us shut down problems as quickly as we can. We're working behind the scenes to flag more junk messages and head them off before they reach you.
- We added second homes and travel plans. If you divide your time between two locations, you can add them both and...
Spam Begone!
Posted Dec 08, 2021 7:02PM EST
My partner hasn't needed the wheelchair for three or four days. He's getting up and going about his business (watching golf, listening to pulp audiobooks) and has needed less constant attention.
So, today, I had time to look into the latest spam problems. I've had my eye on it, and I'm sorry for any of you who have been subjected to the nonsense. It's the same group of spammers, but they moved on from using one-use-only email domains to using ones @gmail.com. I couldn't outlaw all Gmail addresses, so I bided my time until I could deal with it. When I got to it today, I had to delete 650 spam accounts and the messages they'd sent. I placed blocks that should lock out this particular bunch of annoyers, so things should calm down, and I've set tasks for myself to add more general spam blocking, so I hope this will be our last round of widespread spam attacks.
Thanks for your patience with this untimely incursion. As far as I can tell, I'm...
Spam Ho!
Posted Nov 28, 2021 3:32PM EST
My partner came home Tuesday after two weeks in the hospital and eleven days at a rehabilitation center. He was still terribly weak and needed constant attention, so I’ve barely been online this week.
Naturally, my absence coincided with the latest onslaught of spammers on the site. Someone is using single-use email services to create accounts and send messages to other members. I blocked access from one service, and after a day, they started using another. And, today, a half dozen more. I plugged those holes also, but it may be a few days before I can do more than whack each mole as it pops out. Al still needs help, and, tomorrow, we’re starting our rounds of doctors’ offices following his discharge.
I’m sorry for the inconvenience. I know it makes being a member of the site less enjoyable when you get this nonsense in your inbox. (If you’re not sure what I mean, if you get a message from someone one minute after he joins the site...
Forced Break
Posted Nov 10, 2021 5:26PM EST
My other half’s been in the hospital with pneumonia for two weeks. That’s not quite accurate, since, thankfully, they eased COVID restrictions and I’ve spent part of each day with him. So, at a rough estimate, 41% of me has been gone. I’ve taken an iPad with me a couple of times, thinking I might do something while he's sleeping, but holding his hand and rubbing his thumb has been a full and satisfying vocation, and I haven't gotten around to more.
Each day of the last week has been a broken promise. First, we heard he'd go to rehab. I was all for this, seeing how weak he'd become, but then we heard that the rehab center only does acute care, and he's only cleared for sub-acute care. So they planned to send him to another center which, based on online reviews and conversations with many friends, has a reputation as a death trap that leaves people far worse than when they come in. And it was the only option his insurance would pay for. So he...
Member Galleries
Posted Sep 16, 2021 8:49PM EDT
Following on the heels of marking people in pictures, I've created galleries from the results:
https://oldergay.men/images/members
Have a look — happy window shopping! 😀
Jeff
People In Pictures
Posted Sep 16, 2021 5:39PM EDT
I've made it possible now to say that you're in a picture on the site. On a picture's page, just click "Add yourself to the list" under "People in this picture". See here for example:
https://oldergay.men/images/fb51ce6ce0593dae4bc26646c91a6f62
Do Not Abuse This. Marking yourself as the subject of a picture of Ed Asner or a drawing of Santa Claus will get you a warning, and continuing will get your account banned. Let's keep this useful.
On profile pages, we make a distinction now between photos someone's uploaded and photos that feature the person. Like here:
https://oldergay.men/users/jeff-covey
We show ten pictures on the profile, and you can click through to see more:
https://oldergay.men/images?subject=141
When you upload a batch of photos now, you can tick a checkbox to have them all marked as pictures of you. If you've already uploaded a bunch, go to your profile page. Above the thumbnails of pictures uploaded by you, you'll find a new link labeled...
Is This Worth It?
Posted Sep 02, 2021 4:35PM EDT
In the best shoot-then-aim tradition, I've only started to collect statistics about what's happening on OlderGay.Men. One jumped out at me: 107 members currently support us on Patreon. On the one hand: That's great! On the other: It's 0.1468% of our membership.
I don't want to sound discouraged. But if only 15 percent of one percent of you care to make sure this will still be here tomorrow, you have to admit that's not the most enthusiastic vote of confidence. On a crass financial level, it means that supporting members pay less than a third of our monthly expenses. I'm happy to continue making up the rest, but increased support would ease both my pocketbook and my worries about whether this is a worthwhile experiment.
So let me ask you:
- If you subscribe: Thank you!
- If you don’t… Why not?
I don't mean that as an accusation, but as a sincere question.
I understand that $5 a month is more than some of our members can afford. I...
Bereft
Posted Aug 29, 2021 5:17PM EDT
Breaking in to our usual coverage for this sad news:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/29/arts/television/ed-asner-dead.html
Uploading Many Photos At Once
Posted Aug 26, 2021 5:35PM EDT
I finally got around to making it possible to upload multiple images at once. If you have a bunch you want to add to the site, you can drop them all at once now:
https://oldergay.men/image_contributions/new
The site puts them into a holding area, then, when it gets a moment, takes each and runs it through all the processing that we were doing at the time of uploading before: Checking that the image isn't already on the site, double-checking that you didn't accidentally upload the PDF of your tax return, etc. Since all of this happens later, uploading should be much faster as well as more convenient. Give it a try and let us know if you run into any problems!
Enjoy,
Jeff