BellyBuilders is all about guys with guts - the battle for the bulge and the appreciation thereof. Gainers, encouragers, BHMs (Big Husky/Hunky Males) and their admirers are welcome be they straight, bisexual, gay or unwilling to put themselves in a box in this regard, with the focus being on the growing male form. Here small guys on their way, big guys, and the big guys going further all come together to talk about their endeavours with one another and those who appreciate their efforts. Occasionally discussion will go into inflation and other waistline enhancing pursuits.
Please refer to the Terms and Conditions of use as well as the Privacy Policy prior to using the chat.
Some people have been having problems with the old chat applet I was using - now you can try a new one
Feel free to use whichever one works best for you.. If you have any problems connecting to the chat, take note of any error messages you receive, as well as the "Debug String" down the bottom of the chat screen, then post a report at the Problems with the sites forum.
Some people who use BiggerCity chat have difficulty coming into this chat - this is because the biggercity instructions say that if you want your profile to be a link from your chat client, you should set your profile link URL as your "name" in your IRC client. Unfortunately, URLs are not validly formatted usernames, and as such, the chat server software I use rejects URLs as invalid usernames. If you find you're rejected from the server due to an invalid nickname, make sure that your "username" or "ident name" is set to something containing characters like A-Z and 0-9 and try closing the biggercity chat window before you enter here. Once you're in the bellybuilders chat successfully, you should be able to reopen your biggercity chat window fine.
The below text is maintained here for posterity. BB has been back online for awhile now, due to the donations from several of its members. Should the site experience further downtime, you may find information about it here, or on twitter.
Back online! Still seeing this page? Wait 30 minutes for your DNS to update...
Dedicated server is operational - I've spent the past two hours plus configuring, testing and securing it.. Hopefully should be up some time this weekend - stay tuned!
Just received the account details in email.. Hopefully I should get some time over the weekend to migrate the site onto the new server and get things back online.
Just got off the phone with the hosting provider - it had slipped through the cracks in the technical department due to the stuffup by the accounts department, but now that they've confirmed payment was indeed made yesterday it's been moved to the top of their list and the datacentre guys should have it done in 2-3 hours at which point I can then commence the server setup.
Bottom line:
Yes, I used the blink tag... :-P
After agreeing to go ahead, then getting an email from the accounts department saying payment had failed (duh, they hadn't sent me link for p a y p a l yet) I just spent 23m57s (Mrrmm.. skype) on the phone sorting it out. The accounts person, who didn't answer my call until about 13 minutes in didn't get it fixed until about 20 minutes in at which point I kept him on the line until payment was sent. I also sent a nag email to the salesperson to get him to follow the transaction through and make sure it happened. Anyway - HOPEFULLY this means that today in the US, some technician should set up the server and send me the details, once I get the details, it'll take me a day or two to get it configured and then hopefully we should be back in business!
Activation of the new hosting account has commenced.. I just got off the phone with Lunarpages's Sales Department and have started the wheels moving on setup. Hopefully all goes well and accounts gets back to me today.
The donations have been coming in nicely, thankyou everyone who's contributed. I have enough to cover the contract period but expenses will continue to come in as long as the site's online, so if you're interested in contributing you can contact me via bellybuilders at bachelorguy dot com where you can get the donation information.
Money is coming in and I have query lodged with hosting provider to get the hosting established. I had to upgrade my p a y p a l account to a "premier" account as majority of people are using credit cards and you only get 6 card transactions per year with a personal account.
Those of you have offered to pledge money and gave me your email address will have received details on how to send it. Those of you who contacted me via instant or site based messengers, I'll be dropping you a line shortly.
Pledges to donate have been coming in - for this, I thank you all. Shortly those of you who have pledged money will receive a link to information on how to donate.
Assuming I don't sign up for a long term plan (which is dangerous to commit to without guaranteed funds), I'm looking at $149 setup and $99/month (US). To date, I've contributed $9.95/month out of my own money since the site was initially moved to lunarpages (That's around 4-5 years, you do the math). Factoring in me continuing to chip in my own money and the ongoing amounts people have offered, I have around $420 promised annually compared with $1337 worth of hosting fees - so there's a ways to go yet...
If you can contribute, and have not yet gotten in touch with me, please contact me at bellybuilders at bachelorguy dot com..
It seems the $70 deal was a limited off I just missed out on and would not be good enough.. Feels like bait and switch, but oh well..
Well folks, here comes the hand out...
How much and how often would you be willing to contribute to the operation of BB? If you can and are willing (this isn't an arm twisting exercise), then please contact me at bellybuilders at bachelorguy dot c o m - once I have an idea of how much and how often people can contribute, I'll know if I can commit to a hosting plan and then be able to advise those people making donations of the way to get the money to me.
Credit where credit is due, I will happily name those who wish to be named as contributors but you may also remain anonymous.
I'm awaiting contact from Lunarpages sales department...
My current(ly suspended) webhost, Lunarpages, gave me a call this afternoon my time. Apparently they're willing to be flexible to keep a long term customer and suggest that their base dedicated plan is indeed suitable for the site. They also suggest that they may be flexible on some specifications. Either way, to spend 17 minutes on the phone suggesting some solutions and answering my tech questions was helpful. If the trial period (30 days) goes well, then the cost would be ~$70US/month. I'm waiting for a response from p a y p a l on some currency stuff, but otherwise we may have some movement soon! An added plus is that Lunarpages do accept p a y p a l directly for their dedicated products also.. so if I stay, I may be able to avoid double currency conversion anyway (though I'm being diligent and not assuming the deal's done yet before getting monies tied up in p a y p a l and then being stuck with a bucketload of FX fees,,
It turns out I can accept US dollars to my p a y p a l account and keep them as US dollars, but now the trick is finding a way of getting that money received in US dollars out of p a y p a l without having to pull it into my Australian account (which would then incur FX fees). Anyone know of a p a y p a l chargeable prepaid credit card in the US? :) ... Am asking them if I can get a p a y p a l Debit Mastercard...
My webhost, Lunarpages, has suspended my normal web hosting as I exceeded their shared hosting CPU utilisation limits. I am in the process of seeking new hosting. None of the site content should have been lost (I'm currently downloading a copy now of the latest content). News as it happens, folks. My thanks must go to ug for continuing to host the chat server (which is still online) as well as this page.
It looks like I'm going to need to sort out some fundraising to get the site back online - I (LrgrThnLf), can be contacted on bellybuilders AT bachelorguy dot com via email..
Today is
This file last modified