Sorry, We're Closed

On September 30 2025 we closed the doors of famousmales for the final time.

For the past few years our visitor numbers have dwindled. The community and gossip side of the site died off completely and many of the picture posts were from the same few remaining members.
It has been obvious for some time that the golden age of messageboard forums is over. When the site started 25 years ago, they were the 'in thing' and we built a dedicated community, not just to ogle fit male celebrities, but to chat and bitch and gossip and moan.
But then Social Media arrived and this all seemed long-winded and old hat. People moved away, moved on or simply grew-up and although the site carried on.. it was never the same.

Now, the arrival of the UK Online Safety Act has become, like for many other forums, the final nail in the coffin.

We have strived for 25 years to keep the site suitable for all and free of porn. Rather than 'harming young people', many members joined as teenagers and the chat and advice sections helped them navigate the tricky path of growing up gay. Sharing experiences with other similar people when often living in a real life community with few queer colleagues and little guidance.
But today.. our type of content, together with the fact that members could direct message each other, would mean the need to introduce a mandatory 18+ age limit for membership, together with robust age ID verification, record keeping and monitoring systems.
This would have killed the site. Meaning increased operating costs and visitor numbers would plummet further. It would massively impact the ad revenue that pays for the servers. And we'd have been left with a restricted 'adult site' not the free and open forum that fmforums was always meant to be.

The scope of the Act is too broad and the penalties of non-compliance would be devastatingly ruinous to individuals running the site, basically as a hobby.

And so, we're done. This is the end.

I cannot even begin to express what these forums have achieved over a quarter of a century thanks to the many, many people without whom this site would not have lasted as long as it did. People who helped run the site, host it, pay for it, tech-help it, inspire it or just contribute to it and use it.
It has been amazing to be a part of it all. I never thought I'd touch the lives of so many people by running a website about shirtless men, and in turn to give so much reason to my own life.

famousmales will survive in retirement on Bluesky at @famousmales.bsky.social - Follow us if you want to.

It was a good time. We had fun. We made friends. We had a laugh. Alan Smith is still fit.
Thank you all.
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