Men4SexNow Review

POPULATION:

Men4SexNow is the 2007 winner of the Cybersocket "Best Hookup Site" webaward. M4SN always seems fairly busy to me based on the way it presents the "Quickview Guys Online" page. On a mid-afternoon Sunday check, there were 250 men logged in to the "TX - Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington" view of the site, with almost twice as many guys flagging "versatile" over the other choices (top, bottom, no preference). There are over 12000 users that have selected the DFW region as their home area. This data was a little difficult to gather; they don't exactly brag about their numbers like some other sites. I also noticed the tendency of people to stretch the truth a bit in their profiles, whether it is shave 10 pounds off their weight or add an inch or so to their dick size. It was very clear that milestone ages (25, 30, 35, 40, and 45, especially) were all safe ages to "stay" for a few years. All those ages showed significantly more men than the age above or below. About 40% of the men were in their 30's, 30% are in their 40's or older and the other 30% are 18-29. The DFW site is about 70% white, 14% hispanic, and 12% black with the most diversity in the younger ages.

PROFILE:

Under "Your Account," your ad is the most basic part of your profile. You get to write yourself a headline and some ad copy, set your region, specify your city or neighborhood and your ZIP code. There are 26 Texas regions to choose from and most states or countries have multiple regions. You can also upload upto 6 public pictures and 3 private pictures. You also get to set a bunch of statistical information about yourself such as sexual position, body hair, age, cock size, ethnicity, height, weight, hair color, body type, cut/uncut, smoking status, and HIV status. You also get to set some preferences such as your safe sex practices and where you prefer to meet. Finally, you get to indicate what kinds of activities and guys you are looking for. There's a fairly extensive list of "scenes you're into" which range from the basic "J/O" and "Oral Sex" to archetypes like "Jock," "Daddy," "Bear," "Chub," and "Twink" to more advanced activities like "Bondage," "Verbal," and "Anything Goes." You can also have a voice message, but I haven't noticed those being very common on the site. All the profile fields are specifically chosen to match the site's focus on ease of hooking up. You're not going to find anything about personality, mannerisms, cultural activities or entertainment here. There's absolutely no expectation about finding a long term relationship using this site, although it is funny to stumble across profiles trying to say they're not looking for sex.

SEARCHING:

This site's strength is in its searching. There are a number of pre-configured searches that have their own buttons like "Cruise Ads," "Guys Online," "Fresh Meat," and "Sex Now," however, the full search is probably the most useful search page around. The advanced search really leverages all the profile data you've given, however, only the first 500 results are returned, so learn to narrow your search. I particularly like the ZIP code radius and the "Last Online" field so I'm not looking at abandoned profiles. If I was doing more serious sex research, this search form would be a dream. For instance, I was pleasantly surprised to find that "Safe Sex Only" is still selected as a preference more often than the vague "No Preference" and the bolder "Bareback" choice combined. The only thing I don't like about the search is that you can't do a partial name search; you have to enter an exact match for the username.

The advanced search is really only available to paid users. Free users have to get by with the pre-configured searches. The "Guys Online" and "Who Viewed You" are the best places to just hang out, refreshing periodically or peeking at who has viewed you. If you are in a bit of a hurry, the "Sex Now" page gives the guys that have indicated the best times they are free and looking to hookup. You can search for "Now" as well as some preset time frames like "7pm-11pm." You can set your Sex Now indicator for your optimal hookup times as well as some of the activities you are interested in, like "1 on 1," "Couples" or more.

And then there's the "Sex Parties" page. Free users can visit the Sex Parties page and indicate interest in attending any of the listed parties, but only paid membes can create their own sex parties. Be sure and check the details of the party to see time and location, that the types and number of guys are acceptable to you as well as the expected level of safety. Party hosts get to approve or decline men that have expressed interest in attending their sex parties.

MESSAGING:

The site offers an instant message style chat, but that's not available for free users. You can turn off the IM in one of the menus and I recommend that if you are going to remain a free user. Luckily, if you fail to answer an IM for whatever reason, it gets converted to an e-mail type message. The site e-mails you your contact's message and profile link. Paid members can get their messages on the site as well as by e-mail, however, free members can only send 5 messages per day. Basic level users can get 7 days worth of message history at the site and premium users can get 30 days history. Your site mailbox gives you the most basic information about the guy contacting you like his screen name, age, position and safety preferences. Their implementation of a buddy list is a paid feature called the "hottie list" and you can flag your prospects as "I'm Interested," "Let's Have Sex" or "Deactivate Him For Now" (which is not the same as removing him from your hottie list) plus a free form Notes field. If you add someone to your Hottie list, he can see it from his Hottie list and could receive an e-mail notification. You may also get a special notification if you match up on each other's hottie lists.

PREMIUM:

The site has 3 levels of membership: free, basic and premium. Free is the most restrictive, but free and you do get prompted to upgrade every time you login. Basic offers all the site's functionality with some limits, most of which I've covered previously. The premium member gets lots of perks like top listing in the pre-configured searches, 30 days of history in the mailbox and "who viewed you", 10 profile updates instead of 5, an extra travel location, plus several exclusive features like name change, stealth mode and photo rotator. Free members don't see the rotating photos. When I first upgraded to basic, it was very obvious which members were premium due to the photo rotator as every time I refreshed one of the searches, the thumbnails would change. The stealth mode is to hide yourself from other guys' "who viewed you" pages. I can see how that would be necessary as you have to view a profile in order to block it. Premium users also get some hardcore porn passes, but that's not the reason anyone buys the premium pack. The premium plan is as low as $10.95 per month if you commit to a year's worth, otherwise, a one time fee of $13.95 will let you try it for a month or $6.95 to try it for 4 days. Basic is $9.95 for one month non-recurring or $4.95 for 4 days.

MOBILE:

The mobile site, mobile.m4sn.com, is for paid members only. It offers some of the site's basic features, like the "Who's Online," "Who Viewed My Ad," and the "My Hotties Online Now" as well as the site mailbox. The biggest limitation I can see is that you cannot post your "Sex Now" ad from the mobile site, nor do you get any of the search power from the main site aside from the 3 pre-configured searches. In other words, you cannot initiate communication with someone is isn't online, has viewed your ad or sent you a message. The main site does offer some mobile tools you can setup in advance to be able to quickly respond to an incoming message with one of three pre-written responses. There is, otherwise, no indication to other members that you are using the mobile site.

WARNINGS:

Although M4SN is strongly focussed on getting "sex now" with guys nearby, most of its members aren't bears or interested in bears. The powerful search does make it easy to find the members that want or are bears. A telling piece of information is that weight choices stop at "230 pounds or more" and that's pretty much where bear weights begin. I got much more use out of it 3-4 years ago than I've been getting recently. Another limitation is that the site is not smart enough to turn off the "IM" button on profiles for users that have the Instant Messenger disabled. It also shows the "hot" button even if you already have them on your hot list or block list or if he has put you on his block list.