Not a fan

I gotta say I don't get it at all. I've tried to navigate the site like I used to but it's frustrating. I used to come on here daily. Now I rarely do and leave frustrated every time. Been a big fan of this site for years but now it's not worth the time... there doesn't seem to be as many guys online or in the chat room either. Has the traffic gone down over all or am I in the minority?

I must agree with the previous poster. The new site is not as easy to navigate as the old version. I also have used SP almost every day. I now use it only a couple of times a week.

Hi Guys, I'm sorry that you feel that way. I use the site every day too and I find that the new format makes it really easy to browse through lots of pictures rating, commenting and sending messages as you go. In addition, we haven't removed anything that used to be on the old site so if you look through the menus you will find all the pages that we used to have just arranged in a way that we feel is more sensible. We have had a lot of positive feedback and any negative feedback is taken into account and fixed. You can use the "?" button on each page to give us your ideas. Would would be best is if you had specific points, give us an example so that we can address what exactly it is that you're finding frustrating otherwise it's hard to do anything about it. I hope you persevere and i'm sure that the benefits will become apparent. Thanks, Mike

Hi Guys, I hate to say it, but I'm not convinced either. I've been on here for years, initially under the username Bulgelicker, and I find the level of engagement is down. Less people seem to be viewing pics and profile. I like the new newsfeed. However the list of my favourites no longer has my notes showing. Lost some good info there. The bottom line is I'm not reaching as many guys in the new format. I've tried to make it work but don't seem to be winning here. If the new format had as much activity I'd prefer it. Thanks for the efforts, if there is anything you can do to boost activity I'd be very grateful.

I think the activity on the site has gone down because of the limits imposed on the free members who can only view so many photos now... and once the photo limit is up it's difficult to even get to someone's profile if you just want to send a message, and so the site becomes unusable the rest of the day. Consequently people aren't going to bother logging in so often and will eventually drift away. Then the paying members won't bother renewing their subscription if the number of people active on the site is down. I can't see why on earth you went to all the time and expense of setting up a completely new website. The old one may have looked amateurish but it worked perfectly well. You could have just tweaked that to make it look more aesthetically pleasing, made the thumbnails a little larger and changed the banner at the top along with the logo. And you still don't have an audible notification for a new message, so if you are logged in the site but it's in a window in the background, it can be a long time before you notice there's a new message. By the way, the email from spandexparty yesterday quotes 'scotty123' as saying on the 3rd March that he loves the new format, it's such an improvement and looks easy to use etc., when as far as I can see he hasn't logged in since the 22nd February...

I can see both sides here. I Didn't like the new site originally, nobody likes change, but after 24 hours I could navigate myself around with no problem. All the old features are there. You just have to find out where. With regards to the point made by madeinengland - this is valid. I'm a paying member (and would advice anyone to join. It isn't that much money and it supports a great site) however I was unaware of new limitations for non paying guests. I posted some new photos last week and usually when I do the number of visits to my profile shoots up. This time I had many many fewer hits. So aye there is a compromise to be had here, ease some restrictions on the part of the spandex admin, but the other guests consider buying a subscription to support what spandex admin is trying to do. I would hate for this site to drift downwards.

One possible thing that could be causing profile views to drop is the way that when you click on a newsfeed item, it takes you to that picture. In this example, someone with a rather hot pair of Addicted briefs has viewed my profile. If I click to view his back, I get the error message saying becuase I'm no longer a full paying member, I can't see his picture. The old site would have taken me to his profile I think, but now I've got no easy way of viewing his details unless I copy and paste the username in to the search (which I can't be arsed to do).

Since we're all here to see pics and meet up, why not allow free members to gain premium-like benefits by posting more photos? There are likely far more free members than paying, and unless I'm way off, most of us visit primarily for new pics. I have over 1,000 pics to share, somewhere, but can do that for free and reach a wider audience than on SP. A new pricing model would be welcomed.

Admittedly it doesn't take long to find your way around the new site and it looks more professional and better laid out, but it gets annoying that clicking on a thumbnail on most pages brings up an overlay of the photo and doesn't take you to the profile. And that can soon use up photo views when you weren't wanting to look at the photo anyway but just get to the profile. Even if you haven't used up your photo limit but someone has uploaded an adult photo you can't get to their profile as you keep getting the premium membership page come up wanting you to pay. I have also just noticed that the newsfeed on the old site shows far more visitors to my profile than the newsfeed does on the new one. The old site is showing 7 visitors today that aren't showing on the new one. They are all profiles without photos it seems, but a visitor from yesterday with photos is not showing on the new site either. Non paying members were at least with the new site, despite limited photo views, able to see thumbnails of all photos on a profile even if they were adult, just couldn't enlarge them (and so many keep uploading photos as adult when they aren't), now from today there is just a thumbnail saying 'upgrade to view' with a 'flame' for all the adult photos on a profile, the same as on the 'new photos' page. For whatever reason, many people, indeed the majority, aren't going to pay a subscription, and the site now restricts non-paying members far more than it used to which is only going to have an adverse affect on the number of people using and active on this site. SpandexParty only became popular after spandexguys.com had problems about 8 years or so ago, went down completely and disappeared for a long while and everyone flocked to this site. If you're not careful people will start going elsewhere again.

I love the idea that free members could have a higher allocation of daily photo views, if they post more photos to their own profile. It would be a great incentive - and this site is all about the photos so the more the better - for everyone, paid up or otherwise.

For specific issues - one I have flagged already is that if someone has viewed/liked/cum on your profile and shows in your newsfeed or even writes an email and their profile image is deemed "adult" you can't get to their profile at all. Frustrating! Really preferred the simplicity of the previous newsfeed... I do realize that thought and effort went into it but still not seeing the benefit. (sorry)

I have to agree, the site seems more cumbersome and time consuming now. I understand the grouping of menu functions seems a good idea, but it actually takes longer to get to where you want to go. This makes the site less user friendly and therefore people won't use the site as often as they did with the previous format. Even I don't seem to log on as much or spend much time browsing. The large format pics look great, but you have to scroll around the screen a lot more than before. Overall, while the new format looks great, it is no longer a joy to log in and see "what's new on SpandexParty".

The newsfeed on the new site is certainly missing out lots of visitors. It also says someone has added me as a favourite but can't see who it is at all. One of the most annoying things is though, when someone sends you a message on the new site you can't get their profile up at all to see who they are!

I found the same problem and soon discovered you can do so by clicking on their profile photo in the inbox, rather than in the message box. I would have preferred to be able to click on their profile photo in their message. Hope I'm making sense!

Even with all of the changes and fixes here and there...thank you for the new site and the hard work...I'm sure it will turn out AMAZING in the end. A few others have mentioned thinking "traffic" is down and that it may be because of the site changes...etc, but the site is going to be as good as the members. The value of the site is incredible, comparably so yes....more people need to join, but current members need to give them a reason to see value in it. So...keep your profiles fresh, reply to people who pay you a compliment ( or rate your photos favorably)-even if you aren't a "match" and I guarantee you more people join. Spandex is HOT!....kindness and respect...even hotter!!!! With that being said if someone hasn't "been seen last" for years +, they probably are not helping hold/get memberships. Any thought to removing "older" profiles. (Even when the profile/pics were amazing). People looking for connections/conversation aren't going to see a reason to stay/pay when they get "all pics & no action/connection". Especially with free tumblr, etc sites everywhere. Thanks for listening.

I find the new site disappointing. It looks good but the functionality not so much. Like, if someone likes my profile but their main profile-pic is an 'adult' one, I can't view their profile at all and the username search facility has never worked. It's a niche fetish and I'm never going to pay a regular fee when I'm contributing content to the site in the first place. I just flicked through one persons extensive gallery then bam! I can't view any more. I can understand the site-owner wants to encourage people to buy memberships but by restricting those of us who don't really have the disposable income for a niche-fetish hookup/porn website, it discourages use and will shrink the membership and therefore reasons for visiting the site. It's not a good model. I've been on this site for some time but in its current form, I'm not going to continue to use it.

I was hoping that the new site would include a keyword search function (one of the features that usually inspires people to pay on other sites), but not only is it not there, I also noticed today that race information has been rolled back, so the site is actually functionally *less* useful than before.

Keyword search option is a nice idea - we have implemented a Suggestions and Ideas "?" icon on each page for members to submit ideas like this so I would encourage anyone who has an idea to use that and we can keep track of them. The race options that we used to have were very inadequate and so I decided that filtering on these was inaccurate and not something that I wanted to be involved with anyway. All suggestions that we are receiving are being considered and if you find a bug or problem then submitting a ticket using the "?" icon is the best way for us to manage them. Anyone who has submitted a ticket has been responded to personally and their issue resolved. I think it's great that you all care so much and have strong opinions and clearly we have to balance free functionality with the need to keep the site moving forward, which means money of course. Now that we have a programme of improvements through this year everyone should see that the revenue is being reinvested in making the site and what we do better and better. Thanks, Mike

I'm sorry...Ive now been using the new format long enough to have a consolidated view of old vs new...... I don't think there is much left unsaid and Im not going to make you read stuff that you already know about..... I used to come on here ALOT, daily.....made some great mates actually.....it was fun, interactive and easy to use and navigate. Im just not feeling this new format...its awful and a pointless change to something that wasn't broken in the first place.....the fun came about by the quirkiness of the old site....it was a friendly and basic format and everyone i showed it to became members. Its too serious, almost corporate and the newsfeed is a disaster.... Sorry but Im a gonner!!! I'll see out my membership and lights out.....cheers for the fun...... Xxx

Yes I find the new site frustrating, and I'm logging in less frequently and staying shorter time. After viewing a few profiles it seems I can't see any more! So that's it I log off.... I certainly get less hits than before... "If it's not broken, don't fix it! " Too late now......