Before I go rambling, I need to explain the title.  Bear411 is a profile/hook-up/dating site for hairy men and their admirers.  It's been around for years, and it's quite popular.  I've even paid for it over the years numerous times. But after I found out how messed up how the place is run, they will never get another dime from me again.

The other day, I was chatting with a nice bear on the web site, and all of a sudden, I had to send a specific message a few times, after he kept asking me if I was still there.  He wasn't receiving my messages.

As a web developer for a long time, my first thought was to find out why he wasn't getting these messages.  And then it was easily traceable.  Bear411 censors it's private messaging system, deletes messages with specific words in them, and nobody is really aware of it. 

Once I figured it out, I tested it with one of my chat friends on bear411, and low and behold, Bear411 is deleting messages. Once I told him this, he told me of many stories about it's owner, and how he's a little power hungry.  I don't see it as power hungry, I see it as greed.  And when you keep reading, you'll think the same way.

So what is so terrible that he's deleting messages behind user's backs?  You won't believe it.  He deletes the mention of what he deems as competition.

Yea, really, I'm serious.  If you try to send a message with the name or URL of any website he thinks is his competition, he deletes it, without warning.

No terms of services on his website mentions this at all. Because he knows if people found out, he wouldn't make any money.  And believe me, he's making money.  Sure, his site wines about bandwidth and server costs, but in this day and age, that argument is no longer valid, since web hosting is pretty much unlimited and cheap today. 

But can you imagine, if you were talking on your AT&T cell phone, and if you said the word Verizon, that you would get disconnected?  No, you can't.  So why the heck is this web site doing it?  GREED!  And too many times, this sort of thing happens in the gay community, and even more often, in the Bear community. WTF!

And to do this behind the backs of your paying customers for so many years, SHAME ON YOU BEAR411!!!  You lost my hard earned money.