Nude & Natural Magazine Naturism is the Way. |
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Nude & Natural Magazine Naturism is the Way. |
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Ghosebusters at work:
Real and unreal naturists on the web
IN THE WORLD of the paranormal one speaks of "ghosts," those entities that are not quite tangible in the world of solid matter. Some of us believe in ghosts, maybe from the testimonials of those who have claimed to have seen them, and on occasion, maybe we've seen one or two ourselves.
In the computer industry there is a term known as "vaporware." It's applied to a computer software program that is promised by a manufacturer but which fails to ship on the expected date. It's a slang term to indicate that it does not exist. Somewhere between these two terms we find the topic of this installment of NIFOC.
Reality Check
For "Surf 'N' Sun"
An article in a recent issue of the British naturist magazine H&E (Health & Efficiency) addressed the issue of ghosts in cyberspace. The article asks, "What single naturist group has 150,000 members and operates in over 100 countries?"
One may be quick to respond with the names of several well-known and well-established naturist organizations that anyone can easily reference. Instead, the "answer" is a group calling itself "Surf 'N' Sun International." Naturist net surfers are no doubt familiar with this name as the group which for the past two years has engaged in a campaign of harassment against The Naturist Society and several of its key online members via the Web and e-mail.
According to the H&E article, investigative reporter Dai Hunter took on the task of checking out the claims of this organization, especially since it seemed no one had ever heard of them outside of naturist circles on the Internet.
Operating under various names such as "Surfdogs," "Surfdogs-Student Naturists," "Surfdogs-Hawaii," "Surfdogs-Down Under," "Surf 'N' Sundogs," and more recently as "Surf 'N' Sun International," this group's claims of a far-reaching international membership are astounding. As one pokes about the Web page links one also finds references to "Friends of Black's Beach" (Black's is a very real beach near San Diego), "California and Hawaii Young Naturists (CAHYN)," and even "2001 Christian Naturism Forum of Surf 'N' Sun."
These groups are, to put it simply, all Internet hype and no substance.
According to the article, Hunter tracked the imposter "leaders" of these Web-based groups through dozens of sites. He corresponded by e-mail with the so-called "founder," in an effort to obtain hard data that might prove that such a group existed. Hunter found that there was no telephone number or mailing address, no discernible administrative structure or personnel - the groups did not even have their own Internet domain names. All of these various groups' Web sites and e-mail addresses are interconnected and located on free advertising-supported Web services for which anyone can sign up using just about any fictional name or personal data. All this combines to give Surf 'N' Sun et al what they apparently need: broad reach with maximum anonymity.
Surf 'N' Sun claims that membership in its naturist "group" is free and they do not issue a membership card - which begs the question of how they keep track of their membership, or even arrive at the numbers they report. None of the high-profile activities these groups claim to have organized on very real naturist beaches has ever been confirmed to have taken place by the very real naturist activists who frequent those sites. What's more, no representative from any established naturist group or club has ever seen or met anyone who can claim to be a member of Surf 'N' Sun or any of its various entities. The "founder" himself has refused all requests for face-to-face meetings with naturist activists. Ditto his assistants.
It seems that Hunter stumbled upon something that a handful of naturist Web masters and list masters already suspected. This is a ghost!
Closer Inspection
It all started in 1999 when these alleged naturist entities first appeared on the naturist online radar. Although claiming wide and diverse international membership in the tens of thousands, netizens like me only heard from the same handful of people day after day. It did not take much time for the observant and discerning news or list reader to see that there were traits in common in the writing styles that suggested the same person was posting to the online groups under a variety of free e-mail aliases. And so, like Hunter, several Internet-savvy naturists went to work to see what was up and began an investigation using the technical tools of the Internet trade.
It turned out that all the messages originated from one person and one location - the San Diego Public Library in California. On occasion, a few posts were sent from a Kinko's Copy Center and a cyber café, both of which offer access to Internet terminals for a small fee.
Confronted with the truth, the poster became abusive and eventually was removed from several naturist list servers. Soon after, this person and his or her alleged "groups" were dismissed as fraudulent by national organizations such as The Naturist Society. Consequently Surf 'N' Sun launched a libelous smear campaign against TNS and every individual naturist who disagreed with him/them online, a campaign that continues sporadically to this day. The motive for this madness is as yet unknown.
Surf 'N' Sun still exists on the Web these days, a spider with its own web set up to trap the uneducated. How long its Internet hosts will allow them to continue with their harassing methods and their inflated membership claims is anyone's guess, but some ISPs have started to remove Surf 'N' Sun pages after the lodging of appropriately worded complaints from other users.
Unfortunately, Surf 'N' Sun's "leaders" just seem to turn up elsewhere under new names and on a new free Web service. They also have several of their own list servers set up at Yahoo Groups, a place where they have violated the terms of service repeatedly by harvesting the e-mail addresses off legitimate naturist lists to use for the distribution of their diatribes against the organized naturist community.
Caveat Emptor
As Hunter concludes in his article, "Would you let someone into your home without knowing who they are? Would you tell them all about yourself when they will tell you nothing? Then why, exactly, are some naturists, or people who are just interested in naturism, doing exactly that with regard to Surf 'N' Sun especially as their practices, or more accurately malpractices, are so well known? A little common sense goes a long way, and, with this group, it should go further than most."
Anyone with any experience of Surf 'N' Sun who would like to comment may do so by e-mail to Hunter at daihunter@davis.org or to me at sunclad@sunclad.com.
The Naturist Journal -
Beyond this sign you may encounter naked news
The passion of New Jersey naturist Dan Speers, The Naturist Journal (naturistjournal.com) is a one-stop nude news site that contains a host of material for the Web-surfing naturist to click on. If it's newsworthy to naturists and it's been carried by one of the major wire services (and maybe a few lesser-known ones), it's likely to be referenced here. The pages are set up much like any online newspaper with informative links and news articles. Naturists interested in knowing what the press is saying about naturism and nudity would do well to bookmark this page. Access to some features requires a log-in process, but it's otherwise free.
One feature, Freshest Links, connects the reader to the most recently updated naturist pages on the Web.
Naturist Journal even has its own regular advice column, written by a naturist (Dan's wife, Allison Speers). How old is "too old" for a child to be nude or topfree at a textile beach? Ask Allison offers suggestions and comments to inquiring parents from a body-positive perspective - a refreshing change from other advice writers and self-styled "experts" who almost inevitably discourage body acceptance and nudity in a family context.
Dan Speers has been active in the naturist community for many years, and has served as an officer of the Tri-State Metro Naturists, and currently serves as an area representative for the Naturist Action Committee and Naturist Education Foundation. He can be reached at dan@speers.nu.
Similar name, but not the same.
After the inaugural column of NIFOC ran in the last edition of N, we received an e-mail from some folks at a Web site called NIFOC (www. nifoc.net). It seems that somehow this site got by us as we clicked about the Internet. "NIFOC" is not a proprietary acronym; it is widely used in naturist Internet circles.
Operated by an individual or group calling itself the "NIFOC Group" based in Florida., NIFOC the Web site offers a handful of links to major naturist organizations and some individual clubs.
The site's main focus appears to be a Web-based chat room that will run on most up-to-date Web browsers. It also takes great care to note that it's a safe place for all naturists and that sexually solicitous conversation is verboten.
A registration process with a user name and e-mail address is required to access the chat room, otherwise the site is free, though donations are readily accepted to help it continue.
| Eratta - When we initially wrote this piece in the summer of 2001 we listed the owners of NIFOC.NET as being the "International Leisure Group". This was due to confusing displays in the INTERNIC database of domain registrants and page-forwardings from "NIFOC.COM" to "NIFOC.NET". We have since been corrected, that NIFOC.NET is not associated with NIFOC.COM, and its ownership is the "NIFOC Group" as adjusted in the above text this date - DMK September 8, 2001 |
Dennis Kirkpatrick is a regular naturist, sporting gum-soled shoes and a magnifying glass (a la Sherlock Holmes) for this particular edition, and is a denizen of the somewhat irregular Internet. Copies of NIFOC will be available at this web site. Dennis may be reached for questions or comments at the mail link on the top of this page.
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