Skinbook: Shed your clothes and start networking

Karl Maddocks “pretended to be repulsed” when he first heard of a nudist beach in Wales. The next day, however, he was at the beach, and to his surprise found a classmate who had also rolled up her eyes at the idea of a nudist beach. “‘Are you a nudist?’ is not a question you can just throw out there on the off chance that you will get a response in the affirmative,” says Maddocks, explaining the rationale for starting Skinbook, a social networking site to help nudists connect with each other, in this interview.

How did you get the idea of starting Skinbook?
The idea came after a student trip to Wales where the locals in a pub in Barmouth told us about a nudist beach nearby. I pretended to be repulsed, but the day after, curiosity got the better of me and I decided to go and see what it was all about. Having arrived and stripped off, I bumped into Jessica, a fellow student on the trip with me and someone who had acted equally repulsed the night before. She’d done the very same thing as me, and a secret was born. During the day we met some other people from all over the UK and decided to keep in touch by setting up a forum.

How can you ensure you’re networking with genuine nudists and not just voyeurs?
Non-genuine nudists give themselves away easily. Explicit images and lack of profile information, particularly in the favourite beaches/clubs section, show their lack of knowledge. Sometimes they make it easy by entering things as “just looking” in the profile info.

What are the other challenges?
Our biggest challenge is the increasing membership with no increase in staff to run it. Inquiries/complaints and concerns are at an all-time high, but with increased functionality we are slowly handing over administrative responsibility to the members themselves.

Why are so many people signing up?
It helps people find one another who otherwise would never have had the chance. “Are you a nudist?” is not a question you can just throw out there on the off chance and hope for a response in the affirmative. People might take it the wrong way. Because the nudist population is so sparsely populated in any country Skinbook helps members to skip that awkward “confession” part and get straight to interacting with people in the local area.

How did you go about spreading the word?
It’s been totally word of mouth. The idea was never to create a famous network or a publicly recognised brand. It’s all been a complete accident and something we haven’t pushed at all. Any media interviews have come through them contacting us and never the other way around. Organic growth is also the best way for this type of network because members using the ‘invite’ option ensures we stay mostly within the confines of people who are genuinely interested in nudism.

How many members do you have?
9,500 members so far but that’s from about 100,000 requests. We vet all applications for quality and safety reasons. Only about 10 per cent make the cut. And it’s not about being a certain type of person. It’s simply about filling out your profile properly and not being someone who is simply there to “look”.

Are positive things arising out of Skinbook? What kind of feedback are you getting?
It’s amazing how much we’ve enabled people to connect. We’re responsible for new meet-up groups, new nudist clubs, beach events, etc. The best one so far is a single guy and girl meeting through Skinbook last year, who’re getting married next year and whose guests will be mostly members from Skinbook.

In what ways is Skinbook different from other forums on the Internet for nudists?
Quality control and being there for genuine reasons. I don’t honestly believe this to be the intention of any other nudist network. Some general naturist websites maybe, but not any other nudist social network. We don’t and won’t ever drop our quality control in order to increase revenue or membership numbers. Even if this means eventually becoming the smallest nudist network in the world, so be it.

What’s the average profile of Skinbook users?
Single, 25-40 years old. Living in coastal areas. Nudist for 5-10 years. Looking for friendship only.