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Nasse Klammotten Team talks to Stefan, Founder of Wacky Wet World

Some years ago, the first pages devoted to wetlook appeared on the Internet. Wackywet is a milestone from this pioneering era. This site has influenced and inspired many others. Thus Wackywet has contributed to establishing wetlook on the Web. Nasse Klamotten interviewed Stefan, the founder of the Wack Wet World, and he told us about the evolution of Wackywet.

Nasse Klamotten: Stefan, Wackywet certainly is a pioneer of the wet Web. When did it start, and how? Tell us something from your site's history.

Stefan: We started in October 1996, as a protest against censorship on the Internet (CDA) . I designed a site like a porno site, with warnings like: "Our site is 100% clean; you will not find any pornography here, no nudes, no sex. All models are under 80 years of age and fully clothed." These keywords also got us barred by various Net Nannies. But we have ways around that.

Included was a small gallery with fully clothed people, all wet. The search engines liked the keywords, of course. Soon we had many readers and people who had believed they were the only ones into wet clothes. This helped them very much to end their isolation. The site grew through our readers' contributions. Soon Felix came on board to help.

Nasse Klamotten: Who is behind Wackywet?

Stefan: I started it, Felix enhanced it, Thom is about to join us, Markus and Oliver help with scanning photos, Ed takes pictures in London, and I am trying to coordinate it all.

Nasse Klamotten: For those who do not know your site: Which topics do you cover? What do we find on your page?

Stefan: A good mix of everything that is wet. We want to reach a broad audience; help teenagers enjoy their hobby and not hide it; furthermore, we want to service the various sections (Jeans, sports, mud, nylon, rainwear), according to people's interests. Since we have about 70.000 readers per month, we want to offer something for almost everybody. Like a magazine, you know?

Nasse Klamotten: You are offering a hosting service as well - how did you get this idea, and what is it about?

Stefan: During a transfer we accidentally came upon the homepage of Intereliant.com. Intereliant.com is specialized on hosting sites pertaining to travel, sports and fun. If there is any demand, we could offer a wet hosting service at London Telehouse to a domain like wetlook.net.

Nasse Klamotten: One of your site's features is the Shower Room - what is it about?

Stefan: A live chatroom that works without Java. Thus it is easier to handle for some readers.

Nasse Klamotten: Wackywet World is a registered trade mark. Please tell us more about it.

Stefan: So far, Wackywet is a trade mark (TM), not a registered trade mark (R). I have to ask my lawyer for details, for I do not know very much about this issue.

Nasse Klamotten: Wackywet is said to be among the first - maybe was the very first - site to show wet men as well. Who is your target group, what is your site's identity?

Stefan: Some sites featuring wet women already existed when we started Wackywet. We entered a Gentlemen's Agreement with them not to compete directly. Most of these sites have vanished today, but for us it was the key to success. Furthermore, some people from our team prefer men - me too.

Another factor is our realization that Wackywet is more of a men's sport, like canoeing, whereas riding is dominated very much by young women. If we did a site on riding, it would certainly be filled with photos of women. Here in England, about 40% of the people at foam parties are female, but as soon as the foam starts, only about 20% stay on the dancefloor.

An older poll on Wackywet showed that about one third of our male readers are gay, but more than three quarters want to see wet boys or men. In my opinion, this is about identification with their hobby, less about their sexuality. They want to see what others are doing, so they can do it themselves. Or they try to put themselves in the position of the people they see on the photo. It is quite a complex issue.

Nasse Klamotten: Is Wackywet in opposition or neutral towards the sites featuring women?

Stefan: I do not really understand the question. Wackywet.com considers itself a public service, a service for the wet community. The sites about wet women are mostly of an erotic nature. Certainly our site as well gives an erotic kick to many of our readers. But we want to go further: we want to emphasize the sports- and health-related aspects of this hobby as well, we want to stimulate lifestyles and social life.

Isn't it a tragedy when people are sitting in their bathtubs only, all alone? Like the gays say: "come out of the closet", we say: "come out of the shower", meet other wet people.

Nasse Klamotten: Wackywet is frequented heavily by gay men, despite its not being a dedicated gay magazine. Do you plan to keep supplying "male" topics?

Stefan: Mainly yes (see above). We follow our readers' wishes, and they do wish to see wet men and boys. Our editorial is kept quite neutral. We want to keep the site open for all ages, aiming to help people, to inform them, to entertain them. And since our readers are male to a large extent, we have to acknowledge this.

Nasse Klamotten: What is the structure of your audience? Can you give us an estimate on how many are straight, gay or female?

Stefan: We have about 18% female readers who enjoy the cute wet boys on our site. Of course, the Internet is not for men only.

Nasse Klamotten: In which direction do you want your site to evolve? Do you want to keep your quite clear positioning, or do you want to follow a more "all-inclusive" line?

Stefan:We do not want to change the overall positioning, we want to refine the details. The photos will keep showing chiefly boys and men, that was the decision made by our readers. The text is aimed at men and women, at teenagers as well; a bit like a wet BRAVO or XY.

The travel section shall be extended, offering wet language courses in England. Young people can visit a renowned language school and go swimming with the Brighton Group in the afternoon, or go surfing, or visit the Wackywet headquarters and surf the Internet or look at photos. Sailing holidays in the Mediterranean will be offered as well: living on a boat and going swimming in all your clothes in the morning! Maybe we can coordinate the travel programmes with Nasse Klamotten and offer them on both sites.

In the new year we will offer more shopping, interactive and informative services; furthermore some things which I do not want to name at the moment, as we ourselves do not know yet what we might offer. Be prepared for some surprises. ;-)

Nasse Klamotten: Many people do not know this: you were born in Germany. Why did you go to England?

Stefan: Because it is so wet here! The people here are more tolerant, they are not as "normal" as the Germans, every third person here is somewhat weird. Here I fit in better. I simply need more freedom than would be available in Germany.

Several times a week I go swimming fully clothed in a hotel pool, with the management's agreement. As qualified lifeguard and trainer I assist lifeguard training sessions. I showed them how useful clothes are in training and what fun it can be. They were really enthusiastic about this, they had never done it like this before. Now we go swimming in Jeans, hooded sweatshirts, anoraks, ponchos, even in shoes and socks; but it all has to be clean in order not to clog the filters.

Nasse Klamotten: Thank you very much, Stefan!

Stefan was interviewed by  and from nasse-klamotten.de