Only last September 2013, a young MSM who goes by the name of Cold Flame decided – with a close friend – to form Bithrobes Pilipinas as a “gathering of like-minded” with the use of social network (particularly, Facebook).
“We created Bithrobes Pilipinas after leaving another group due to misunderstanding and irreconcilable views/opinions with its founder and other admins. It was formed because we wanted to have a group where we can meet and make friends with other people minus all the stress, drama and tensions that we always encountered when we were still part of our former group. In short, we wanted a group that is clean, stress-free, fun, active and full of nice and friendly people.”
Less than three months since Bithrobes Pilipinas’ Facebook group account was opened, it already attracted over 7,000 fans cum members. As such, “although we don’t really have major achievements yet, we’re just very proud of how our group has grown. We started out with just a few hundred members last September, and we now have more than 7,000. The increasing number alone makes us really happy and proud,” Cold Flame said.
As of February 12, the group’s members reached 12,102.
“I’ve joined several groups similar to Bithrobes Pilipinas before, and I’ve seen how some of these groups allow pornography, tolerate quarrel among members and admins, and so on. Most people just can’t take that, including us. That’s why I decided not to allow those things to happen in our group,” Cold Flame said, adding that “it really pays to listen to your members because I’ve read a lot of good comments from them on how happy they are with our group, especially with how we admins handle the group and treat our members.”
As a new (and largely online) group, Bithrobes Pilipinas faces various challenges. Foremost may be time management, since “most of the admins we have are working or are busy with their studies. This is somewhat problematic because of the need to be there for our members when they need us. We need to balance our time so we could still look after the group in spite of our busy schedules,” Cold Flame said.
Other challenges ensuring that the group sticks to its core policies, e.g. “we need to make sure that no one posts pornographic stuff on our wall, and also maintain peace and order.”
Already, the group has progressed from simply being an online group, having held EBs (eye-balls or get-togethers) to allow members to meet each other. There are already plans, too, to have a GEB (grand eye-ball) “including out of town so we can reach more people,” Cold Flame said; as well as participate in different outreach activities.
And so in the end, Bithrobes Pilipinas is serving as an example of how those wanting to belong find each other via the use of tech.
For those interested to become part of Bithrobes Pilipinas, visit the group’s Facebook page.
