American bi culture & entertainment website Bi Social Network has announced it is to close after three and a half years.
The shutdown will be in three weeks’ time and will include the closure of the site’s facebook pages – both its own page and those for side-projects like the I Am Visible campaign. A shame as letting that be picked up by the wider community would have been welcome.
In a closing editorial statement that includes the peculiar claim that in 2009 (long after the launch of BiMedia for example) “there were no bi Facebook pages […] There were no major bi websites at the time”, site editor Adrienne Williams wrote, “At this time Bi Social Network, has decided to step down and let others create the magic of lending their voice to the cause. I want to go in a new direction. When you create new and untapped content and ideas, you tend to take every ounce of money, resources, time, energy, you have to the cause.
“I think I have worked 60-70 hours a week since December 2008 to make these programs happen. Such as access to mental health—with Bi Life, Bi Talk Radio, BSN TV, that just started. Bi Social Network reached out to celebrities, like Alan Cummings, Kathy Griffin, Paul Fitzgerald and other things, like having a pulse on the White House and politics, learning about the way of media, and even getting to go to the GLAAD Red Carpet to report the happenings—even with our limited assets.
“So, the time must end to do something new again. But it’s not to say, I haven’t had much joy in the process. It truly was a labor of love.”
Jen Yockney, editor of UK bi magazine Bi Community News said of the news, “BSN‘s arrival on the scene I think served both to give a new more entertainment or showbiz-oriented kind of a bi website, which would attract people that other bi websites weren’t reaching, and also helped to raise the bar for other bi websites. I think many of them, not just in the USA, responded and it’s made the bi web better and more engaging. I know Bi Community News was spurred to a web revamp, BiMedia probably covered a little more of “bis in the public eye” stories too!”
Bi Social Network will be publishing a one-off BSN magazine as part of its closing phase.
