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(c) Elliott Publishing.

Oh Boy
Kirby's Korner · April 7, 2000

The last time the issue of men, the Internet, travel, and community came up, the results were pretty bleak. Although the Net contained several places for women to share travel advice and experiences with one another, as women, there simply weren't the same outlets for men -- as men -- to exchange travel ideas.

Indeed, there were few communities online for men to discuss any subject, in the way that Women.com and iVillage provide discussion areas for women.

Seven months later, the general problem is changing: Men can find discussion areas on the Web. Guyville.com has several message boards for its male audience, although none are related to travel. Guy Rules, a Web site apparently dedicated to selling a book by the same name, offers discussion areas related to the "rules" for guys.

There still aren't travel-specific communities on Web sites dedicated to men, but that should change in the coming months.

The Web site that most likely will lead that charge is 4realmen.com, which debuted March 1 and promises -- but has not yet delivered -- a travel section.

The site promotes itself to a downscale audience, as its name implies. "In terms of attitude, we're closer to Ray Romano than Leonardo DiCaprio," says Patrick Carberry, founder and chief executive officer, forever eliminating any opportunity to attract the early-teen girl audience. "Traditional men need a site they can rely on as a place of their own."

The site is heavily focused on the Tool Time-type guy, with discussion areas currently centered on home repair and other tool-centric subjects. Even a key component of the site, "The Duct Tape Chronicles," brings to mind that most un-PBS of PBS television shows, The Red Green Show.

However, the discussion areas on 4realmen.com are all keyed to subject-matter areas the site has created: news, sports, entertainment, health, and the like. Because a travel section is apparent throughout the site, although not yet active, we should see men-only discussions of travel down the road.

Don't expect the same of TheMan.com, which launched last fall. Overall, this site is probably the most successful male-oriented response to iVillage and Women.com. It is a lifestyle-encompassing Web site aimed at an affluent, time-constrained, professional, 25-year-old to 45-year-old male audience that is, in the words of Calvin Lui, co-founder and chief executive officer, "looking for an easier way to get things done."

The site has travel content, although not yet a separate travel channel. It has already signed on with WorldRes.com and its consumer Web site PlacesToStay.com to provide hotel bookings. Lui said TheMan.com will be adding a full-bodied booking engine and is looking for travel-related content.

What it won't have, which the women-targeted sites excel in, is a community-building component.

"Not to be politically incorrect, but men and women are different," Lui told me. Focus-group research revealed to him that men won't "chat about problems in a group of 30,000 people," he said. Rather, they want direct-action advice: what do I do under a specified set of circumstances?

I disagree. Men are active participants in Usenet discussion groups, including those specifically related to travel. Men are more to blame than women for "flame wars" on Usenet, which do anything but provide "direct-action advice." And the problem isn't one of not wanting to "chat about problems": I admit I'm as uncomfortable as any American male when asking for directions, whether or not the map is in my lap. The problem is the environment that is built.

(Perhaps, for U.S. males, the environment needs to include women. For a scholarly look at the issue, see Men Online: Discussing Lived Experiences on the Internet.)

Nonetheless, the Alpha Male has spoken. Lui has some $17 million in funding for TheMan.com. Until someone wants to prove him wrong -- by, say, advancing me that type of money -- I'll remain, quietly, your correspondent --

David Kirby is the editor of Interactive Travel Report. His column appears on Friday. You can reach him at david@ticked.com.