Frequently Asked Questions

And some that nobody asked

General FAQs

Why was this site built?

This site was developed as a response to growing uncertainty as to the future of available social networking sites for nudists and exhibitionists to use. Back in 2018, Tumblr was put under pressure and they banned all NSFW users from their platform. In 2020, Pornhub also fell victim and deleted 80% of all user content on their site. In 2021, Onlyfans almost fell victim to the same scheme: there is a group of anti-porn prudes who are systemically combing across the Internet and trying to get the very concept of porn and nudity banned from online.

Alongside that story, there is growing uncertainty in general about the future of free speech and "safe harbor laws" for social network service providers online. Depending on how it shakes out, it may become risky for sites such as Twitter and Reddit to remain online if the service providers become liable for content uploaded by their users. It seems likely that one day Twitter and Reddit will chase NSFW users away like Tumblr did and it may be risky for any new startups to fill that void (Onlyfans and most adult sites have switched to requiring photo ID to verify your accounts!)

When a site has random unverified users able to post random content, you end up with some awful things being posted - which traumatizes site moderators and provides hooks for the anti-porn brigade that took down Tumblr to come for your site as well. This website was designed for this modern environment, and intends to keep on top of things from day one.

What makes this site different?

In the context of the modern Internet we live in, this site does things a bit differently:

  • Only real people may join this site. No faceless, anonymous throw-away profiles. Everyone needs a face picture on their profile and to submit a "verification selfie" holding a sheet of paper to prove their picture is them. You don't need to have your face and nude body together in a picture, but a face pic as your default profile picture is mandatory.
  • Only self pictures are allowed. You must be featured in a picture to post it. No "porn blogs" of random content you found online!
  • Unlike some other nudist websites, exhibitionist content is permitted here. You are allowed to post erections, hole pics, masturbation or sexual content (within reason - nothing illegal or grossly offensive). We only ask that you tag your photo as explicit so that nudists who don't want to see that stuff can filter it away. This site is "nudist friendly" by default -- opt-in to see explicit content if you like that stuff!

What do you define as an "exhibitionist?"

"Exhibitionist" may not be the best word but the way I define it is basically "sex-positive nudism," or in contrast to the common sentiment that some nudists have that says you must "keep the sex out of nudism." For example, many nudist websites don't allow pictures that contain an erect penis at all.

I don't know a better word for it, and "sex-positive nudist" is a bit of a mouthful. Some exhibitionists are all about getting their rocks off from being sexual in inappropriate public places, 'flashing' poor unsuspecting strangers. This is not what I'm about, at all! Consent is sexy, and your displays of sexuality should only be for consenting audiences who like to see that stuff. That's why on nonshy, you may upload that hot content but just mark it as 'Explicit' so others may have some choice in whether they have to see it.

Why does nonshy permit sexual content?

Some may find it interesting that a "nudist" website allows this stuff at all, when so many others frown on it. It may help to describe some of my [the site founder's] background and my own journey into nudism, and this question can be answered in two parts:

  1. I got started into nudism through the path of "taking nude photos and sharing them online" and the initial goal I set out for was to "get a picture of everything I possibly could do while naked," from doing mundane household chores to getting into fully sexual/porn type of content. So, when I was going to build my own nudist social network, of course it had to allow for people like me. There's a whole "sex-positive nude world" on the Internet (we were on Tumblr, Reddit, Twitter, and everywhere) as a whole parallel community to the anti-sex nudists ('classic nudists' or 'prudists' for shorthand).

  2. Secondarily, simply for being a gay man I would not be welcomed by much of the mainstream establishment nudist community, such as AANR in the US. Many of such nude resorts have a "no single men" policy and they consider a gay couple to be "two single men." I understand that they want to avoid creepers and gawkers who show up just to ogle the women, but this inherently homophobic policy that the mainstream naturism communities holds means that, if I were to build a 'classy' nudism site, I would be catering to people who would not even have me as a member themselves.

If you are looking for a prudist site, there are plenty of other options you can look at. But nonshy is unapologetically a sex-positive nudist site and we are all consenting adults here who can share our naked journey with like-minded individuals online.

Keep in mind, the default website experience is that the 'explicit' content is gated away and is opt-in to see it. Members mark their 'explicit' photos as such, and you opt-in to see explicit photos and forums in your settings. This way we might strike a balance and be able to support nudists from both sides of the spectrum. But if you find it uncomfortable to know that horny people even exist on this site, then we may not be right for you, and we wish you good luck elsewhere.

Certification FAQs

What does certification mean, and what is a "verification selfie"?

This website requires all members to be "certified" or proven to be real human beings on the other side of the keyboard. A "verification selfie" is where you take a picture of yourself holding onto a hand-written note on a sheet of paper to prove that you are a real person (and not just catfishing with somebody else's stolen photos).

Certification helps protect our members from harassment by anonymous trolls or automated spam robots that plague other similar sites.

Do I need to send a "verification selfie"?

Yes.

Certification is required before you can gain access to the greater community on this website. Pre-certification, you may only access your own profile page and settings, but can not browse the member list, see the site Photo Gallery, or participate on the forums until your profile has been certified.

Your certification photo is only seen by site administrators and does not appear on your profile page.

Note: there's no need for this to be a nude pic, either. Just your face is OK so we can see if it looks like the face pic you're presenting on your profile page.

Do I need to show you my photo ID?

NEW May 26 2024

Usually, no: the majority of our members are middle-aged adults (or older) where it is clear from their appearance that they are well over 18 years old.

However, if you appear that you could be under age you may be requested to share a secondary form of photo identification so we can verify your birth date. This generally means you would need to share a scan of a government-issued identity document (such as a passport, driver's license or national ID card) which shows your face and your date of birth.

We will strongly encourage you to black out all other personal information from your ID card. We do not need to know your name, address, ID number or anything else like that: only your date of birth and photograph would be requested.

The website will also delete your photo ID as soon as possible: we do not want to hold onto these at all! After an admin has verified your birth date and approved the picture, the website will record that your photo ID had been reviewed and the image itself is deleted from the server entirely.

The above information is communicated around the website if your account has been challenged to share a secondary form of ID. Most of our members won't experience this workflow: only the members who look questionably young where the admins can't in good conscience approve your certification photo without verifying you are at least 18 years old.

Why the hard requirement to certify?

I didn't set out to build "just another social network" that allows for random, faceless, anonymous people to sign up - you can do that literally anywhere else. This website was designed specifically to get ahead of what happened with Tumblr, Pornhub and other sites in recent history. It wasn't just a random whim of Tumblr when they kicked all of the nudists and other NSFW users off of their platform -- they were pressured to do so by a vocal minority of anti-porn prudes who have been working their way across the Internet and trying to make sure that nudists, exhibitionists, porn stars and sex workers have no place at all to exist online.

I have been watching how these groups operate. They throw out wild claims that a website like Tumblr or Pornhub is running rampant with illegal content (such as child sexually abusive material, human trafficking, revenge porn or so on) and use that as a scapegoat to put pressure on a website via the banks and advertisers into either bending the knee or shutting down completely. Tumblr elected to just blanket ban all NSFW users from the platform, Pornhub deleted 80% of all user content from their site, and Onlyfans nearly fell as well (before they decided instead to require government-issued photo ID from their members, which I do not want to do).

This group wildly exaggerates statistics and misrepresents their finding to push along an agenda which is really just anti-porn, period; but the fact of the matter is that any wide open public website that allows random people to just sign up and start posting things will always technically leave room for those kinds of claims to be thrown around. If a website doesn't require a user to verify their face, you'll get bad actors who sign up blank, throwaway accounts (probably hiding behind a VPN, too, to conceal their location) and start spreading god awful things on a site and it becomes a game of whack-a-mole for site moderators to keep on top of (not to mention the trauma it causes for moderators who need to deal with all that shit). I don't want any of that nonsense on this website.

The certification requirement should help curb a lot of that and bring some other nice benefits besides for the other members of this site:

  • It will deter blank, faceless profiles from signing up and then sliding into your DMs and getting all pervy and weird on you. This happens so freaking often on other nudist websites and nobody likes that - we are here posting our nude pics out in the open and don't want random anonymous creepers who won't reveal themselves in an equally meaningful way.
  • It will help keep automated spam robots at bay; a non-certified account will have a terrible time trying to discover any user here that they could send their spam to, as the Forums, Member Directory and Site Photo Gallery are off-limits to non-certified users.
  • It will keep members accountable: I don't expect anyone would dare upload illegal content here when their certified face picture is on file.

I understand that certification may be inconvenient for some members. I know there are plenty of people for whom it isn't a concern at all. I may be able to work with you on an alternative method for certification; see the next section, below.

What can non-certified members do?

Before you have an approved certification photo, you can mainly only access and edit your own profile page, and upload a few pictures while you await approval. Your pictures won't be shown to members on the Site Gallery until you're certified, and most of the website's features (namely, the Forums, Site Gallery and Member Search Directory) are gated behind certification.

Certified members may, at their own discretion, be able to find your profile page by browsing the Member Directory. They may send you a friend request or reach out to you. Or, if you happen to know a member's profile URL on this site, you (the non-certified member) can view their profile page and photo gallery (depending on their privacy settings), send them a friend request or direct message. But basically, it will be difficult to discover users to interact with until after you are certified - and this is intentional to help guard against spam bots and creepy people.

Privacy FAQs

Can my Profile Picture be kept private?

You may set your Profile Picture to be "Friends only" or "Private" visibility if you wish to be more discreet about your face pictures.

  • Friends only : your profile pic displays as a yellow placeholder image for people who are not on your Friends list.
  • Private : your profile pic displays as a purple placeholder image for everybody except for people that you had granted access to see your private photos.

Note that it is required that your default profile picture must include your face, but with the visibility settings you may limit who will see it if you need to.

If you find a member's gallery where they have no face visible in any of their pictures, it may be that their default profile picture is just not visible to you, and a notice appears at the top of their gallery page if this is the case.

If you find a member whose profile photo you can see, and it also does not include their face, please report their profile to the admin.

What are the visibility options for my profile page?

There are currently three different choices for your profile visibility on your Settings page:

  • The default visibility is "Public + Login Required." Users must be logged-in to an account in order to see anything about your profile page - if an external (logged out) browser visits your profile URL, they will be redirected to log in to an account first.
  • You may optionally go more public with a "Limited Logged-out View." This enables your profile URL (e.g., /u/username) to show a basic page (with your square profile picture and display name) to logged-out browsers. This may be useful if you wish to link to your page from an external site (e.g. your Twitter page) and present new users with a better experience than just a redirect to login page.
  • You may "Mark my profile as 'private'" to be private even from other logged-in members who are not on your Friends list. Logged-in users will see only your square profile picture and display name, and be able only to send you a friend request or a message.

How do I delete direct messages (DMs)?

You have two options for deleting your private one-on-one chat messages.

You can delete your own messages by clicking on the "Delete" button that appears below them. This deletes your message from both of your threads, and (if unread), will not notify them that they had an unread message.

You can delete the whole thread by using the "Delete whole thread" button at the bottom of the conversation. This will remove both of your chat history with one another and make it like you never exchanged a DM before at all.

How does blocking somebody work on nonshy?

If somebody on nonshy is bothering you or you just do not wish to see their presence or content around the website anymore, you may "Block" them by going to their profile page and clicking on the Block button.

When you block somebody, nonshy draws a hard line between your two accounts and will make it so that you two do not see each other anywhere on the website:

  • You will not see them on the Member Directory, you will not see them in the Forums (their posts and comments will be hidden), you will not see them in comment threads on peoples' photos, or in their "Likes" lists, or anywhere.
  • If you had any Direct Messages with them in the past: your conversation threads will be hidden from view on both sides. If you unblock them later, you will be able to see your old conversation threads again.
  • On the chat room: you will not see each other in the "Who's Online" list and you won't see any messages sent by each other in chat.
  • This block applies in both directions: you will not see them, and they will likewise not see you either.

The idea is that if you block somebody, it should look as though they may have just deleted their nonshy account completely and you should not see them anymore and they should not see you either.

If you find any corner of the site where this fails to happen (and you see somebody who you have blocked), please report it as a bug to be fixed.

Photo FAQs

Do I have to post my nudes here?

You should be comfortable with doing so, but it isn't a hard requirement. On some other nudist social websites, many nudists have lamented to me about how often they get messages by anonymous, faceless profiles who slide into their DMs and get all pervy and weird on them. While nonshy only requires a face pic and verification selfie, other members will feel more comfortable if you post some of your own nudes as well.

It's kind of like nude beach etiquette: no nudist at a nude beach enjoys it much when people arrive who refuse to get naked and they're just there to gawk and be a peeping tom and perv out over all the naked bodies they see. If you don't want to post any nudes here, at least don't act weird or creepy with people here.

Do I have to include my face in my nudes?

You don't have to! I know many nudists are not comfortable with their face appearing in their nudes. You are free to post "headless torso shots" or leave your face covered or censored. But you should have at least one face pic (as your default profile pic) - it can be a G-rated selfie!

If you're only comfortable with posting like close-up dick pics, please mark those pics as "explicit" -- many nudists prefer to see the whole nude body and don't want to see just dick pics everywhere. And don't set those as your default profile pic!

The " Gallery" link on the site nav bar goes to the Site-wide Photo Gallery page. Here is shown all of the public photos uploaded by all (certified) users, if those pictures are also opted-in to appear on the Gallery in their settings.

If you have friends on here, you may also see their "Friends-only" photos on the Site Gallery. This way, you don't miss any updates if your friends add a new picture (so long as they allow their picture to appear on the Gallery).

When you upload a picture you may opt it in or out of the Gallery by checking a box on its settings page. For example, you can upload a Public photo but opt it out of the Gallery -- it will then only appear on your profile page.

In January 2024 we have added a rate limit on how frequently you can upload a new photo and have it appear on the site-wide Photo Gallery in order to cut down on "spam" when a new member would sign up and immediately upload all 100 of their photos to their gallery page.

We don't want the Site Gallery to be dominated by large swaths of only one person's photos that go on for pages and pages, so you may only feature up to 5 photos per day on the Site Gallery. When you have 5 or more photos, uploaded within the last 24 hours and marked to share with the Site Gallery, you will not be able to add additional photos to the gallery until you wait a day OR edit one of those recent photos to remove it from the gallery.

If you have been throttled from sharing new Site Gallery photos, your options are:

  • To come back tomorrow and upload your new photo if you want it featured on the Site Gallery.
  • To edit one of your 5 most recent Site Gallery photos and un-check the Gallery box: this may free up room so that your new upload can be shared with the Site Gallery if you really want to feature it now.
  • To upload it anyway to your personal gallery, even though it won't be featured on the site-wide gallery. If you want to upload all 100 of your nudes as soon as you get your nonshy account certified, go ahead! You just aren't allowed to spam the Site Gallery with all your uploads all at once.

Our recommendation: take it slow! Share a few pictures per day on your gallery until you eventually fill it out. This is also a better way to get engagement on your photos: your friends are more likely to "Like" and comment on your photos if you drip feed them slowly vs. if you upload your 100 photos all at once.

Can I include other people in my photos?

It can be acceptable to include other people in your photos here - for example pictures of you and your partner together or you with a group of your naked buddies. However, please observe the following rules:

  • Be sure you have the permission of everybody pictured to upload their photo here. I don't want any "revenge porn" type content uploaded without somebody's consent!
  • You all must be in the same photo together - that is it must be a "normal picture" taken on a camera that caught you all in the same frame. Do NOT upload a "split-frame" picture where you simply combined two wholly different photos side-by-side into one image: it is not clear from such a picture whether you two even know one another and it's not a precedent I want to see set on this site.

What is considered "explicit" in photos?

On this website, I make a fairly common distinction between what's a "normal nude" and what's an "explicit" photo:

  • "Normal nudes" are completely non-sexual in nature. If there's a penis, it's not erect and it's not being grabbed. "Normal nudes" are not close-up pictures that focus on the genitals, but tend to be full body shots of a non-sexual nature.
  • "Explicit" posts are everything else: if it includes an erection, or you're grabbing your junk, or flashing your various holes, or masturbating or engaging in a sexual activity, these all fall under the "explicit" umbrella. If one would reasonably consider it to be porn, it's explicit.

You are permitted to upload explicit content to your profile, just mark which pictures are explicit to help the rest of the community in case someone prefers not to see that. You can enable a setting on your profile if you are comfortable with seeing explicit content from other users -- by default this site is "normal nudes" friendly!

Please see the Explicit Photos & Sexual Content policy on our Terms of Service for some examples when a photo should be marked as 'explicit.'

Are digitally altered or 'photoshopped' pictures okay?

In small doses, modified pictures may be permitted if you consider them to be artwork inspired by your real photos. For example, the founder of this website likes to create "clone pictures" featuring multiple copies of himself around a scene together. Some guidelines to follow when it comes to Photoshopped images include:

  • You must have several not modified photos on your profile page as well, that shows what you really look like. If every picture on your page is digitally altered, you look like a fake profile and you may have your account deleted.
  • You should not use image manipulation to improve or falsify your look. This includes Instagram or Snapchat "beauty filters" or using Photoshop to change the shape of your body and promote a false image of unrealistic beauty.
  • You should mention in your image caption, if it is not obvious, that the picture has been digitally altered so that nobody is confused.

Some examples of acceptable use cases for Photoshop include:

  • Changing or removing the background of your photo (e.g. for privacy purposes)
  • Minor touch-ups to cover pimples or small blemishes - but do not "air brush" and repaint your whole skin tone or smooth over all your wrinkles and present an unrealistic image of yourself.

Does this site prevent people from downloading my pictures?

As of November 2023, the nonshy website does discourage the downloading of pictures to the limited extent that a web page is able to. We have a right-click handler (long press on mobile) where if you right-click on a photo anywhere on the site, you are shown a pop-up message to "please respect our members' privacy" and a reminder that it is against the rules to download and share images from this site elsewhere. We also have a script that inteferes with dragging an image off of the page and into your URL bar or another application which helps to protect pictures from being easily saved.

You can see this in action by attempting to right-click, long press, or drag the image below:

However, a motivated individual can always circumvent these kind of restrictions and download a picture if they really want to. There is no technical measure that a website can take to prevent this entirely: because at the end of the day, they can always just screenshot the whole entire web page which is especially trivial and common to do from mobile devices.

There are risks inherent with putting a picture on the Internet. This website does provide some controls you can utilize to limit who is allowed to see your picture in the first place, to those who you think you can trust not to download your picture:

  • You can mark pictures as "Friends only" and only approved friendships you make on this website will be able to see those pictures.
  • You may mark some pictures as "Private" and you grant access to your private photos on a per-person basis, and can revoke access to one or all at any time.
  • This website also chooses utterly random URLs for each and every picture, with no correlation between the square cropped and full size versions, so users should only be able to discover pictures through the normal front-end of this website, subject to your privacy controls.

It is against the site rules to repost other members' pictures without their permission. If you know that a member has reposted your nudes, please report them and let us know!

What is alt text on photos about?

NEW: March 15 2024

When uploading a photo to your gallery, you can write an "alt text" description of the photo to help with accessibility for the visually impaired. The alt text will appear when hovering a mouse cursor over an image, in the lightbox modal on the Gallery page (where a photo appears in full size over a dimmed background), and beneath the photo on its permalink or comments page.

It is highly recommended to describe your pictures with alt text. Not only does it help nonshy to be more inclusive to members with disabilities, but it can also just be a lot of fun to write text descriptions of your nude and sexy photos!

If your photo includes any text that is relevant to the meaning of the photo (such as a selfie of you standing in front of a nude beach sign), the alt text is a good place to transcribe the text so that it is accessible to members with disabilities and it can be read aloud by their screen reader software or similar.

Forum FAQs

What do the various badges on the forum mean?

You may see some of these badges on the forums or their posts. These are their meanings:

  • Explicit - on a forum it means the entire forum is "NSFW"; but individual topics within an otherwise non-explicit forum may also opt in to the Explicit tag if its content is border-line. You will not see any Explicit forums or posts unless you opt-in to see explicit content in your settings.
  • Privileged - only a forum's moderators can create new topics in a Privileged forum (such as the forum for Site Announcements). Moderators include the site admins, the creator of the forum, and any additional moderators appointed by the forum creator.
  • Pinned - these forum posts are pinned to the top of a forum, appearing above regular posts on the first page of the forum.
  • No Reply - topics with this badge can not accept any new replies. Some types of announcement posts may start with this badge from the beginning; other threads that are locked by a moderator may gain this badge if the conversation was going off the rails.

Can I create my own forums?

NEW: August 30, 2024

Yes! As of August 30, 2024 (the two-year anniversary of nonshy), we now have Community Forums where members are allowed to create their own boards.

This feature is available to nonshy members who have been Certified and continued to hang around on the site for a while, or who have written a lot of posts on the forums that we already have.

To create your own forum, look for the "Create a forum" button in the header of the Forums landing page. The button should appear on the Categories or the Explore tab.

If you do not see the button, it may be because your nonshy account is too new and you have not earned allowance to create your first forum yet. See the next question for more information.

Why can I only create a couple of forums?

Managing your own forum can be a big responsibility, and it is preferable that a forum's owner should be an active participant on the website and is not likely to delete their account in the near future (which would leave their forums orphaned). We also wish to avoid a "power moderator" who might snipe all of the best names for forums before anybody else could have a chance to create those forums themselves.

So, the allowance to create your own forums is a privilege and is earned over time. A couple of the easiest ways you are likely to gain your first forum include:

  1. Simply owning a Certified nonshy account for at least 45 days.
  2. Participating with us on the forums that we already have and writing at least 10 posts or replies.

If you achieve both, you will have allowance to create two forums to call your own.

You can gain additional allowance by continuing to participate on the forum. As you write more posts yourself, on any forum, you will be able to create and manage additional forums of your own!

What should I make a forum about?

Make it about anything you want! (Within reason -- the global website rules always apply!)

Here are some examples for inspiration on what your forum could be about:

  • Regional forums: create one for your city or country, so that nonshy members who live near the area can meet up and discuss local places and topics.
  • Hobbies or interests: create forums about board games, Star Trek, knitting or sewing, golf or scrabble -- and then nerd out with like-minded members of the nonshy community!
  • Nude beaches, resorts or clubs: create a forum for your favorite spot for local fans to follow and chat about!

How do I find all these forums that people are creating?

From the Forums page, click on the Explore tab.

This page will show a view into all of the forums that exist on nonshy. You may click into the "Search Filters" box to search and sort the forum list so you may narrow in on interesting forums to follow.

To follow a forum, click into it so that you see its posts and look for the " Follow" button in the page header. This will add the forum to "My List" and you will be able to easily find it again from there.

What is "My List?"

When you have followed a forum, it will be added to "My List" and it will now appear on your Forums home page.

On the Forums home page, a "My List" category will appear up top and show the latest posts on all of your favorite forums. On the "Newest" tab, you can toggle to see only "My List" and then you can easily catch up with only the newest posts on forums you care about and hide all the rest!

How do I keep up with new forum posts only from My List?

On the "Newest" tab of the forums, there are controls near the top of the page to select Which forums you want to see new posts from.

By selecting "My List", the "Newest" tab will only show new posts from the forums that you have specifically followed. This way, you can tune out all the rest of the noise across the forums if you don't care about them, and keep up with only the topics you want to see.

Note: the Newest tab will remember your last setting! So if you leave it on "My List," that will be the new default when you come back later.

How do I follow a forum that I'm interested in?

At the top of the forum's home page (where you can see all its threads), look for the " Follow" button in the header of the page. The forum will be added to "My List" which will appear on the Forum home page.

You can also un-follow a forum by using the same button, which will be updated with the text " Unfollow" and will confirm that you're sure when clicked.

How do I appoint moderators for my forum?

You may appoint other members from the nonshy community to help you with moderating your forum. You can choose any certified member who you know and trust.

Forum moderators are able to help you with:

  • Deleting threads and replies that people have posted on your forum.
  • Locking threads to any new comments in case a conversation is going off the rails.

To appoint a moderator, go to your Forum Management page and click on the "Edit" button for one of your existing forums. At the bottom of its settings is the Moderators list, with a link below to appoint a new moderator. You may also remove moderators from this page when you have any.

Copy and paste their username and confirm that you got the right profile, and they can be added to your moderator team. They will receive a notification and be subscribed to your forum automatically.

What can forum owners and moderators do?

Starting from the bottom up:

Forum Moderators are appointed by a forum's owner to help them moderate it. They can:

  • Delete posts or replies written by anybody on their specific forum.
  • Lock or unlock threads to prevent new replies in case a discussion is going off the rails.

Forum Owners have additional management controls over their forum. They can do everything Moderators can, plus the ability to:

  • Manage the forum's settings (title, description, options).
  • Pin threads to the top of the forum.
  • Add or remove additional moderators.

Website Admins who manage the forums overall can do all of the above.

What happens if the forum owner deletes their account?

If you create your own Forum, and then decide to fully delete your nonshy account in the future, then you will leave your forums without an owner.

Your forums will still exist and other members' posts and replies in them will remain. Your posts and replies will have been deleted, along with your account, but your forums remain because it wouldn't be fair to your forum's members if all of their posts would need to be deleted along with it.

Your forums will just be without an Owner and may be put up for adoption by another member. Any moderators that you had appointed to help you manage your forum will also remain as moderators, and they would have priority if any of them wanted to step in as the forum's new owner.

Note: all forums may be moderated by (some) nonshy admins, even if a forum is currently without an owner or any appointed moderators.

How can I request to adopt a forum without an owner?

For now, use the red "Report this forum" link at the bottom of the page and write a message requesting to take ownership of the forum.

Chat Room FAQs

Who can access the chat rooms?

The chat room is available to all certified members who have public photos on their profile page. Shy Accounts who have private profiles or keep all their pictures hidden MAY join the chat room, but have certain restrictions applied (such as an inability to broadcast or watch any webcam, or share or see any picture shared on chat).

The chat room supports webcam sharing and so we only permit non-shy people into the room so as to put our minds at peace - that whoever is watching your camera at least has a public face picture on their page.

What are the technical requirements to use the chat room?

The chat room should generally work well on all major web browsers, operating systems and device types. Recommended browsers include Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome (or any other Chromium-based browser of your choice, such as Microsoft Edge, Opera or Brave), or Apple's Safari browser. Most Androids, iPads and iPhones should be able to use the chat room successfully, including webcam support.

When opening many webcams: the number of cameras you can watch at a time is mainly limited by your device's hardware specifications and your local network bandwidth. The chat room doesn't enforce an arbitrary limit to the number of cameras, so you can experiment and find out how many your device can support.

For some examples: a Macbook Air M3 laptop from 2024 is able to comfortably open more than 20 webcams at a time. However, a Dell XPS 13 laptop from 2018 (which had 16GB RAM, an nVIDIA graphics card, etc.) was seen to only be able to open 10 or 15 cameras before the laptop became very warm.

I am experiencing a problem with webcam sharing

Please see the Webcam Troubleshooting thread in the forums for some advice on things to try.

Verify that you're using a known supported device when accessing the chat room. Generally this means you're running a Firefox or Chromium-based browser on a desktop computer, laptop, or Android device. The Apple Safari browser should also work from a Mac, iPhone or iPad computer.

The most common type of error message people encounter on chat looks like: NotAllowedError: Permission denied. This error message usually has one of three causes:

  1. Your web browser has denied permission to chat.nonshy.com, and you should check in your web browser's settings (Privacy & Security section) for Webcam and Microphone and remove chat.nonshy.com from the list of sites. After doing so, restart your browser and log onto the chat room, and be sure to click "Allow" when it asks for permission when going on webcam.
  2. Sometimes, your operating system itself is actually denying permission to your web browser. You can check in your System Settings for App Permissions for your webcam and microphone, and ensure that your web browser has this permission on your device.
  3. Sometimes this error comes up when your webcam is already in use by another application (such as Skype or Discord). Ensure that there is no other app currently using your webcam before you go on camera in the chat room.

The linked Webcam Troubleshooting thread above has instructions for common web browsers and operating systems on where to check for permission errors.

If you are on a supported device, check out the following information about how webcam sharing works in general:

  • When you click on the "Start webcam" button, your browser should prompt you to share your webcam and microphone and then you should see your own camera feed on the page above the chat history panel.
    • If you do not see your own webcam, check your web browser settings and verify you gave permission to chat.nonshy.com to access your camera.
    • Any device with a camera should be able to at least get far enough to see your own camera feed on the page if you give it permission to access it.
  • For sharing your webcam to others (for them to open your camera, as well as for you to open somebody else's camera and watch them), this currently requires a peer-to-peer connection between your device and the other party's.
    • This uses a technology called WebRTC and it usually works in most cases. Even if both you and the other person are behind firewalls on your respective networks (e.g. behind a home WiFi network that performs Network Address Translation), you can usually establish a peer-to-peer connection and share video regardless.
    • Sometimes, the network conditions on either end of the connection do not permit a peer-to-peer connection. This can happen in some corporate or school networks which filter and block unauthorized connections.

A couple of steps you can try and troubleshoot this issue include:

  • Try logging on from a different web browser. For example, if you are using Firefox and you can't open somebody's video, try switching to a Chromium browser and see if it works better there.
  • If there are many people online, try opening somebody else's camera. It may be the case that the person you were trying to see is behind a network that doesn't allow you to connect in, but it may work to open somebody else's camera instead.

Where can I learn more about the chat room?

Please also see the Chat Help page which gives a tour of the chat room interface and some additional information about how to use the chat room.

Notification FAQs

Does nonshy send me notifications?

Most nonshy notifications are "on-site only" by default, meaning you need to log onto the website to see them. We send very few e-mails from this website, ever: only for your new account verification e-mail, certification photo approval, and when you forgot your password.

The on-site notifications include things like when your friends upload a new picture, or when somebody comments on or likes something you posted. You can manage your nonshy notifications on your Notification Settings page, to opt in or out of any of these.

We have optional Web Push Notifications that you may enable so you can know when somebody has left you a message or a friend request on the website.

About Web Push Notifications

If you would like to enable timely notifications when you receive a new Message or Friend Request on the website, you may enable Web Push Notifications in your settings.

Currently, only a small subset of the site notifications can be sent via push notification: when you get a new Direct Message or Friend Request. You may opt either of those out, in case you only care to be notified about messages but not friend requests.

All your other notifications (likes, comments, etc.) are still "on-site only" so you will need to log in and check your Dashboard Page to catch up on those.

How do I turn off Web Push Notifications?

The easiest way to turn these off is to revoke your Notifications permission given to the nonshy website.

On Firefox, Chrome and Chrome-like web browsers: in your URL address bar there should be a button to the left of address which you can click on and see permissions for the website, where the "Notification" permission can be easily revoked.

A screenshot of the Google Chrome settings drop-down near the address bar.

On other web browsers (or on mobile) you may need to go into your browser's settings. Under a section for "Websites" (maybe under "Privacy & Security"), find the nonshy website or the Notifications permission and you can change your setting there.

Troubleshooting Web Push Notifications

When you first enable Web Push Notifications, your web browser should have prompted you for permission. In case you have clicked "Deny" or "Never Allow," your web browser remembers your decision and the website is not allowed to ask again.

When this happens, the Notification Settings page will say that you have "Denied" notification permission.

In case you want to undo this: you will need to change or reset your Notification permission for this website. Please see the previous answer for places to look. After you have reset your Notification permission, refresh the Notification Settings page and try enabling notifications again.

Shy Account FAQs

One of the things that nonshy wishes to avoid is the dreaded "blank profile" that slides into our DMs and gets creepy and weird on us. You are encouraged to participate on this site and share at least one public photo with the community. You may opt to have only "G-rated face pics" on public and nudes on private, or keep your face on private and share some body shots with your face cropped out on public - but share at least one good picture on public.

When your profile page or photos are all set to Private or Friends-only, you will be considered to have a Shy Account. A Shy Account can still interact on the forums but will have limited options to interact with non-restricted (nonshy) members.

What restrictions apply to Shy Accounts?

The limits placed on Shy Accounts are:

  • The Site Gallery will only show you pictures of people equally as shy as you are. That is, you may see your own pictures and those of Friends you have added, but you don't see public shares of nonshy people who aren't your friends.
  • Messages: you may slide into the DMs only of other shy members but you can not initiate DMs with a nonshy one who is not on your Friends list. At their own discretion, they may initiate a chat with you and then you can reply to them.
  • You can view anybody's Profile Page but you can not see a nonshy account's Photo Gallery unless they are your Friend or have shared their private pictures with you.
  • You can join the Chat Room, however some features will be restricted to Shy Accounts: you will not be able to broadcast OR watch any webcam on chat, nor can you share OR view any photo shared by others on the chat room.

The idea is to keep the shy members isolated from the non-shy ones. We nudists are sharing what we can and we don't want creepers to be ogling our nudes and not sharing anything in return. If all your pics are private, you look like a blank profile to us - and you will be kept with the other blank profiles until you choose to participate.

On the chat room, many nonshy members may be sharing their webcams and it is widely regarded as awkward to have a "blank, faceless profile" silently lurking on your camera. So, a Shy Account is allowed on the chat room but can not share or watch webcams, or share or view photos posted by other members on the chat room.

What can Shy Accounts do?

There are still a lot things you can do with your certified but Shy Account:

  • You can still join the Chat Room and have text-based conversations with people (with just webcam and image sharing support restricted).
  • You can still participate on the Forums and meet new friends that way - by contributing to discussions, ideally.
  • You can send a Friend request to anybody and if they accept you can see their Photo Gallery and pictures appear in the Site Gallery.
  • You can send DMs to other shy people like yourself, and reply to DMs that were sent by anybody who messages you first.
  • You can browse the Member Directory and view public profile pages and send friend requests to whoever.

How do I fix it?

Leaving Shy Account territory is easy:

  1. Don't have your profile page set to private. Only logged-in, certified members can see your page, anyway!
  2. Have at least one public picture to share with the class. Ideally, it will be your profile picture that shows your face, but we'll settle for a good headless body shot. We're all sharing our nudes here, we'd like it if you participated as well.

If you are new to all of this, here are some ideas how you can manage your photo gallery to have at least one public picture to share:

  • You could have a single, "G-rated" face pic as your Public profile picture, and have the others on Friends-only or Private.
  • You could upload all your "G-rated" face pics as Public, and have nudes (with your face cropped out if you need) on Friends-only or Private.
  • You could have a non-public profile pic along with "anonymized" nudes on Public, full nudes w/ face on Friends-only, and sexual stuff on Private that you unlock on a per-person basis.
  • You can opt-out of the Site Gallery by un-checking the Gallery box on the upload page. Your public photos then would only been seen if somebody clicks through your profile page to see your gallery.

Technical FAQs

Why did you build a custom website?

Other variants on this question might be: why not just run a Mastodon instance? Or why this website and not a Discord server or MeWe group or insert off-the-shelf free software or hosted web service here?

It certainly would've been simpler to just use an off-the-shelf open source app such as Mastodon (a decentralized, Twitter-like app) or similar. These apps though have a scalability problem: users with their infinitely long timelines will upload infinite photos until your server runs out of disk space and not enough of them may donate to cover the costs. And the Fediverse feature (Mastodon is like e-mail and users from all servers can like, follow and comment on one another across the entire network) is a double edged sword too: all my members would need to tag even their "normal nudes" as NSFW or else other servers would ban ours (meaning we have to follow rules imposed by the wider Internet community), and conversely it is difficult to moderate incoming content from other servers showing up on my users' timelines. It's not a good fit for the vision I had in mind.

And on just using a service like Discord or MeWe to host my community: that's still putting us in the hands of a corporation which can one day decide to ban all NSFW users. Many people run nudist Discords and MeWe groups, but I needed something whose fate is kept in my own hands.

Is this website open source?

Yes! The source code for this website is released as free software under the GNU General Public License. It is programmed in Go and the source code is available at code.nonshy.com/nonshy/website. If you're a developer and would like to contribute bug fixes or new features to the website, see details here.

© 2024 nonshy
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