I'm also the owner of the rather popular Benway's
Webcam Communities and Webcam Chat Page, which for a time had a very high profile. So for those who don't know, I've been into webcam chat since waaaay before stickam was ever even thought of, and have used or tried just about every cam community that's ever existed, at some time or other.
I've also just uploaded a new website, Free Webcams & Chat, which may be of interest to some people.
I live in the north of England, just south of Sheffield, having moved here from Milton Keynes, down south, just under 2 years ago. The difference 120 odd miles makes to the temperament of the people is quite surprising.
I hung out on the fringes of the uk goth scene in my teens and 20s, but was a bit too much of a geek to really be part of the crowd... that's where my taste in music comes from though. Being on here really brings it home to me, how much the scene has changed.
Favorite Song:
Cloudbusting by Kate Bush
Favorite Games:
Half life 2 (PC), Far Cry (PC), Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (PC), Doom & Doom 3 (PC),
Gran Turismo 1, 2, 3, & 4 (Playstation 1 & 2), Black (PS2), Shadow Of The Colossus (PS2), Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2),
Crazy Taxi (Dreamcast), Nights Into Dreams (Sega Saturn), Manx TT Superbike (Sega Saturn), Sonic The Hedgehog 1 & 2 (Megadrive), Hard Drivin' (Megadrive), Mario Kart (SNES, GBA, N64, GC), Starfox (SNES), Test Drive Unlimited (PSP), Donkey Kong (ColecoVision), Pitfall (Atari 2600), Jetpack (ZX Spectrum) 3D Monster Maze (ZX81) Elite (Acorn Electron), Starship Command (Acorn Electron), Atari's Star Wars Arcade (Amiga), Frontier: Elite 2 (Amiga), Geoff Crammond's Formula One Grand Prix (Amiga), Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker (Amiga), Knights Of The Sky (Amiga), Tempest 2000 (Atari Jaguar), Red Alarm (Virtual Boy), Need For Speed (3DO), Defender (Arcade), Galaxian (Arcade), Battlezone (Arcade)
Favorite Comics:
Spiderman - Maximum Carnage series. (Yes, I do have them all.)
Stray Toasters. (That was just plain weird.)
Death's Head II
Favorite Word:
Bollox!
Favorite Food:
Thai Green Chicken Curry (but for goodness sake, keep the aubergine (eggplant) out of it, coz that stuff stinks like they added a rotting corpse as an ingredient)
Favorite Drink:
Guinness
Favorite Artist:
Salvador Dali
Favorite Position:
WTF?
Favorite Method For Removing Barnacles From Submarine Hulls:
.......... er....mkay.
Favorite Oven Cleaning Product:
Okay, now you're just being silly
Favorite American Bastardisation Of The English Language:
Spelling "favourite" as "favorite".
...I hope you were paying attention, because there will be a test later.
Briefly... No minors, no ranting down the mic, yes, I am "old" if you say so, no, I'm not in a library, and yes, I am a friendly person who likes to chat... and only chat.
Reading the rest is entirely optional, though I will be suitably impressed by anyone who actually reads it all.Some of it is actually worth knowing, if you wish to come and chat. My Chatroom I'm just here to chat. Nothing else On minors: Look, seriously... I'm 40, so for the peace of mind of all concerned, minors are recommended to join the room of someone nearer their own age. So... I like to chat. I like people who like to chat. If you expect me to talk, but have nothing to say yourself, or if you have some kind of attitude/agenda to push, please move along, coz this isn't the place for you. I try to make interesting conversation, but if all a person has to say is the verbal equivalent of a vacant shrug, or if they go off on some kind of rant about god knows what, it's all gonna get rather tedious or annoying quite quickly. That's not to say I'm an overly serious person. Just because I have a brain, doesn't mean I feel the need to wave it around. I'd much sooner just sit and have a laugh. To be honest, just lately I've adopted a policy of banning repeat visitors who have nothing to say. I'd rather read the news or something, while I sit here and wait for someone interesting to talk to. So, if you think you can come here on a daily basis and have me chat with you, while you contribute nothing to the conversation but "yeah" or "no"... you're mistaken. At least partially developed social skills are a requirement. Scrolly messages on my cam. These usually explain that I am busy, that my cam is on "broadcast only", and that I am not currently chatting. Just because I am busy, doesn't mean I can't cater for those who just want to watch or listen. To those who complain that I didn't respond when they came to chat... all I can say is, you should have read the scrolly message. As I have this room embedded in several websites scattered around the net, not all green (non-member) chatters will know what stickam is. Please keep this in mind when chatting in my room. I only speak english... and I mean *real* english... not 'street' or 'ghetto', or sms text abbreviation. This room isn't one of those places with two dozen chatters, all trying to get the host to notice them. Most times you will have my undivided attention. Good if you actually want my attention... not so good if you just want to sit back and watch people talking. My room and cam are never set to private, and private messages are disabled. Anything that can't be seen or said in public has no place in my room. As for your classic trolls... I cut my teeth on undernet irc, so I've seen it all before. I'm a friendly person, and always welcome friendly people into my room, but make no mistake, I don't suffer fools... at all. Audio Okay, here's the thing... yes, I do have audio... I mostly use it to play music. If you don't like my music, then by all means mute it, I won't mind. If *you* play music in my room I will ask you to stop. If you persist, I will kick you. New visitors to my room won't want to go through all the current chatters trying to find out where your awful racket is coming from, and I won't have them leaving because of you. Only once in a blue moon will you hear me talk. I mostly don't care to hear you talk. What that means is.... *type*. If you come charging in here, ranting down your mic, speaking some kind of street slang jibberish that I can't understand, I'm not even gonna bother to mute you, I'll just go straight for the kick/ban. If you're illiterate and have to talk into the mic, then I'm afraid you're out of luck. (Though obviously, you won't know that yet, coz you won't have read this.) If text chat isn't your thing, well... there are plenty of other rooms on stickam where they like to talk over the mic, so please don't come in complaining, just because this isn't one of them. On Gay and Bi Men Ok listen, I really don't care what your sexuality is, and am happy to chat with anyone who can behave in a civilised manner, whatever their orientation... but let me be *very* clear on this... I am straight! Now, having stated that, for a gay or bi man to start hitting on me, knowing that I am straight, shows a complete lack of respect, is totally unacceptable behaviour and will not be tolerated even for a second. If you wish to admire my handsome face, *cough*, well that's just fine, but keep it to yourself, coz I don't wish to hear about it from you. Also, if you take up some kind of long term residence in my room, like long periods every single day, I'm likely to start feeling somewhat creeped out. Such people should definitely read the next section. On "Emotional Bonds" With Chatters Some people are under the impression that if they visit a chatroom on a regular basis, that they "own" a little piece of the host. That the host "owes" them something. Or that they have some kind of emotional bond with the host. I find such ideas to be misguided, at best, and outright delusional at worst. I do actually like some of my regular visitors. Many... meh, I can take them or leave them. A few, I actually find rather irritating, but am simply too polite to remove straight away. But lets be clear here... I don't "care" about any... at all, and that will not change. What this means is, if you feel there is some kind of bond developing here, you need to seriously look at your own reasons for being here. It is not, and never will be, mutual.... and the chances are, I'm probably finding your presence rather creepy already. Ultimately, given that I don't "care" about anyone on here, if you aren't good company, or enjoyable to chat with... why should I let you stay? Harsh? Sure, but like everyone else, I am here for my own entertainment, and if you irritate me or creep me out, then I'm not going to enjoy being in my own room. So, if it comes down to me spending less time here because there are people who bug me, or me removing said people.... guess what? (Disturbingly, the people I'm describing are usually (though not always) male.) Friend Requests As you can see, my friends list is very small, which is for the very simple reason that I deny 99.9% of friend requests. Unless you have a spectacularly interesting profile, come in, chat, and be worth talking to, or no add. It's that easy :) I consider people who use automated scripts to send friend requests as the lowest of the low, on the same level as cold callers and door to door salesmen. Get a clue. Don't be a nuisance. You want to get a following? Stop spamming people and just host an entertaining room. Commenting HTML has been disabled. I consider it extremely rude, and very annoying, when people embed their webcam, audio, or video into other people's comments. Attempts to do so here will be deleted. Lurkers To be honest, I'm not bothered by lurkers. If you wanna just sit there and watch my cam for hours on end, I don't mind. Dunno why you'd want to, but I'm not gonna get freaked out by it. I must confess, it does make me chuckle when I see people complain about lurkers. So they're making a conscious decision to sit in front of a webcam that's publicly viewable, and then they complain that people are looking at them. Duh! Lurkers in chat though... nope. It's a chatroom... if you come into my room, you chat, or I boot you. No, I Am Not In A Library My cam is not in... nor do I live in... a public library. This room is "the study", and yeah, I know... it's a pretentious name, but what else are we gonna call it? "The library"? LOL. Between my wife and myself, we have a *lot* of books, videos, DVDs and CDs... and most of them are kept in here. Seems quite a few people on here have some kind of problem with books. I really don't get that. So the accumulation of knowledge and literature is a bad thing now? And what do you suppose the web is for? On Being An "Old" Stickam User I first came to stickam on the invitation of one of the stickam team, to review the place for the webcam portal that I run. I have to say, I was so thoroughly impressed with the technology and setup, that I stuck around, and began using stickam to embed a cam and chatroom on my own sites. Saying that, being an old hand on various cam communities, many of which consider it totally unacceptable to allow minors to be seen on cam, I was quite surprised to see the tables completely turned, and find myself abused by teens, telling me I'm too old to be here. I can see their thinking... with all the horror stories of sexual predators... but it's quite sad when anyone over the age of 25 is viewed with suspicion. Now I think it's perfectly reasonable for teens to have "no old people" on their profiles. I can see where they're coming from, having had both gay men, and underage girls making improper suggestions to me in my room. I mean, come on, I'm married as it is, so it's just damned disrespectful to think I'd be interested, and as for being that young, or *knowing* I'm straight.... it's just plain wrong. It amazes me, the extent to which people can behave like animals when there's a webcam to be seen... so who the teens here wish to keep out of their chatrooms is entirely up to them, just as I have "no minors" on mine. It does however seem a bit much to have kids coming into *my* room, and abusing me for being "old". I suppose the one thing that a lot of people here would do well to bear in mind is, being young is not a permanent condition... you'll get "old" too, and let me assure you, when you get here, you'll be absolutely damned if anyone's gonna tell you what you're too old to do. The real shame is that there aren't *more* "old" people on here to balance things out, but I guess most just can't be bothered to deal with the sillyness, so either leave, or hide out in unlisted-land. As for me... I'm here for the duration. I've met, and continue to meet, some very nice people who know how to enjoy a decent conversation. And surely, that's what we're all here for, isn't it? My Music Feel free to check out those tunes down there. Yes, they are by me. Probably showing their age these days, I recorded them about 10 years ago using a Roland MC303 hooked up via midi to a Commodore Amiga computer. On Gaming I'm a dedicated gamer, and have been since Pong first appeared in my local launderette when I was a kid. My vintage computers and retro games consoles collection rather proves the point. Those things don't just sit there collecting dust... I play them. If I had to say which was my favourite, I'd probably say the Virtual Boy, just because there's never been another machine which can do what that does... it's just such a novelty. I'm still a huge fan of the Atari 2600 though... just out of pure nostalgia. And the Amiga? Well... that's just my baby. Back in the early 90s, that was the machine I learned modern computing on, first experienced the net on, and built my first website with. Spent a small fortune expanding the thing back then, and many collectors would sell their souls to get their hands on what's inside it. By the way, if you read all of this, my name is Steve, not Ben... Benway is a nickname. (Read William Burroughs' Naked Lunch, if you're curious.) Clearly, people in chat who haven't read this will carry on calling me Ben. If you got all the way down here.... hey, cool... come in and chat!... or just wait five minutes and see what else I've added here... lolA bedtime story for you While hanging out in a friend's chatroom, just for the entertainment value, and coz it's a bit random, I've taken to reading the odd children's story book, every now and then, and adding a bit of a dry spin to it. This goes down so well in there, that I decided to record one of these readings, and put it on youtube, just to see what the reaction would be like. Here's the video. |
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