Tech Blog Update 31st July 2026
Wow where has this week gone. I say that every week.
Loads done this week. Every day I get a briefing which keeps me on top of laws, regulations and general shifts in that industry. OfCom are ALL over adult sites like a rash, and well they should be. The site I’m a member of feels old, clunky and unsecured. I’ll think about providing an analogy for that and get back to you, although it’ll probably be similar to a scene from the SAW movies.
The latest update from them is that we must not only comply with laws and regulations like The Online Safety Act – but we must show that we have this under constant review and surveillance. That we can account for every byte of information that we might store. We must show that, for instance, if we store adult media on a secure server provided by another company – we must show that we review that company to make sure they’re still compliant. It sounds a little intimidating but it isn’t.
When searching for providers for features at Circles, I review the Company itself, how long it’s been established, and that they know exactly what they are talking about when they make a claim. Also look at the caliber of their customers as well as customer reviews. I review not only how many companies use the it but that they are STILL using it. I basically suck up all the information to form a picture of that thing that I want, and whether I trust it. Ultimately it’s my decision but I will talk through it with someone else, or even AI, which is great for doing DEEP research.
Y’aint getting in…
Traffic to Circles is restricted to UK only and is behind a secure gate. When you type in a URL ("swingcircles.com/") before you see anything, a LOT happens under the hood to make sure you're a person and that person is in the UK. Spiders, crawlers and other nefarious chancers are blocked. I've particularly blocked AI from looking at Circles. Search engines are not blocked at that level. Once they're on the site there are MORE rules about what they can map. For instance, I don't mind them indexing the articles on the site, or these tech blogs. But they are NOT getting anywhere near our members, much less any member media.
I am determined and committed to having the most secure foundation for Circles as is humanly achievable. Not because we’re doing anything nefarious (I like that word) but because I don’t want a sandbox that’s been haphazardly chucked together with gaps covered with duct tape. I want a diamond-cut titanium vault. Which we can all play in.
That’s heavy
I know. Subject change! I still loathe doing the business documentation stuff but I’m working on it gradually (investors presentation, business plan etc). Also brimming with ideas about weekly articles (and series for Men, Women, Couples, CD/TV etc), advertising graphics, community activities – like monthly live interviews with real members. A user stories section. Quiz nights in the chat rooms (with a naughty twist!). Facilities for sex club owners and kinky AirBnB’s – which I didn’t know existed until recently. Still poodling around the kink side of swinging – there are other specialised sites for that and I dont know enough about it to want to go down that route.
Verify schmerify
Validations are crap. When you meet someone for sex, you can verify the user with a bunch of free text. We’re British, so we’re hardly going to say anything mean are we. “Bad breath and he was 4ft11 not 5ft11” – so I’m toying with hard facts. Did they turn up on time, did you agree boundaries beforehand. Were your boundaries held? etc all things I’m considering. I also want no-shows to get a strike which WILL show on someone’s profile. I’m also thinking about whether we need to see our own verifications? everyone else does, sure. Or something in between. To be continued…
Stuff and Stuff
I’ve written an editorial brief for articles, and built a ‘brand’ pack on Canva. Made a few Instagram graphics and analysed the results from my first advertising run. Interesting results indeed! (investors want to see hard facts, then they’ll get them, hard).
Another afternoon of purging caches (because I’ve dicked around with a million things on the site, all behind the scenes) and reviewing documents – oh wait – thats my full time job. One I should pay a little more attention to.
The Trust Centre is looking a bit sparse, might look at that next. Join the waitlist! click it, you know you want to.
