Press
8hues is a map-based social community for adult (18+) gay men: a live map of who is nearby, privacy each member sets themselves, and freedom of expression. It runs in any browser — there is nothing to install and no app store in the way.
Boilerplate, to copy
Short:
8hues is a free, map-based social community for adult (18+) gay men. It runs in the browser, shows you who is nearby, and never reveals anyone's exact location — every member appears at a fixed random point inside a circle they size themselves.
Longer:
8hues is a map-based social community for adult (18+) gay men, built on two commitments: your privacy is a setting you control rather than one chosen for you, and how you present yourself is your own. Seeing the map, messaging the people on it and changing your location are free and unlimited — travel mode is not a paid upgrade and never will be. An optional tier, 8hues Plus, adds incognito browsing, read receipts, video rooms and a map without ads, and is bought a month at a time with nothing to cancel. The whole thing runs in a browser, on eight colour schemes you pick from.
How the location privacy actually works
This is the part most worth getting right, because it is the part that differs.
Your exact coordinates never leave the server. Other members see you at a fixed random point inside a circle you size yourself — anywhere from 250 feet to 13 miles across. The word that matters is fixed: the point holds still while you move, so nobody can watch it drift across several readings and average out where you really are. Your own map shows your true position; everyone else's never does.
Alongside that: photos are re-encoded in your browser before upload, which strips EXIF and GPS metadata. Blocking is mutual and immediate — you disappear from each other's map, chat and feed. Messages are not keyword-filtered; moderation is report-driven.
The facts
- What it is: a map-based social community for adult (18+) gay men.
- Where it runs: any browser, desktop or phone. Installable as a PWA; not in an app store.
- What's free: the map, your profile, messages, groups, photos, travel mode and all eight colour schemes. No card is needed to join.
- What's paid: 8hues Plus — incognito browsing, read receipts, video rooms, no ads. A month at a time, with no subscription to cancel: it ends unless you buy another.
- Location privacy: a fixed random point inside a member-set circle, 250 feet to 13 miles.
- Profile reviews: members leave feedback on each other, vote it up or down, and can post anonymously.
- Coverage: city pages for every US state capital and major metro — 73 in all. Travel mode reaches anywhere.
- Built with: Vanilla TypeScript and MapLibre GL on Cloudflare Workers, Durable Objects, D1, KV and R2. No third-party application bundle.
What we don't claim
- Members are not identity-verified. We say so on every city page and in the safety guidance, and we'd rather you printed it than didn't.
- 8hues is 18+.
- No member counts are published here. When we have numbers worth quoting, they'll be on this page with a date on them.
Brand assets
The name is written 8hues — one word, lower-case h, no space. Brand green is #2b974f; the deep background is #071e0f. Please don't recolour the logo.
Contact
Press, partnerships and anything else: tru@hwmnbn.me. Release notes are published openly at github.com/whobcode/8hues.
More on what 8hues is and why: What 8hues is. The city pages start at 8hues by city.
8hues is 18+. Members are not identity-verified — read the safety guidance before meeting anyone.