When I was a sophomore, my roommates and I made “kiss lists"--lists of all the guys we had ever kissed. The most entertaining moments came when, just when we thought we were finished, out of the depths of our memories would come the guys we had totally forgotten about. Far more entertaining was the fact that our suave roommate Brian didn’t even attempt to make a kiss list—it would have resembled one of those gag Christmas lists that unroll for miles.
Instead, he wrote a “naked list,” as in, a list of all the girls who had ever seen him naked. I’m going to be honest, some of us were on that list. In any case, our muddled memories and Brian’s naked list bring up an important point. There is a need for an advanced organizational system when it comes to keeping track of our sexual history. Enter MyBlackBook.
MyBlackBook is the first and only 100 percent free online service that helps you keep track of all the details of your sexual history. Part of its unique appeal is that your information isn’t just stored, it’s also analyzed.Think of it as “Excel for horndogs.” Or, to put it more eloquently, the site describes its mission as giving people “a place to store their sexual history, partners, and experiences in a safe, secure and confidential place.”
The idea for the site came in March 2004, during a conversation among founder Robert Ianuale’s friends. Topics ranged from meeting someone off the Internet to the risks of being sexually active and frequenting online social networks. One friend wondered how people kept track of all the partners they were sleeping with. Someone answered, “a black book.” Then came the idea for a 21st century black book with helpful, practical features. Ianuale, a programmer, was inspired and went to work creating the Internet’s first secure and confidential online sexual history tracker. According to Ianuale, the site has grown to over 14,000 members since its launch in April 2004.
If you join, you can see at-a-glance statistics that range from fun to serious. Fun features include graphs that show what month or time of the day you are most sexually active. For example, you may have been a little slutty in December. Remember? When you went home for the holidays and hooked up with your old high school boyfriend? Well, that’s been graphed.
More fun features include the ability to store partner contact information along with notes detailing the “hotness” of a particular partner or session. There is also a tool that tracks the average age of your partners. This could be statistical evidence that you do have a thing for cougars.
On the more serious side, and perhaps the most important feature, is the risk assessment tool. Members have access to VDNote, a patented program that can analyze your sexual habits and give you the probability and risks of obtaining sexually transmitted diseases. They also have a feature that lets you monitor your STD tests, as well as forums and links to related sexual health sites.
Combating the spread of STDs, especially AIDS, is definitely a driving force behind the site. Founder Robert Ianuale says, “even if one person who visits the site inputs enough information and, upon the results being tallied, the user is notified and they go and get tested, we are but one step further in containing the spread of STDs.”
MyBlackBook strongly encourages you to share your ideas on how to improve the site. If you have an idea, feel free to send an email to .
Links:
MyBlackBook
When to have the STD talkSTD e-cards encourage responsibility
I’m a sex addict?
