WeCamgirls 10th anniversary interview with co-founder Tristan

March 2022 marks the 10th anniversary of WeCamgirls, ‘the biggest and friendliest cam model community’. To mark the occasion, we contacted Tristan, co-founder of the forum, to learn a little more about what is WeCamgirls.

WeCamgirls was launched in 2012, and the idea behind the site was to create a place where cam models could freely chat and share their camming experiences. Importantly, while anyone of legal age could register, only those who had been vetted and confirmed as cam models were given full access to the site.

The beginnings were not easy, it took three months to get the first 100 members, but thanks to helpful tools, constant development of the forum, increasing amount of tips and the possibility of free conversation, which was not visible to clients and fans, the community was growing and becoming more and more active.

The turning point came in 2016 when the WeCamgirls community was honored at the Live Cam Awards with their first Best Live Cam Online Community award, which they received four more times in 2018, 2019, 2020 and most recently in 2022. A few months later, WeCamgirls also boasted over 10,000 members.

Today, the number of community members exceeds 30,000+, there are more than 4,000+ reviews of various platforms, sites or interactive toys available on the forum, and countless threads where the community exchanges their experiences and helps each other and aid new models to properly enter the live cam industry.

For the 10th anniversary of WeCamgirls, we reached out to Tristan, co-founder of the forum, to get to know WeCamgirls better, and learn a little about the history of the site and its community:

Marcin: Tristan first, before we talk about WeCamgirls, I’d like to know more about you. Can you tell a little bit about yourself? How did you meet Rutger?

Tristan: Hi, my name is Tristan and I’m one of the founders of WeCamgirls. The co-founder of the site, Rutger, I met years ago and we’ve been friends for a very long time. I was teaching at a Law University here in the Netherlands when he asked me if I was interested in setting up a company together. He knew I wanted to do something different and he already had a company that was doing really well, so we took the leap and started this new adventure.

M: Did you have any experience in adult entertainment before you created WeCamgirls?

T: We did have experience as affiliates for mainstream as well as the adult business and we have a lot of experience building communities. However, WeCamgirls was our first big project in adult.

M: March 2022 marks exactly 10 years since the launch of the WeCamgirls. To begin with, tell me, did you celebrate 10th anniversary in any special way?

T: No not yet. We are still considering some things, but for now we haven’t announced anything yet.

M: WeCamgirls is referred to as a community, how would you explain to those who don’t know what WeCamgirls is?

T: Over the years I’ve gotten this question a lot, and the easiest way to explain it is, WeCamgirls is a business to business community forum and social network for cam models. There are no customers. Models discuss everything, from Twitter marketing to getting the right equipment. Everything goes.

M: And what was the main reason you decided to start WeCamgirls 10 years ago?

T: The idea started in 2011. One day a friend of ours, who is a former webcamgirl, talked about her online experiences. When we asked her what she thought of as the most inconvenient thing of being a webcamgirl, she said two things.

The first one was obvious. She didn’t like the fact that she couldn’t talk to a lot of people about what she was doing for a living. The second thing she said proceeded from the first one and it was a bit of a surprise. Not talking to others about what she did resulted in boredom.

This information had to settle and then a couple of months later the idea sprang up. What if we build a community website, just for webcammodels? There are lots of models and at least some of them might have similar problems. 

It took about a year before the site got traction, but when the ball starts rolling, there is nothing to stop it. Since then, WeCamgirls has thrived and grown into a great community. Over 31,000 models call it their home.

M: And why did you decide to separate the models from the customers/fans on your forum?

T: A lot of models are looking for a place where there are no customers peeking in and where they can discuss everything freely. That’s why we made the choice to create a “closed” community. Our forum is not indexed by Google and you can only read all the content once you have been verified as a cam model.

M: Can anyone join WeCamgirls regardless of gender, age, country? Are there any requirements to join?

T: WeCamgirls is for all cam models. It doesn’t matter where you are from or what your gender is. However, you have to be at least 18 years old to join. There are no other requirements, but to gain full access to the site you will need to be a cam model or content creator. That’s why we have a verification system in place. After verification, i.e. proved that you are a cam model, you will be a full member.

M: Currently WeCamgirls is regarded as the first and primary source of knowledge about the Camming. Do you remember when you first thought that WeCamgirls was successful?

T: The first year was hard. Building a community is not easy. To get new members you need content and to get content you need new members. It’s a paradox and you need hard work and a bit of luck to solve it.

After about a year I knew the site would be viable, but the first real recognition from the cam world came in 2016 in the form of our first award. This was during the Live Cam Awards and receiving the award for Best Live Cam Online Community lifted our spirits.

M: Speaking about awards, over the years the community you’ve built has been honored with numerous awards. What do you think makes WeCamgirls such a strong and engaged community?

T: It might sound a bit corny, but the answer is easy. We put the model first. That’s it. We listen to our members. We have a great team of moderators and with everything we do we discuss with our community first.

M: Let me ask you about something else now. Over the last years there have been many things that have heavily influenced the current look of the Live Cam Industry. What do you think has changed the industry the most in the last 10 years?

T: That would be the interactive toys. No doubt.

M: And, for example, if someone is unfamiliar with interactive toys and would like to learn which one to choose, or the pros and cons of specific toy and how to connect it to the platform they are using, can they get help from the WeCamgirls community or maybe already existing guides?

T: A lot of our members use the toys. There is no specific guide that we offer, but there are a lot of topics about the toys. We also have different toys in our resource section, where the cammers can review them and share their experiences. 

M: The resources section on WeCamgirls is really impressive, especially the number of reviews available not only for the mentioned toys, but also for sites or other services useful for camming. Are all reviews written by your users?

T: All the reviews on WeCamgirls, approximately 4500, are written by verified models. Writing a review is only possible once you have been verified as a model by me or by one of the moderators. We collect the information (payout percentages, methods, frequency etc.), but the models write the experiences and rate the different sites.

M: Do you motivate your users in any way to help each other and write reviews?

T: No, everybody who shares does so because they want to share. The atmosphere on WeCamgirls has always been open and friendly, which is very important. Create a safe and welcoming environment, where people feel at home and people will be willing to contribute and help.

M: In addition to WeCamgirls, you also recently created another forum called WePornstars Can you say a little more about it?

T: We just recently launched WePornstars. It will be a similar concept as WeCamgirls. Being in the adult business for so long, made us realize that there are other groups within this world that can really benefit from a community. Pornstars and adult talent were highest on our list.

Porn can be a very shady business and we hope that with WePornstars we can help aspiring as well as the more seasoned talent to help each other and to exchange information. Knowledge is power and it will help with avoiding mistakes and disappointments. 

M: You said pornstars were highest on your list, does that mean you are considering creating more forums/communities for other groups besides cam models and pornstars?

T: We’ve recently changed and rewritten the complete WeCamgirls backend, so that we can use our same platform to create other communities. So yes, we have plans, but do not know how and when yet.

M: And do you have any plans for the future of WeCamgirls?

T: WeCamgirls changes and has been changing all the time. We will be launching some new features this year, but I can’t talk about it yet.

M: In conclusion, is there anything you would like to say to current and potential WeCamgirls members?

T: Information and knowledge are essential. On WeCamgirls we bring the boys and girls who work in the biz together. There are single minded people, no trolls and no customers. Learn, interact, have fun, that is what WeCamgirls is all about!

To quote the famous words of Mahatma Gandhi: ”Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

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To visit the WeCamgirls forum go to WeCamgirls.com, and if you want to learn more about WePornstars visit WePornstars.com. Also, don’t forget to follow on Twitter @wecamgirls and @wepornstars.