© Gaia Interactive, Inc

The creators of the popular online community Gaia Online have decided to grow up along with their audience. The result is Tentacl, "an uncensored, avatar-based community site for adults".

Where Gaia was a largely anime-focussed portal with an emphasis on teen-appropriate material and character driven role-playing, Tentacl has taken the filters off and describes itself as "a site for anonymously socialising with others who share your interests".


Users must be 18+ to register (though a birthdate and checkbox are the only confirmations), and the site makes no illusions that people won't be using it for sexual or adult content, right down to its name being an allusion to the tentacle porn stereotypically associated with anime.

Gaia Online launched in 2003, building from a community of anime fans sharing links to become a bulletin board, then forum, and eventually incorporating social gaming. At its peak in 2007, it had over a million posts made daily, more than seven million regular users, and over 27 million registered accounts. Yet as younger web users have migrated to Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram for their social media, forum use across the internet as a whole has declined, making the creation of Tentacl seem more of an avenue to hold onto the people who used Gaia as kids, but now have more adult interests.

The starter guide even tells you to "keep your nibbly bits in your pants, unless you take it over to NSFW... you can take it out there". Unsurprisingly, Tentacl's NSFW forum is already the most populated, where people have taken to posting numerous pictures of their junk.

Tentacl functions similarly to Gaia, with users creating a customisable avatar to navigate the site with. The art direction is a bit more mature but retains the anime and gaming visual influence. Once you've crafted your character -- with minimal options to begin with -- you choose hashtags of interest to you, from #DoctorWho to #Film or anything you #EnterYourself. Relevant posts then show up on your homescreen, based on the category tags and from people you follow, a la Tumblr. Alternatively, you can directly post to Communities, which cover everything from music and food to storytelling and science discussions. Then there are the weird board, such as the unfortunately named "Bitch, plz".


Virtual currency is earned when posting or when others react to your posts, which can then be used to buy accessories for your avatar. The more posts you make, the more you level up and earn flair, another form of virtual peacockery. The system is set up to incentivise engagement, with daily rewards of the currency and bigger drops for recruiting other users. Unsurprisingly, additional coins and the rarer gems can be bought for real money.

Additionally, a social game called Unravel lets people guess who you are by answering quiz questions you set up. Site operators Gaia Interactive are pushing this as a core part of Tentacl, and one of the main attractions it highlights in the sign-up emails it has sent to (presumably) over-18 members of Gaia Online. Unravel is entirely opt-in, and users choose what photos or information to upload, but is perhaps contrary to the "anonymous socialising" concept, and seems open to abuse without oversight.

Overall, it's hard to get a feel for Tentacl's purpose. It seems more of a hybrid of other social networks, wrapped in a monetised core for the avatar customisation, with a slightly creepy air of trying to appeal to Gaia Online kids who've grown up enough to have sex drives. There's no shame in consenting adults talking openly about sex alongside science or art but is this particular format going to be something the internet is crying out for? We're undecided; let us know what you think in the comments below.