Woohoo! 5 years.

How did we get here? Much as I'd like to spew the oft-said "how time flies when you're having fun" or "it doesn't feel like half a decade" the brutal truth is that it feels like a lifetime already, and I've forgotten what life was like BQC (that's "Before QueerClick").

But what about "the fun"? That's resoundingly affirmative, even after 5 years. Everyday I still wake up with a fire in my belly. Or should I say, fire in the crotch?

QC started in 2004 as a hobby site. Just my desktop and myself. Well, and a whole lot of passion for creating something so hot I wanna visit/work on it everyday, forever. I've always loved all things pretty. The smart cut of a plain white shirt, the imperfections that bring character to a face, a pictorial spread with an affective story, a pair of handsomely handcrafted leather shoes, the palpitation-inducing curves of a coupe, the awe-inspiring architecture of Antonio Gaudi's masterpieces…. and hot men, looking hot, doing hot things.

If the world was powered by lust and lust alone, we'd never run out of reserves. LOL.

I also love the Internet. It's a god-sent. Since the advent of 14.4k dialup modems, I've been dabbling with the Internet, making websites (anyone remember Geocities?), learning Javascripting, HTML, Dreamweaver, Flash Actionscripting. I especially love creating wallpapers of sexy men for my desktop. I stare at these wallpapers, and I feel happy.

One day, I thought why wouldn't life be splendid if I could marry my love for technology, hot men (looking hot doing hot things), and web design?

And Ta-dah! QueerClick was birthed. I made little blog posts of what I felt was hot, the porn I came across, and I didn't care if anyone was reading. I was blogging for myself. It was my lil porn scrapbook.

Fast forward 5 years. We now have over 22,000 posts on QC alone. That's excluding the content on our 4 niche blogs. 23,000 Stickies. 25,000 QCam shots. QC Gallery. QC Movies. And our burgeoning social network QueerClique.

My proudest achievement aren't the numerous awards and badges QC has garnered so far (we stay greatly encouraged and humbled), nor how we had introduced a revolutionary format (back then) of promoting queer delights which is often imitated (but never the same, you copycaters! Haha!) but the most wonderful arsenal of guys (and a gal, along with many furry pets) we've assembled.

Many people think that those who immerse themselves in porn twenty-four-seven must be, to quote a reader - "loveless fugly out-of-shape porn addicts who can't get any action in real lives." I don't blame anyone for thinking this. But the real truth is we are a bunch of down-to-earth blokes who wanna cover gay porn in style, make it fun and enjoyable the way we know how.

I love my team. I love how each is equipped with a different skill set. I love how we work so well together. No office politics. No hierarchy. Most importantly, outside of their talents - each has a good heart and soul.

Over the past 5 years, we've kept to our philosophy of going the extra mile in covering the stratosphere of gay porn. We're not one who shun away from controversial content, or stick to a couple of popular genres (we happen to like pot bellies and small dicks just as much). We want to deliver different kinds of hot to you guys.

It wasn't always easy. We've had our lows too - when our site got attacked, hacked, and held ransom. We'd lost QC Gallery to an unethical web host whom we'd trusted blindly and had to start from scratch. The mammoth task of migrating QC to another server, setting up the servers so that they can handle the huge traffic and bandwidth demands. The countless sleepless nights just chugging along, watching the servers, pushing out updates after updates. But you know what? It's all worth it.

While we're very proud of the past five years, we are also forward-looking and appreciate that change is a constant. We shall continue to stay committed to keeping up with your ever-evolving needs by innovating, and making meaningful changes to the QC Network.

We're busy working on several projects as I pen this note, and we can't wait to unleash all the pretty pixels on your screens.

I'd like to thank each and every one of you - our readers who've made us their choice source for all things queer, the many studios who've worked so hard in getting the world entertained and relieved, the models who share their gifts with the rest of us, and our advertisers who've placed their trust in QueerClick's branding.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your queer clicks. We look forward to the next 5 years and beyond.

The party has only just begun.

- Editor D