The Bear Club

The Bear Club was an online community dedicated to teddy bears.
History
The Bear Club was launched in July 2007 by two teachers and a writer from Derbyshire in the UK. The site has been featured in a number of British and international press, including BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, The Guardian Media Monkey, The Telegraph Online, and has been the main sponsor for the past two years of the Taiwanese Teddy Bear Association (TWTBA) Teddy Bear Show & Creative Awards.<ref name="about"/>
Taking its inspiration from the growing popularity of mainstream social networking sites, The Bear Club brought teddy bear ownership and collecting into the modern age and was a niche community which drew members from all age groups and from around the world.
Clan leaders
An integral part of joining The Bear Club was choosing to belong to one of the clans. There were eight clan leaders and each one was based on the eight species of wild bear - giant panda (Bai Bo), sun bear (Bruang), brown bear (Kodi), Asiatic black bear (Basindo), polar bear (Nanook), sloth bear (Aswail), spectacled bear (Buka) and black bear (Kinamon). Each clan leader has its own distinct character and all feature in The Bear Club's ongoing story, Tales From a Forgotten Room.
Membership
Membership to The Bear Club was free, and like many of the mainstream social networking sites it generates income through advertising and sponsorship revenue. While there were two levels of membership, Silver and Gold, both were still free of cost. Once you applied, you were automatically given a Silver membership. As soon as you became an active member, through posting or updating your profile, you were given a Gold membership, which allowed access to the rest of the sites available features.
Teddy bear blogs
Teddy bear blogs on the site typically include photographs of teddy bears on holiday, at home or in unusual places and are often accompanied by a blog entry as if written by the bear itself.

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