Kupika

About
dicke and balls

From About.
 * We hope you can write anything you want in your correspondences without the fear of its being known by your friends, co-workers, boyfriends, girlfriends or anyone who has some relationship with you in the physical world. In Kupika, you create a new identity, separated from the physical world you currently live in. Kupika is a virtual place across boundaries where you can say anything you want to anyone you choose. Express your feelings, thoughts, or anything that may need some releasing but you are afraid to do so in the physical world.

Membership
Use and membership of Kupika is free and currently there are no restrictions on the number of profile accounts that may be created. Membership includes users of all ages from around the globe with heavy concentrations of users from the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Japan and Australia. These concentrations may be the result of an emphasis on English language as the preferred and encouraged language for use on the website. Initially, most new users of Kupika were college age associates of the creator, but due to a number of factors, including linking by certain websites, the current member population is skewed to younger females with the majority of Kupika members being in their preteen to teenage years. This may change as the website grows in membership. Due to the possibility of an individual creating multiple accounts, the exact number of current active members is unknown. It is conservatively estimated that there are over 5,000 active accounts or profiles that have been logged into by the owner within the past year and over 100,000 profiles created since inception of the website.

Vision
Hina’s vision for the site was to create a pen-pal website where users could choose to remain anonymous and interact and associate with others based upon the content of their personal character and communication rather than such things as appearance, race, ethnicity, or social-status. Some users choose to remain anonymous, create fantasy-accounts to role-play or masquerade as an anime character or sometimes a celebrity, while many users do reveal personal information or simply establish a personal profile. For ambiguous reasons, the website has developed a heavily Anime/Manga-theme since its creation with many users interested in those art forms and which is reflected on their profile pages or in the oekakis they draw large Twilight fanbase.

Avatars
The users of Kupika are represented by a character that they create when they join; however, the site currently doesn’t incorporate any direct character interaction. All interaction between users takes place through the features of the website.

Age and Gender
There is no age-verification for user accounts but the beginning minimum age available in the system is 8 years old and extends to age 69. Users must opt to define their character and profile account with a male or female gender, there is no “unspecified” gender option currently. Many members who wish to keep their age secret set their age to 69.

Profile
The main feature of Kupika is the member’s profile page. Each user is provided a profile page which they can then modify to represent them or to provide information about themselves or their interests. The page is highly modifiable and can incorporate outside linked images and some Flash features in addition to text and backgrounds.

Features
Other features of Kupika include a diary system, public and private clubs, chat, a floating public message board (“Fleeting Thoughts”), an IM-style message system (KupiChat), a letter and message system, PicStream, News, virtual items which may be bought and given to other users, personal ads, a Q&A feature on every profile, games, oekakis, personal banners, additional user created web pages (Kupipages), Quote of the Hour, Image BB, My Site, and a Friends List. Many users make use of the popular drawing programs ShiPainter or ShiPainter Pro to draw oekakis, using these in-built programs on the site.

Stars indicate the "quality of a member".

KupiPoints
The website also includes a point-earning feature or monetary system which allows the members to earn KupiPoints by using the website. These KupiPoints can be accumulated, transferred to others, used to purchase virtual items, create personal ads, personal banners, oekakis, to create clubs and for other purposes.

Conditional Match
Members may use the website’s search feature and may also conduct conditional match searches to find other members with similar interests or within specified parameters.

Kupi-
The members of Kupika, sometimes called Kupikans (or Kupikians), have developed into a close-knit virtual community. The micro-meme “Kupi-” has arisen as a prefix appendage to various nouns, verbs and adjectives among the membership. The word “Kupika” was coined by Hina as the name of the website and has no meaning and a disputed pronunciation among the membership and is not related to the Tumbuka word “Kupika” meaning “to cook.”

Moderation
Currently, the website is not moderated except by the creator-owner, Hina, and few moderators picked by the man himslef to rid the site of porn and illegal practices. There are few restrictions on the content of communication between users or on their created content. For this reason, despite its friendly appearance, some material encountered on the website may be unsuitable for young children. Users may restrict their communication with unwanted individuals with an option to “Blacklist” another user thus preventing any direct or indirect communication from that blacklisted user. Users may also restrict their communication to those designated on their “Friends List” only and require a password to receive letters.

Sister Websites

 * Kupika has a sister website, Kupika.net; a forum for the members of Kupika and others. It has undergone several changes, including server moves and URL changes. Originally, it was anime.cx.
 * In December of 2008, hina created a "newpika", Kupika.co.uk (sometimes referred to as K-uk or K.co.uk), in an attempt to recreate the tight-knit community of Kupika's early days, before Kupika became overrun by cyberers, perverts and crude people.