The Ladykillers: 3 Pinterest Alternatives for Men

Sites like MANteresting and Gentlemint are giving men a Pinterest alternative.

ByABC News
March 2, 2012, 2:13 PM

March 2, 2012 — -- intro: "No boys allowed." It's not actually a sign or image pinned on Pinterest, but it may as well be.

The social networking site and app, a digital pinboard for images and articles, has become an Internet sensation -- but mostly for women.

While Pinterest won't release stats on its gender breakdown, more than 90 percent of Pinterest fans on Facebook are female, and a look at the recipes, wedding pictures and pastel colors splashed across the digital bulletin boards make it pretty clear that the service has become somewhat of a sorority.

But the pinboard fraternities aren't far behind.

"Instead of having to sort through hundreds of pictures of weddings and flowers and kittens, we figured might as well just create our own site that focuses on highlighting interesting man things," Brandon Patchin, the CEO of MANteresting says.

MANteresting is just one of a few sites to pop up in the past couple of months that offer men a Pinterest alternative. But there are others, too.

If women are from Pinterest, men are from one of the following new sites.

quicklist: 1title: Gentlemint text: "Gentlemint is a mint of manly things." That's the tagline on gentlemint.com.

And manly things are exactly what you'll find on the site, which looks a lot like a Pinterest clone with a clean white background and gray bordered boxes surrounding pictures and links. Pictures of bacon pancakes, a Maker's Mark bottle and a wooden flask are just a few of the things saved to the central "Mint" page.

Like Pinterest, you can add a "Mint It" bookmark to your bookmarks bar and add any site or image to your Mint by clicking the shortcut. See something you like on someone else's "Mint"? Just click the mustache.

Gentlemint is still in an invite-only period. You can apply now. media: 15834103

quicklist: 2title: MANteresting text: MANteresting takes on a bit more of a masculine theme than Gentlemint by calling its boards "workbenches." Then, of course, you can "nail" images or links to your page by adding the "Nail It" bookmark to your bookmark bar. You can also "renail" images or links you see on others' workbenches.

Similar to Gentlemint, the central board is full of lots of "man things," including trucks, "man tools" and cool-looking gadgets. The layout and the design isn't as elegant as Gentlemint or Pinterest, but something tells me that's the point.

MANteresting's CEO Brandon Patchin says he is differentiating the site in a couple of key ways, but most importantly, you don't need an invite to get in; you can try it right now. media: 15834130

quicklist: 3title: Dartituptext: Dartitup decided to go with the virtual dartboard, which closely resembles Pinterest's "board" metaphor. And that's not a coincidence. "Both my co-founder and I are recently engaged and independently noticed our fiancee's spending hours on Pinterest. Our experience was completely disappointing. A continuous stream of flowers, hair styles and fashion accessories did not keep our attention for very long," Brandon Harris, co-founder of Dartitup says.

Dartitup is in a closed beta right now, but it looks a lot like the others: a grid of pictures and links with comments below it. You can add a "Dart It" button to your bookmarks bar and then "redart" anything you like on your friends' dartboards. I got a glimpse of the site and came across some interesting boards, including one of "Man Cave Ideas" and "Bachelor Party T-Shirt Ideas."

"We have a major differentiating factor that involves gamification. All will be revealed at launch," says Harris. Dartitup should launch soon; you can sign up here. media: 15834077