If we talk about successful forums, we cannot avoid talking about Forocoches, the most read forum in Spanish. It has 10 million unique monthly users according to its LinkedIn page, which leads it to have a very high power of influence. This influence has led to the birth of the best “trolls” on Forocoches, such as getting a mariachi band to show up at the headquarters of a political party after an election defeat, or even getting a contestant who most people might think did not deserve to be there to the finals of a television competition.
Forocoches is one of the main forum platforms on the internet. It was founded in 2003 by Álex Marín, a native of Palencia (Spain), as a forum to address questions about cars, but later the topics of discussion expanded. The anonymity it provides, allows users to share personal experiences such as work problems, love problems, and politically incorrect opinions.
Since 2009, when the level of “trolling” became unsustainable due to the amount of major pranks that were being pulled every week, the only way to be part of the forum is through an invitation. Nowadays, these invitations can be found on eBay for ten or fifteen euros, and sometimes even for 50. However, from Forocoches they do not advise to buy them in these portals as they are usually scams.
The creator of Forocoches is Álex Marín, better known as Electrik or “Ilitri”, another way to refer to him based on the Spanish-English pronunciation of his online nickname. He is a discreet man who focuses on keeping his personal life private. In 2018, he published a book titled “El motor del éxito” (The Engine of Success), in which he shares some of his life experiences with the public.
In this article, we will tell you ten interesting facts about Álex Marín.
He started studying Telecommunications Engineering in Valladolid (Spain), but dropped out after three months. This led him to become completely self-taught in the world of computing, which eventually led to the creation of Forocoches.
In addition to Forocoches, he also created Todorelatos (a website for erotic stories) and InverForo (related to investments). Todorelatos is still active today and is almost entirely automated, except for the texts published.
Until approximately 2015, his personality was one of the most hidden on the internet. When he published “El motor del éxito: 35 Claves para que tu idea triunfe” in 2018, he gave a new direction to his career. Ilitri had become a legendary character for Forocoches members, and the doubt of his existence has been the subject of jokes within the forum and on other social networks.
When he bought a Renault Laguna in 2002, he realised that there was no forum to exchange opinions. His interest in the world of cars, linked to his passion for computing, influenced his decision to create a forum for this purpose. Possibly if someone had told him at that time about all the impact it was going to have, he would not have believed it.
In addition to being the founder, he is the sole owner of Forocoches and until 2018 he managed everything himself from his home in Palencia. Since then, he has managed security issues with a third party, and has two salespeople and virtual assistants. In 2021, the company reached a turnover of 1.02 million euros.
He has been offered to sell the company several times, but as he has said on several occasions, Marín would only sell it for a figure that would allow him to retire.
Contrary to what most people might think, he prefers to remain neutral on the platform. Álex Marín says that he only participates on December 28th to play pranks on the community, such as changing users’ nicknames or avatars. The date December 28th in Spain has the same connotation as April Fools’ Day.
Despite being in favor of freedom of expression, he is aware that not all opinions shared on the forum are socially acceptable. In a single day, up to 200,000 messages can be shared, and agreeing with all of them is impossible. He does not have automatic moderation tools, but rather it is the users who decide from the beginning whether a content deserves to be there or not, having the power to remove it.
Before Forocoches achieved its current success, he managed up to 200 different domains simultaneously. As he himself has commented, in the end he had to focus on some aspects in order to be able to manage them because otherwise his life as a webmaster would be crazy.
His personal Instagram account (120k followers) has been inactive since 2019; although he is more active on X, he does not post too much and has 33.4k followers. He also owns an account on LinkedIn, but again, he stays inactive. He is a very discreet person. He himself indicates that he is not in favor of airing his private life on social media and that people should not do it with people they do not know.
However, Forocoches has a profile on Instagram, TikTok and X where they post daily content that is usually based on memes and funny videos. In addition, the forum also has a newsletter that has more than 27,000 subscribers.
Álex Marín has been using computers since he was 3 years old, which is unusual considering he was born in 1980. At that time, his parents controlled the hours he used them. On the other hand, at the age of 15, and thanks to an HTML book given to him by a teacher who saw his potential, he made the website for his high school. Being supported by his environment to do what he likes has generated an unprecedented result.
Many stereotypes depict the computer geek as someone who does not take care of themselves and spends hours sitting in front of a screen. We know that generalizing is not right, and Álex Marín is an example of this. He likes to exercise, take care of himself, and have a healthy diet (yes, he is also a fan of oatmeal bowls with milk).
Although he has not always been in the spotlight, now he is even less so. For some years now, he has remained one of the most discreet personalities in the online world and is fully focused on taking care of his two children, who are his first of his three passions. As you can imagine, the next two passions are cars and computers.
Image: Antonio Heredia
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