We've witnessed many changes in our community and the process never stops. Hundreds of spanking blogs come and go each year. What we thought might be huge shifts turned out to be mere fads (MySpace, podcasting). It's difficult to predict whether Twitter and VLogs will ultimately meet the same fate. Facebook is huge, but not for spankos. Some observers have even predicted the death of blogs. Will the threat of government or corporate censorship silence our leading voices or drive them underground? Or might the mass consciousness evolve toward acceptance of our kink and the people who practice it?
It's impossible to know, but fun to speculate. That is our challenge this weekend.
What changes do you foresee for our community of spanking bloggers in 2012 and beyond? What obstacles do we face? What can we do to make the most of our opportunities and ensure that our community remains strong and relevant?
To join our conversion, please enter your thoughts in the form of a comment below. Once everyone has registered their responses, I will post an edited summary.
10 comments :
DeaR Bonnie, I have always loved 'spanking blogs'. that had a combination of 'pictures with words', or 'words with pictures'. A happy medium with both. As for cencorship on our 'spanking fetish'. This is always on the horizen from government, or corporations. And all 'spanking enthusiasts', must band together, and fight for this 'our constitutional right'.
One of the big changes I forsee is a movement away from written blogs and towards pictorial ones. Tumblr will become more popular and more common, and fewer bloggers will choose the word-based style.
From a technical point of view, Blogger is digging itself a bigger and bigger hole by trying - and failing miserably - to integrate with Facebook, Google+, Picasa and numerous other online giants. That, along with its nasty tendency to smite blogs without warning, will lead to a general movement away from Blogger to more user-friendly and broad-minded platforms like Wordpress.
I'm not sure I agree that the written word is on the way out and that pictures will predominate. For many of us our blog is our diary - though why we choose to make it public is a tricky question and one which I often ask myself.
What will keep blogging alive and vibrant? - the community it encourages - commentators, "followers" and lurkers - so anything that encourages active participation and makes our blogs more visible helps. Many Thanks to Bonnie for her part in pulling all this together. Happy 2012
Hermione mentions something that worries me all the time, Blogger possibly pulling the plug on many of us. I sure hope that's not the case and that we all go on peacefully within our little corner of the blogosphere with even more great new blogs starting up and joining us.
Hi Bonnie and everyone out there. Happy New Year!
I can't speak for blogs in general, though I do think Twitter is thriving as a friendly spank-fetish place.
On my own blogs, el tercer ojo and the Punishment Book, both largely text-based, will be moving from TypePad hosting onto WordPress sites, hosted by Laughing Squid, the same provider we've used to host The Treehouse for years.
As to the issue of Blogger (and even spaces like wordpress.com) everyone chooses what works for them, but personally I always worry when my work, especially my spanking writing, is somewhere I'm not paying for. I saw too many wonderful sites and spaces yanked at the whims of different free providers over the years, in the process causing, at best, a huge amount of frustration and at worst, a terrible loss of writing, work and communities.
That said, I'm fortunate to have been able to afford my TypePad and Laughing Squid accounts over the years. I know not everyone has the option of paying for their spanking interest / hobby.
happy new year bonnie from all of us that love you and yours and them that loves them,thanks again what a joy you are regards David davetouchintoes .
I also worry about using Blogger. Every time I start using it again, I begin to worry that I'll find one day that my blog was eaten. Though there seems to be an explosion of tumblr photo blogs, I can't see the popularity of the text blog decreasing any time soon.
To keep the community strong, I think we need to follow Bonnie's lead and continue to lend each other our support wherever possible.
That's one of my worries that Blogger will pull the plug on some of us.
Spanky is right, we all need to lend a helping hand and support each other.
Happy New Year Bonnie.
Love,
Ronnie
xx
I am sure that numerous changes abound for the blogosphere....not just for the spanking community. Although it is not as prevalent in the spanking community, the matter of originality will probably be challenged in the years ahead. As some have mentioned earlier....sites like tumblr which effectively allow cross-platform sharing have increased in its popularity. Thus there should be a decline in text-based content from many bloggers. Though I believe as long as those who believe in continuing to keep the spanking bloggers community strong....we will prevail......though blogger may just have the last laugh....if it keeps on stamping out adult-related blogs....i guess the time has come to look for an adult-friendly or adult-cater blogging platform for many of us....i kind of thought there used to be one....erm thumbblogger?
Happy New Year, Bonnie!
I think the challenges which face our community - and the solutions to them - are part of the global picture of unrest, economic downturn and attempts, from all sides, to 'save' our ‘way of life’. (Which is tricky as everyone has a different notion of what that is or should be!) Last year was shocking in how change was borderless and swept across the world. I’m sure it hasn’t ended yet.
Governments, threatened by wikileaks and (in the uk) tabloid trespassing through phone hacking, want more censorship and are talking about criminalising the free distribution of ‘sensitive’ data. The trouble is, they can’t figure out how to do it yet as the platforms are being created faster than regulations can be drawn up to police them – and the danger of being the first to introduce Chinese-style internet controls makes even the most hawkish advocates pause.
Alongside that, the philosophical challenges of the Occupy Movement to the economic system, of climate change groups to energy suppliers and of holistic health practitioners to pharmaceutical companies (a European battle) make finding ways to stifle debate through censorship very attractive to failing governments and any alternative lifestyle group could be caught in the crossfire of loose legislation, which was designed to be able to muffle future undefined protests.
So… the solution has to be as many have said here, to support each other and also to embrace the fearless and creative trailblazing ways of those who would like to change our society for the people… Now more than ever is a year to join the debate and let our voices be heard. How do we want to remodel the world?
With respect and inclusivity for all of course!
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