Six of the Best: I have always loved spanking blogs that combine pictures with words, words with pictures, or a happy medium of both. As for censorship, this threat is always on the horizon from government or corporations. We spanking enthusiasts must band together to fight for this constitutional right.
Hermione: One of the big changes I foresee 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.
Alice: 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? It is the community it encourages, including commentators, followers and lurkers. Anything that encourages active participation and makes our blogs more visible helps. Many Thanks to Bonnie for her part in pulling all this together.
You're welcome, Alice. Think we each have a role to play in keeping this community strong. Time and energy prevent me from visiting every blog and reading every post. But all of us together can encourage our colleagues and ensure they never feel alone.
Lea: Hermione mentions something that worries me all the time. Blogger could possibly pull 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.
We spankos have been thrown out of more places than a sailor on shore leave. Does anyone remember MSN forums, Delphi, FortuneCity, or MySpace? Until our kink is accepted within society, wrongheaded self-appointed enforcers of morals will continue to cause trouble. The good news is that we always reconvene somewhere else. The bad news is that we lose friends along the way. Please, everyone, back up your precious content so it can live again.
Mija: 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 that not everyone has the option of paying for their spanking interest / hobby.
David: 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.
Spanky: 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.
Ronnie: I too worry 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.
Spank-A-Lot: I am sure that numerous changes lie ahead for the blogosphere, and 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 others mentioned, sites like Tumblr effectively allow cross-platform sharing and have increased in popularity. Thus there should be a decline in text-based content from many bloggers.
As long as those who believe in the spanking blogger community remain strong, we will prevail. However, Blogger may just have the last laugh. If it keeps on stamping out adult-related blogs, I guess the time will come to look for an adult-friendly blogging platform. I kind of thought there used to be one in, erm, Thumbblogger?
Tenth Muse Top: I think the challenges that 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!
Great response, TMT! You really place our struggle into the larger world context. We do indeed all have a role to play. I worry when I read that even a progressive country like Denmark has implemented internet censorship. We must never believe that it can't happen here.
Bonnie: A community is far more than the technology that links us. We rely upon the internet to communicate, but the essence of any community is its people. I believe if we are strong and dedicated to our purpose, we can survive and grow. Our efforts to build community today will serve us well should we encounter difficult times later.
I suspect Tumblr is at or nearing its pinnacle. Too much of the content seems to be the same promotional photos being reblogged over and over. As my husband says, the signal-to-noise ratio is very low. Only perhaps one in ten spanking photoblogs has any original content at all. That model is probably not sustainable.
Twitter is a different story. It may yet prove to be a fad, but I don't think so. It isn't a direct competitor to blogs, except that it consumes the time of content creators who might otherwise be blogging. Twitter is something unique that probably finds a place as blogging's real time cousin.
While Twitter cannot replace blogs, its influence may change them. Perhaps posts get shorter and more frequent. Comments may be elevated to posts in their own right. Finally, blogs could evolve into less a personal space with invited visitors and more a communal space run by participating peers. At this point, the distinction between blog and forum begins to blur. And that might be a positive development.
I am an optimist most of the time and I take this perspective as I look toward our future. There are undoubtedly threats on the horizon, and they are real, but they are the same ones we've worried about for years. On the positive side, the vanilla community and the media seem to more frequently mention spanking (with sex) in a favorable context. To the extent that our lifestyle can gain tolerance and acceptance, we can make our case in the court of public opinion. We can thank the GLBT community for illuminating this path.
My hope is that emerging tools will provide new opportunities to connect with like-minded friends. I look forward to carrying our message that consensual adult spanking is acceptable, safe, popular, and fulfilling to those who still hide this part of themselves. They need never feel alone again. We have a wonderful community to support them and celebrate their successes along the journey.
As we begin 2012, there are thousands of men and women who have long wished they could experience giving or receiving a good spanking. My dream is that by year's end, many of them will know exactly how it feels.
Thank you all for starting our year with an excellent discussion!
1 comment :
Bonnie happy new year from tim xx
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