The 50/50 club - defining the Library's "most popular" story?

"The Talk," by ChardT, has the distinction of becoming the Library's first story to join the "50/50 Club," - that is, a story that has BOTH received 50 or more comments AND been selected as a "favorite" by at least 50 members.

With 56 "favorites," "The Talk" is, in fact, the ONLY story with 50 or more "favorites," and only one of four with 40 or more.

With 50 comments, "The Talk" trails only one story (with #1 being merely a story-length comment-grubbing exercise), and is just one of six stories have received 40 or more.

Having been viewed 1,637 times, "The Talk" ranks fourth on that list, being just one of five stories to have been viewed over 1,500 times, and one of only ten to be viewed more than 1,300 times.

Since ChardT's story perches at or near the top of all three of these lists - with so many readers reading it, talking about it (i.e., making comments), and "liking" it (i.e., making it a favorite) - there's a good case to be made that it's the "most popular" story here in the Library.

But is it the BEST story? I'd hesitate to call any story the "best" story here in the Library, as there are so many good ones (even among the relatively few that I've read), and tastes vary. Having checked out all stories at the top of these three "popularity" lists, I can say that they're all pretty good (with the possible exception of that comment-grubbing exercise), so that it appears that to be "popular," a story pretty much has to be "good." As for "The Talk" itself, I think it holds its own against pretty much any story here in the Library. You don't have to take my word for it, though - you can read it yourself!

This is a well deserved honor! I've been reading spanking stories since the early 60s and The Talk, and its sequel, A Deal's A Deal, are among the very best, if not the very best I've ever had the pleasure to read. When ChardT first posted The Talk on another forum years ago I told him that when I read it for the first time I thought, "Damn, I wish I had written that!" I can't put my finger on exactly what it is, but he managed to capture the exact feel that I have always striven for in my stories but never felt like I was able to accomplish. But he sure did!

I don't hesitate to call it the best story, but I have to include A Deal's A Deal in the same package.

"A Deal's a Deal," along with PhilK's "First Date," and Placid's "Accepting the Unfair"* are the storiess most likely to join "The Talk" in the 50/50 Club - but probably not for another year or so. That's how far ahead of the pack "The Talk" is.


* See my recent thread on "One-hit Wonders"

Like all of Chard T's work The Talk is wonderful, but my personal favourite is Three Over The Knee, and I'm also very partial to Jillybean the character.

I had read "THE TALK" over two years ago. Beautiful writing and an excellent story. It should be read by one and all.

Something I forgot to mention in my previous post... One of the ways I judge art, whether its a movie, a story a song, a book or whatever is how many times you can watch it, read, it or listen to it without it ever getting old. The Talk definitely fits that criteria. Every time I read it, it is just as good as it was the the first time. This is obviously a story that can stand the test of time which is what I believe truly makes it a classic. And I'm sure that's why it gotten so many reads, and will get many more.

When will this ridiculous obsession about obscure and totally disinteristing statistics ever end.
I always thought that this site's purpose was to bring together amateur spanking writers and readers together, to enjoy writing and reading spanking stories.
It certainly isn't to drone on and on about statistics.
We all know that especially in this genre it is very much to ones's own taste, one genre may not interest one reader's taste, but be top of the tree for another reader.
Can we please get back to basics, writing, reading and chatting about nonsense that originally had a basis in spanking please?
It may also be that great transantatlantic divide also has an huge bearing on which stories one prefers, and to one's interest in statistics.
"Two nations divided by a commom language" again.
PS Of course you can post about statistics I don't want to stop you, but whatever happened to the old chat and banter on this forum?

You really don't have to participate in any discussion you find to be ridiculous and disinteresting. And there's plenty of room on the Forum to start a thread on any topic you please.

jim, I'll bet you're not a baseball fan.

Or a Cricket fan either.