Listen up, silent majority!

So you also were required to study Research Methods in college? I think that class permanently warped me.

Guy

Required to? Nah - I took statistics and stuff like that because I thought it was FUN. (ergo, I must have been warped going IN)

You never know. As a former non-commenter I can tell you that one of the 363 threads about non-commenting readers actually convinced me to increase my V/C rate from 498:1 to 400:1. And I read all 363 threads and felt always very, very guilty for not-commenting!


Reading stories or viewing movies is non-commital, you always can claim that it is just quite interesting to see what other people are doing. The moment you admit to yourself or anybody else that you actually like the story about this girl spanked otk may change your life. And as the statement is written publicly and can be read by the commenter every day for the eternity it can't be denied afterwards. And if it happens that an author replies to the comment you have to take a position further - or flee. So sometimes it seems to be easier to try it with a new registration or on another website than to document to yourself that you are a spanko. I think non-commenting is no disrespect towards the authors, it's more a lack of courage.

I must admit I have never taken people not commenting personally! I have always thought my own interests in spanking perfectly natural so I am surprised that anyone should feel inhibited! Is it the puritan backlash? Is it caused by a repressed Catholic upbringing? Maybe the Protestant work ethic? Anyone who still thinks spanking or writing about spanking is some sort of perversion has spent too much time reading the News of the World!

General comment on my commenting history, dear friends. I'm sure security is an issue for some; I know it was for me initially. I did not comment in the beginning. I just read and examined the comments. I felt a little intimidated too- yeah, hard to believe, huh - there was this intimate community in play on the forum and I did not want to say the wrong thing.
So I said nothing at all for many months. I did continue reading and examining the comments. Last summer I began commenting, not every time, I noticed a pattern with many of the members commenting on the first and last parts of a series and I resolved to do that much. Then one day I found my stats and it was a pitiful 1:36 ratio. I was horrified and resolved to do better. That was last summer. I improved my ratio almost 1:2. It's hard to believe 9 months have passed. Had I not started commenting and receiving thank you pop ups, I would not be writing.
A ratio of 1:50 is not too much to ask. Getting readers to open the comments box after they read would be a big step. Once a reader realizes a comment can consist of a variety of approaches - not just a literary analysis, I like to think these readers will be less intimidated. Be aware, folks, most of the comments I see are considerate and kind. That may not be the case once everyone is compelled to comment.
Perhaps a countdown campaign on commenting expectations might help with the transition, every week, the home page could feature a commenting tip for readers to consider as they enjoy our lovely offerings, i.e., this week you may want to comment on one of the characters in the story, do you approve of their actions? tell the writer why.
IC

And now it's my turn! I am no longer shy and I sincerely hope that at my grand old age I wouldn't be. What is interesting on this thread is the fact that the majority of comments on here have been made by authors who have made/ make comments frequently. To those of you that haven't made comments on my stories, why not? tehe.

Before I started having a go at writing stories I rarely left comments on the ones that I had read. Since joining the ranks of one who writes I have discovered how wonderful it is to receive comments back on a story - it Is so encouraging.

I said I wasn't shy, which I'm not, but I am paranoid that perhaps people don't enjoy what I write. Of course that is always the possibility - I can do nothing about that, except take it on the chin.

I would say that every time I get a comment I celebrate by having a bath hence I'm very smelly!

TEM it is great that you started this thread but it will be even more interesting to see how many non-authors actually make a post.

Let's not go there. But seriously, I take a somewhat contrary view. Yes, comments here are mostly favorable and boost our ego, hence our desire for them. But the comments I make aren't literary analysis, just a friendly way of saying hello, here's what I liked about your story. Do they help the person as a writer of spanking fiction? If you get 25 comments on a story instead of 3, does it affect your future writing? I wonder.
Sometimes, though, a comment will make me wish I could go back and change some part of my story. But once in the LSF, it's etched in stone. So if you ask me, Februs should let us change our story narratives in response to the comments. It wouldn't be that much work for him, since there are only 18,813 items in the library. Just a thought.

In my case it can only be the Protestant work ethic.
I never thought that my interest in spanking is natural or normal, in fact I always thought I'm crazy. Maybe one reason is that I grew up in a time where girls were supposed to be sexual empowered, what means that the male told us that it is our freewill to have fun with them all the time and if we don't have fun, there must be something wrong with us. And of course we have been so well sexually educated and free to try whatever somebody else find appropriate for us, that there was no need for a woman to go into a sexshop and find all the magazines like Janus etc. I really didn't know that there were such magazines existing until a few years ago. On the other hand the men have learned that they have to be nice, sensitive and patiently towards women, whereas beating women was seen as a characteristic trait of an authoritarian personality, what would lead straightly into facism again. So I never thought of telling a man that he should stop the gentle caressing and instead start to spank me. And it was completely impossible to talk about the theme with other women. Submission and violence were absolutely taboo.

Nearly forty years ago I persuaded a girlfriend to visit a Soho sex shop that specialised in spanking magazines. As you went in there were neat rows of canes hanging on the wall, various elderly gentlemen browsers, many with brief cases and bowler hats and a shopkeeper who looked like he might hurl you into the street if you read too many magazines without buying any. It was obvious by the looks we got that women were not regular customers. I should think things have thankfully changed a great deal since then. Maybe men as well as woman are more confident in their sexuality. I know in my teens and early twenties I was very self conscious about my taste for spanking. I think as you get older you care less about what other people think.

I thought for a moment that said " A modest proposal" and in the manner of Johnathan Swift's famous essay you were going to suggest eating the ncs