A thank-you and some thoughts about active participation

I would like to again thank everybody who has been kind enough to reply to my questions in the "Musings ..." thread. It is very clear to me that this community is an invaluable resource for anybody interested in reading or writing spanking related fiction, and I have no problems believing The Spanking Agent when he says:


I am looking forward to participating actively in the future, both as a writer and commentor. But I have to ask for your patience, especially with regard to commenting.

The problem is that, although I am not technically visually impaired, I am finding it extremely difficult to read the site's font. Normally, when I read spanking stories, I will copy them to a text-to-speech program or a word processor, where I can adjust the font size and line wrapping so it suits my eyes, but that is not possible here.

I will try to scrape together enough money to buy a tablet pc or maybe a bigger TV and hope that can solve the problem. But in the meantime, I am only able to read relatively brief passages before my eyes and back start hurting, and that is maybe too high a price to pay even for spanking stories.

The Spanking Agent made another point that I'd like to comment on:


I have certainly been guilty of this until now. I think the reason is that many feel a strong resistance to participating actively in any online venues that concern sexuality, especially of such a kinky variety as we deal with here.

Sadly, even after both the age of enlightenment and the sexual revolution, sex is still such a taboo subject that commenting on a spanking story can feel extremely embarrassing. If you, like me, are also paranoid about privacy and potential data breaches, it gets even harder. As you can see I seem to have worked my way around this mental block and should be able to freely participate once I am able to read the site without risk of injury, as per the above.

Thanks for reading!

astrosmurf, once you click on a story to read a window with your chosen story should appear. At the very top of that window you should see size and then a series of boxes. Choose the box to the right of the box in gray and you should see your story displayed in a larger font. Then click on the box to the right of the one you've chosen and you'll see your story in an even larger font.

Next, you can choose from a variety of background/foreground options. I'm certain that from these options, you'll find something that works for you.

I'd say you have already made a valuable contribution to the site through your forum posts.

On lack of commenting, I don't think it is embarrassment at showing that the commenter is interested in the subject. Although it might be, if the story is particularly extreme.

I started posting stories twelve years ago and for several years received multiple comments, as many as 30, on each my stories, including critical comments. Perhaps six years ago it started declining, until now I am lucky to get 5 and none is critical.

I would like to think that this is not because of declining quality in my work.

At the point I started writing, 50 Shades was published, and became an enormous hit. I think it had a huge effect on Mr (or Mrs) Everyone's acceptance of BDSM and spanking as just another sexual game that people played, and enjoyed. Certainly, I have become much more open about my enjoyment of spanking girls' bottoms, and have experienced no adverse reactions. That should reduce embarrassment.

More recently, many people have become "woke" and conscious that they should not offend. Criticism can offend, and that may explain the dearth of critical comments.

I think it is a vicious circle: as less people comment, commenting becomes less usual. With less other people commenting, a potential commenter is less likely to comment themself. If more people were to comment, then the others are more likely to follow. If we want to receive comments we should therefore, comment more ourselves (I know I am bad at that).

The lack of comments disappoints me and sometimes surprises me. I have seen a member spend an entire evening reading one of my serials. They obviously liked it, or they wouldn't have continued reading. Surely, finding a serial that keeps you glued to the screen for hours, is worthy of comment.

Geoffrey Stirling.

The story viewer allows you to adjust the text size from 9px all the way up to 17px. Have you tried selecting the largest font size?

Many thanks for your replies. Some comments:



I have it on the max font size, but it's still not big enough for me, I'm afraid. I can increase it further by pressing ctrl-scroll wheel, but then the lines don't break, and I have to move the bottom scroll bar from left to right reading each line.



This is definitely a factor too! For me, the thought of expressing criticism is rather terrifying! I'd need a very clear invitation from the author before I would even dream of doing it, and even then I would still be very tempted to hold my tongue.



For me it plays a role, at least. About the extreme thing, there are some factors that make a lot of spanking stories "extreme" in themselves, even though the spankings given in them may be relatively mild. But I don't think I can go into more details here without breaking the forum rules.



Thanks, that's very kind of you!

While I believe and do comment on stories that include spanking in the plot, I wouldn't if this was not a site that is 'vetted' and required registration.

This conversation has been most enlightening and helps me understand why comments have diminished by a significant percentage since my participation as an author and commentor in 2011. As an author I respond to comment made on a story. They are all appreciated and, in some cases, have changed an aspect of a serial. I believe that the comments are the fuel for inspiration for more stories from even more new authors.

CarolinaPaddler aka Cherry Red-Author

Sorry about your eye problems, I may be on the way there myself.

As for commenting, I don't think anybody expects you to comment on everything you read. If you don't like a story and have a feeling that the author might not enjoy your criticism, let it be. After all, we are all here to have a good time, authors and readers alike. On the other hand, many of us authors take our craft quite seriously, and it's hard to improve if you never get honest and serious feedback. So if you think we are up to it, tell us what you really think and explain why. Another thing about us authors is that we are all incredibly vain, and if you have anything nice to say about our stories, no matter how daft and inconsequential, please say it - even if it has been said before.

It's very encouraging when people take the trouble to comment. I started submitting stories for LSF about 13 years ago and to my I'm surprise, I still receive comments on those early submissions. I like to think that my writing style has developed over the years and it’s interesting to read the comments (critical or otherwise) on what were actually my first attempts at writing fiction.

Thanks for the further replies!


Why is that important, do you think?



Thanks! I see well enough to drive a car and so on, so it's not that bad. I've always been nearsighted, but it hasn't helped that I've reached the age where I've become farsighted as well!


Good point!

I feel I have to mention a thought in regard to the declining number of comments that some of you have mentioned. I have noticed that the commenting system is heavily moderated, and with a very narrow window of what is deemed an acceptable comment. Is this the result of recent policy changes, and if so could it have contributed to demotivating people from commenting?