Listen up, silent majority!

@uksteve

I don't understand how by commenting here you would lose your anonymity. You're merely identified by your user name, the same way you are when you post on the Forum, or appear on the various lists here showing what you're reading or have read. Other members would know more only if you told them; it's entirely up to you. Perhaps on other sites it's different, but not here.

I consider my self truly told of. And rightly so. I enjoy many of the stories on this site. But I seldom make a comment. Some thing I will rectify in the future

Many thanks Mercury5, we're really looking forward to it

I think that's a valid point and perfectly understandable that you don't want to be 'outed' - but that's hardly likely to happen if you make a comment on a story as there's no need to reveal any personal information about yourself.

We've had, on occasion, a few complaints where over-zealous authors have pestered readers who have read but not commented on their stories. That's unacceptable behaviour, and if you experience this, please report it. But let's get things in proportion - commenting shouldn't be onerous as you don't have to comment on everything you read, or on every part of a serial, so if you read something which you particularly enjoy, please do leave a meaningful comment as it will be appreciated and encourage authors to write more. Oh, and it will also help prevent your account from becoming limited

flopsy

Thanks for the comment, Flopsy. I do know that my personal life is not at any risk, otherwise I would never have posted at all. To think otherwise might be considered an overt sign of deep paranoia! Keeping quiet for me is mainly a preference based on history. Nevertheless, since I do love this site, its stories, poems and snippets and, heaven forbid that I might lose privileges, I will post more. Incidentally I didn't know that there was a penalty for not posting. It might be worth advertising that a little more as others have suggested earlier in this debate. I suppose the risk is that people don't come at all if they are 'compelled' to post. Sadly I don't have an answer to that dilemma.

Anyway, thanks again for your response.

Steve

@mercury5 @uksteve

Yay! 2 more converts to the comment contingent!

Please don't die. In these hard times I can't afford one less reader for my story. But it is not going to be a witch story. May be some naughty elf might visit Santa's lap for this Christmas. Or something else, completely different. Who knows?

Uhn... write both! I love witches, especially when they dress scantily and get their butts smacked. I think you have food for both stories, at least the few lines you wrote sounded to me as good enough for a few thousand words with a fat spanking in the middle. And Christmas, it's such a lovely season - when everything should go in red... butts as well... I wrote three this year and I hope that they'll get loaded on time for the great day (which is the 24th by the way, all over nations in the world has got it all wrong ).

I admit to being someone who rarely comments.

To be quite honest, I think that a big part of the reason is that I like to imagine the stories vividly and intensely and giving a comment right after reading would pull me out of that experience and into the world of analyzing. Of course I should come back and comment later, which I occasionally do when I remember, but only sometimes.

When I do read a story and plan to comment right away, I often think of what aspects of the story stood out to me most (and most positively) and then go to the comment section only to find, that someone has already said what I wanted to say. The guidelines on commenting have given me the impression that saying something like "great story and I definitely agree with what Soandso said" would not be desired or even approved. Have I misunderstood something here?

On other websites where one is able to "like" other people's comments, I do so quite frequently, while at the same time rarely feeling that I need to add a further perspective to the conversation unless I strongly disagree with something. It's hard to find words for the nuanced ways one can appreciate or agree with something. As a neuroscientist, knowing that our explanations about why we like something usually reflect the first logical reason that comes to mind rather than the actual underlying causal reason, I feel hesitant to try to figure out what exactly I liked about a story if if isn't immediately obvious to me. Translating feelings into words is necessary for communication, but it can often be a load of BS. (At least that's my take.)

Despite my preference for not commenting much, I can hardly complain about the comment policy. I remember when I first lost access to features due to lack of commenting and thought how appropriate it is for a website that includes lots of stories centering around discipline, punishment and incentivization to have a policy to incentivize whatever behavior they want to in their users. I wonder if this perspective is unique to people who like to imagine themselves in the spankee role or if some who identify more dishing out a spanking still feel this way. Anyone have any insight on that?

That's a commendable approach to commenting, but it's a shame you feel that any form of repetition of what others have said means there's no point commenting. One way round this, of course, is not to read the other comments until you've made your own.

I think the guidelines on commenting may have been amended, because I can't find that statement about excessively short comments any more.

I don't know what neuroscience has to say about the vanity of authors, but, believe me, it cannot be underestimated! Writing can be a lonely business, so ANY comment, however unoriginal, slakes that craven thirst and encourages us to keep at it. Don't starve the geese who lay the rosy-cheeked eggs.


Again, yours is a commendable attitude to the restriction policy. The admins have many a sorry tale to tell about the lengths to which some members will go in order to circumvent the policy and generally piss them off, but perhaps, as you suggest, those are readers of a more dominant disposition, or those with seriously bratty authority issues. As a switch, I believe the policy strikes the right balance between threat and generosity.

In the absence of technology facilitating virtual spankings as a method of incentivisation (or see Rick Marlowe's "An Unappreciative Reader Learns her Lesson"), I guess the current policy will have to do.