The Lifespan of Spanking Sites

[web-ed]

Thanks for the lowdown, you answered a question or two about what happened to several sites that had gone missing from Tumblr and also provided me with a lot of information on the subject of the business side of the internet.

Glad to be of some help, Phil. Today I noticed a couple of sites that were still there but you have to get to from your Tumblr Control Panel - what a pain!

I think you will find that it would be more likely to be Christian fundamentalists from the American Bible Belt that would be objecting to nudity.

That's possible, Willjohn, but it would mean Tumblr is lying about its reasons for taking this action (yeah, that's conceivable - CEO's do lie, don't they?). We never did find out what caused DC Comics to tighten its editorial standards back in the 80's; someone must have complained, but who? I want to avoid being too political on CSR, because there's certainly enough political shouting back-and-forth out there already and because I don't want to alienate any of our readers whatever their political views, but if I may crack the door open just a bit I think this scenario is unlikely for the following reasons:

1. Christian fundamentalists do not have much influence over American culture, to put it mildly. Hollywood and Silicon Valley openly sneer at socially-conservative Americans, who are not quite so backward as their portrayals in the media would suggest, so why would Verizon change Tumblr's policy on their account?
2. The policy is aimed not just at NSFW material (nudity, sex, spanking), Tumblr is also targeting "Hate Speech" (not notably a concern of social conservatives): "Don't post content for the purpose of promoting or inciting the hatred of, or dehumanizing, individuals or groups based on race, ethnic or national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, age, veteran status, sexual orientation, disability or disease."
3. There's a lot of money to be made in China if you play by their rules and grease the right wheels (i.e. Communist Party officials and higher-ups in the People's Liberation Army), so China is still my #1 suspect.

If I hear anything more, I'll report on it. Let's just hope any good spanking "blogs" that were on Tumblr find a new home.

[willjohn]

Every Conservative lives in fear that somewhere on Earth somebody is having a good time.

[web-ed]

No, Richard isn't hanging it up just yet, fortunately. But in a thought-provoking post, he discusses the changes that occur with the advancing of the years and contemplates giving up his blog in the future. Here are his post and my response to it:

For the first time yesterday when I was planning my upcoming trip to Japan I thought about this blog. I’m coming up on my 13th anniversary and I have the site until May. For the first time ever it started to come to me, how much longer will I keep doing this? My overall interest in spanking has virtually disappeared and it isn’t a passing phase, it has been like this for the last three or four years now. Whereas at one time I would think about spanking 24/7, I’m at a point now where I barely think about it at all. The interest is still there, but unfortunately my interest now focuses entirely on what I enjoy. That is probably why the spanking party scene is one area where my interest has really taken a hit. It’s not a knock on anyone other than myself, I’m the one not moving with the times.

I’m pretty sure that it is my age, even though I am only 56 years old, but I also think that having lost my entire family has also had a profound affect on me. It’s the whole mortality thing, there is still so much that I want to do in life and there are far more yesterday’s than there are tomorrow’s.

Richard - these are some complicated questions that I don't think can be answered in a short space. Both "The Lifespan of Spanking Sites" and "Spanking Party Burnout" are topics I've addressed on the CSR Bulletin Board, and even so I don't think they've really been discussed enough to disgorge the complete answers. You and I and Spankboss probably have the three oldest non-commercial spanking sites that come immediately to mind, and we've outlived countless others already. (Yours and his are the only others I even have time to look at any more). I'm a little older than you (first spanking given in 1965!) so I'll try to offer some thoughts and encouragement.

To begin with is the obvious fact of our age. Spanking, along with other erotic concerns, is going to be most important to young people. You remember how it was - and how difficult it was to procure spanking material in the pre-internet age! But of greater significance than how hard it was to find good spanking stuff was our own youth which made the idea of actually spanking a female about the most exciting thing imaginable!

But that's a long time ago now, in human terms. I hate most colloquialisms, but part of our present ennui is simply "been there, done that". I have no idea how many women I've spanked, paddled, and caned over the years, and I doubt you do, either. We're not kids wondering what it would be like to smack some girl's fanny, we've actually done it! And done it enough so that we don't really need to do it any more.

Then there is the effect on spanking of the non-spanking aspects of growing older. We are at a time when we are enduring the accumulated loss of loved ones and youthful dreams, when the end is in sight and things that once were possible aren't even remotely feasible any more. Next to all that, spanking must shrink in importance somewhat.

Yet through all that we've kept up our sites longer than many others who are younger than we. That probably means something. I still want to do CSR although personal commitments make it more difficult now after fifteen years, and I don't see myself giving it up. Perhaps you'll find it's the same with this blog - you may post less than before, and very probably spend less time searching for spanking photos, but when 2022 rolls around you decide you've still got a few things to say about spanking. And if not - well, nothing is forever, although I would seriously like to find a disciple to carry on for me with CSR after I'm gone.

O.K., I know that's rather a lot and we have gotten into some of these matters in the past, but I don't think we've said that much about the aging process as a factor in a reduced interest in spanking. Does anyone want to express an opinion on this? Go ahead - that's what a discussion forum is for, after all.

[web-ed]

It looks very much like we're going to lose two true stalwarts of the online spanking world, Richard Windsor and Doc Ken. Richard has indicated he may give up his blog after December of this year, while Ken (Spanking Minnesota) was actually going to quit this past December but was prevailed upon by his readers to continue a while longer. It's worth once again inquiring as to why people quit their spanking blogs.

I think age is part of it. Ken is now in his mid-60s while Richard must be in his late-50s, and as we get older a lot of things happen, none of them good. I think both men are in good health, but Richard has lived through the deaths of his immediate family members and that certainly changes one's perspective. Spanking, and I think erotic concerns in general, seem a lot less important than they used to when you start losing people you were close to. This change in perspective would probably occur even if you're lucky enough to reach your 60s relatively unscathed, and will certainly occur if you're not.

I'm in the same age group as Richard and Ken, and apart from the aging process I've been deeply affected by the times we live in. The Wuhan virus certainly caused some problems, and the reactions of various governments have made things probably a hundred times worse. God help you if the lockdowns cause you to lose your job or business, because you're not finding another one right now and you can't sue the government.

Somehow the politicians and bureaucrats who inflict all this misery upon us never seem to lose their jobs. I wish all those prescribing lockdowns were forced to forfeit their salaries until such time as they realized that maybe depriving people of their livelihoods isn't such a great idea after all. (I lost my job the last time government decided to "help" by forcing banks to make loans to unqualified borrowers, resulting in the financial collapse of 2007 and subsequent depression.) And so just as things were finally starting to improve, government has kicked us in the teeth again, and the darkness of statism is descending all over the world. This was happening before the virus, but the temptation to oppress the people while pretending to "flatten the curve," or "beat the virus" - how about getting rid of the common cold while you're at it, guys, as if the government's gun could stop a virus from spreading - was too great for politicians to resist.

The resulting economic catastrophe has been papered over by a complicit media and the government printing money with nothing to back it up - the people, not the government, are the source of all wealth creation - but very soon it will be impossible to ignore. (Although there is a sudden push to end the lockdowns now whose timing is very suspicious). What does all this have to do with spanking websites? Well, who's got time to think about spanking when just surviving is going to be tough for many of us? I don't want to retire from CSR, but I could conceivably be forced into it.

So with Richard and Ken looking like they're going to retire, and me hanging on by the skin of my teeth, will the younger generation come to the rescue? Stay tuned for Part II.

[web-ed]

Part II - the Future.

My last post was pretty depressing to write, so let me begin this one by reaffirming that I'm not going anywhere if I can help it. But eventually the older generation does pass away even if it isn't obliterated by an all-powerful state, so what is the future of spanking web sites?

In writing about the future of spanking parties recently (see The State of Spanking Parties Today), I pointed out that the younger generation hasn't shown much interest in spanking parties, and I will suggest here that they also don't have the social skills to keep them going. (I can't tell you how many times I've seen two young people sitting at the same table not talking to each other but simply twiddling with their smart phones. If they have any social skills, and many of them complain of loneliness, they're certainly not on display.) Is the same true of web sites? It's hard to see these mis-educated young people who seem to be endlessly posting trivia (or worse) on social media - and doing that is a long way from real socializing - suddenly becoming more socially adept and organizing spanking parties, or more interested in presenting classic spanking material like Richard Windsor's photos or CSR's comics, that they probably regard as ancient history.

I don't have the time any more to look at other people's spanking sites except for Richard's, Ken's, and Spank Boss's (The Spanking Blog). Does anyone know of any good spanking sites being run by the next younger generation (say Chross's, and he himself has pretty much retired) or by the next generation after that (people now in their 20s)? Is there hope for the future of adult spanking?

[willjohn]

Nick Zula has not been active lately. The last cartoon of his I saw was from May last year. Perhaps he is still doing cartoons on commission. Hope he is OK.

[butch46163@yahoo.com]

Things looks pretty rough for spanking