...communities

Little shops are closing because of the big supermarkets. You are expected to snitch on your neighbours if you suspect them of benefit fraud. Milkmen are being forced out of business because fresh milk is available in the local Sainsbury’s. And binmen will say, “One bag only, I’m afraid; it’s council policy”. As my elderly neighbour periodically laments, there’s just no sense of community any more.

I disagree.

The Internet has introduced us to online communities. These communities are quite possibly stronger and deeper than any of their predecessors. You probably know where I’m going here, right? Yep, the online spanking community (let’s invent the acronym OSC so that I don’t need to write those last three words again).

The OSC doesn’t consist of one website; no, there are the online forums (BS, Spanking Tools, and others), the blogs, the homepages and some commercial sites (for instance, Girls Boarding School and Northern Spanking). (I said some commercial sites, incidentally, because there are some sites run by unscrupulous pornographers who have more interest in making a quick buck than anything CP.)

The OSC attracts some oddballs, weirdoes, and, dare I say it, unsavoury characters. Of course it does. But then we’ve all shared our real-life streets with such people, and we’ve still got ever-so-mildly concerned when they have suddenly disappeared without a warning or goodbye.

You can log on to a forum to read some mother-hen advice from Sunnygirl, a dry one-liner from Ritchie, a stern point from Chopper, or a metaphorical quip from Burns. (Burns, for the uninitiated, is like an Elvis Costello album: you’ve got to listen to the man quite a few times before you get into him.) Doesn’t the fact that there is in existence a Lancisto’s Free Association Thread make our world just that little bit brighter? No matter how shit your day’s been, or how depressing the news is, it’s a comfort to know there will be several people, on a spanking forum, thrashing out the correct way to hang toilet-paper. Similarly, no matter how petty and fickle people are, and no matter how much the tabloids persuade us to conform, it’s sobering to know there are still people organising spanking parties in places like Huddersfield.

On a serious note, a member of BS passed away several weeks ago. The level of grief and shock that was expressed through the site was overwhelming – even people who’d clearly never met the lady, and had perhaps only spoken with her in the chat room, were posting messages of condolence. Now if that’s not the result of a community spirit, then I don’t really know what is.

So, I have to disagree with my neighbour: we still have communities. They’ve just changed their form somewhat.