The Internet
2nd Level Green Feather
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2016
- Messages
- 4,333
- Points
- 38
Jeff, how did the TMF start, and who started it?
The TMF was originally started in 1999 by a guy whose username was Psycho. The Internet was so different then that it's hard to even explain what the forum started as... back then, it was very hard to get public space for your own personal website because bandwidth was so rare and expensive. But there was one website that offered free bulletin boards for people to set up and Psycho created one for the tickling community.
Unfortunately, the company doing this wasn't making any money from their bulletin board service and pretty soon they started spamming obnoxious ads, like multiple pop-ups with audio in them, and tried to charge people a subscription fee to experience their site without ads. That's an idea that's sort of coming around again lately, but back then there was no such thing as an ad-blocker or even a popup blocker.
It wasn't really worth using after that, but the community that had grown there in a short amount of time was pretty impressive. These days we're used to seeing a thousand people on the TMF at any given time, but in the early days of the Internet just finding out that there were a few hundred people who were all interested in tickling was an amazing thing to feel. People under a certain age probably can't really understand how isolated the world was, and how you only ever knew the people who lived very near you.
At the time I was still an active video producer, so I decided to volunteer to pay for us to make a move onto a private server with our own forum software as my way of giving back to the community. That was in 2001, when we officially launched ticklingforum.com. It ended up being lucky that I did that, because a short time later Psycho underwent some kind of religious awakening and started trying to dismantle as much of the online tickling community as he could get access to. He deleted backlogs of posts on the old forum and even tried to shut down the TMF and replace it with a site devoted to his religious beliefs. It was all in my name though, so I was able to take control and restore things.
At that point, Myriads contacted me and we talked about the fact that he had been running the forum day-to-day for Psycho and he offered to continue doing it for me. Which was another way that we got very lucky in those early days, because there is probably nobody else who could have kept such a steady hand on the wheel for this long. Myriads is a rock, he literally never says he's going to do something and then fails to do it.
Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems that other moderators are very silent. Are they there and just not interacting? Or is down to just you?
They're around for the most part, but like a lot of old-time members they've moved on in their lives. After fifteen years a lot of people get married and have kids and their lives change, or they just drift away from active participation. The forum doesn't really need that much moderation because we've become a long-standing online community with a personality and tone that are consistent, so we've never needed to bring on any new ones to replace the less active ones. Moderating at this point is mostly about cleaning up spam. We're a pretty big forum so we attract a lot of spambots.
One of the great things about the TMF is there's not pop up ads, or a million banner ads all over the place, you have it set for tickling companies only. How important is the success of the commercial companies to the continuation of the TMF?
I guess I would distinguish between companies that come from the community and are run by real tickling fetishists, and ones that just advertise on the TMF because it's financially smart. People who are known on the forum, and are active and friendly, are very important to me. The ones who just sort of slam their ads onto the forum and don't even seem to really be aware that we're a community could all disappear as far as I'm concerned.
Have you ever wanted to walk away from the TMF?
Not ever.
What would happen to the TMF if you decided to quit? Does it just run on its own?
It doesn't run on it's own but it doesn't need me to run it either. HDS (HisDivineShadow) is probably the only indispensable one because he's the only one who knows how to fix it when it's broken. I can't imagine I'd ever quit, but if I died I would hope that the forum would live on. HDS wouldn't be able to renew the URL I don't think, but he does have backups of the database and hopefully we'd pop right back up under a slightly different name.
That is definitely news. We may have to start raising up some leaders. Someone perhaps not yet born will one day take over the reins of this place!
You never know!
Any favorite posters/threads? Past or present?
Right now you're one of my favorite posters. You've lit the mainstream forums on fire, which is my personal favorite place to hang out so it's especially cool for me.
You're kidding. That is startling news for me to hear, thank you!
You're very welcome!
Over the years, there have been so many sub-forums and sections added to the TMF. No music forum, though! Why not?
Every time we create a new subforum in GD, we give people another reason not to post in GD. If anything, we need fewer specific subforums there, not more.
Gotcha. Well, what about this: when the Forum first started - let's face it - it was almost entirely guys, and pretty much it was the hub for where you would find out about new video releases. And then gradually the Forum fanned out into the colossus it is today. Now…there are a lot of sisters on the Forum. Do you ever think perhaps they should have their own subforum, a no-guys-allowed forum?
I always remember there being a fair number of women around, at gatherings and online. I think it's more that they aren't as comfortable talking publicly because some guys, with the cover of online anonymity, can be creepy assholes, or just assholes. Some women too, but way more men.
If anything, I think we've become more accepting of men overall. When the forum started there was a strong bias against male bottoms and gay fetish stuff, and over the years that's pretty much gone away entirely. Or at least I think/hope it has.
We kicked around the idea of a girls-only forum at one point, but it stalled out at "How do you determine gender?"
Do you think it's easier to be comfortable with yourself when you have an outlet like this? We now have people on the Forum who were kids when the Forum started and who came of age with this available to them. They seem a little more comfortable about it within themselves than, say, I was back in my early 20s. Or even now! Where do you think these younger people would be today, within themselves, had there not been the internet, or more importantly, this Forum? Do you think the Forum has helped these people? Or do you think it's just an evolution of sexual mores?
I think it's definitely a lot easier to be who you are today, than it was even 15 years ago. Not just in the tickling community or fetishes in general, but whatever you're into. The internet has enabled people to find other like-minded people, both for good and ill.
I think there's going to be a big increase in the next few years. What do you think?
I hope so - it's hard to say. It will depend a lot on our (my) ability to enable the forum to reach more people and evolve with the times. If we had real resources I think we could reach a lot of people and do some amazing things, but try finding funding for crazy fetish website projects.
Did you ever think you'd be still doing this 16 years later?
I never even thought 16 years ahead to be honest.
Does it feel like 16 years?
It does not feel like 16 years. I can't believe this forum has existed for so long.
Anything wild in the works that we don't know about? A TMF spaceship? Televised Golden Feather Awards?
Not at the moment!
What are the biggest hassles as a moderator?
The most frustrating thing I have to do is deal with people who are never going to agree with something I've done. I try pretty hard to be reasonable and even-handed on the forum, and to really be as free from personal issues as possible when I make a decision. But sometimes people are just going to disagree with you, and they're not going to want to stop trying to convince you. And a lot of times, they get insulting and personal, or threatening, and that can be annoying.
From time to time, people have been banned from the Forum. But I feel like the moderators are pretty patient and give people a lot of rope. I, for one, don't ever feel like I'm "being moderated". What does a person have to do to get her or himself banned?
It's not easy, you have to really want it. We usually only ban people who are actively trying to be assholes, and only after trying to talk them down off the ledge.
And they have to be being assholes to someone other than me, because I don't really care if people insult me personally. I've gotten mad about being moderated from time to time myself, and I've been tempted to tell someone to fuck off over it, so I genuinely don't take it personally when people do that to me. But if they're on the attack against someone else, or some group of people, and they won't back off when we ask them to a couple of times, that's when we'll kill an account. But even then they're generally welcome to return with a new username and try again.
I'm glad you don't feel moderated. I personally hate it when websites become little cults of personality where someone is constantly berating people for doing things the wrong way or violating some obscure local custom.
In the past, you have put yourself out there, in your own video clips and have even appeared on television…were there ever any ramifications in your own life from being so high-profile?
Not really, though looking back I'm surprised at how little I cared about that. I don't think I'd be so quick to do it today.
One question I've always wanted to ask a video producer: let's say you hire a model, you're all set, you have the money….she shows up…..and she's a total vegetable. She's not ticklish today, or ever. What's the situation then? Do you still have to pay? Do you try to fake it? It must be a very uncomfortable moment!
It's VERY uncomfortable. I've had it happen a few times, and I just pay them and thank them for their time. I feel like I owe them for coming and trying. They put themselves in a very vulnerable position in good faith, and I feel like the right thing to do is to pay them for it. They're always very upset when that happens, and apologetic.
Back to the TMF….what happens to people when they leave the Forum?
I've only heard rumors, but I think they just quickly die of boredom
Is there a time where one is too old and should maybe retire from the Forum, make room for the new crop? Or are we all going to die online together, like Jonestown?!!!
Eventually we'll all move to an island and retire together.
What can one do for the TMF, if so inclined? Is there any need, something somebody can help out with? Are you looking for a specific someone.....a tech person, a lawyer, a typist?
The only thing I wish we had more of is more active participants. We could always have more conversations going on, and those are the real lifeblood of a community.
Are there some unsung heroes that we don't about? Past or present?
HisDivineShadow is THE unsung hero of the TMF. Without him, we would not exist, period. He's a rock star who never takes a bow.
Wow, I did not know that. HisDivineShadow. He's the man.
No question about it.
Understood. Ok, one last question…..are you ready?
Yes.
Why are we so into this? What is it about this particular thing?
I do not have the slightest idea.
Me either. Hey, listen…..thanks, Jeff. And HDS, and Myriads, if you're reading this. Really. Truly. From all of us. Thousands of us. Thanks for all your hard work over the years. It's made all the difference to me, I can tell you that much, it really has. Thanks, man.
My pleasure. You guys have made a huge difference in my life, too.
The TMF was originally started in 1999 by a guy whose username was Psycho. The Internet was so different then that it's hard to even explain what the forum started as... back then, it was very hard to get public space for your own personal website because bandwidth was so rare and expensive. But there was one website that offered free bulletin boards for people to set up and Psycho created one for the tickling community.
Unfortunately, the company doing this wasn't making any money from their bulletin board service and pretty soon they started spamming obnoxious ads, like multiple pop-ups with audio in them, and tried to charge people a subscription fee to experience their site without ads. That's an idea that's sort of coming around again lately, but back then there was no such thing as an ad-blocker or even a popup blocker.
It wasn't really worth using after that, but the community that had grown there in a short amount of time was pretty impressive. These days we're used to seeing a thousand people on the TMF at any given time, but in the early days of the Internet just finding out that there were a few hundred people who were all interested in tickling was an amazing thing to feel. People under a certain age probably can't really understand how isolated the world was, and how you only ever knew the people who lived very near you.
At the time I was still an active video producer, so I decided to volunteer to pay for us to make a move onto a private server with our own forum software as my way of giving back to the community. That was in 2001, when we officially launched ticklingforum.com. It ended up being lucky that I did that, because a short time later Psycho underwent some kind of religious awakening and started trying to dismantle as much of the online tickling community as he could get access to. He deleted backlogs of posts on the old forum and even tried to shut down the TMF and replace it with a site devoted to his religious beliefs. It was all in my name though, so I was able to take control and restore things.
At that point, Myriads contacted me and we talked about the fact that he had been running the forum day-to-day for Psycho and he offered to continue doing it for me. Which was another way that we got very lucky in those early days, because there is probably nobody else who could have kept such a steady hand on the wheel for this long. Myriads is a rock, he literally never says he's going to do something and then fails to do it.
Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems that other moderators are very silent. Are they there and just not interacting? Or is down to just you?
They're around for the most part, but like a lot of old-time members they've moved on in their lives. After fifteen years a lot of people get married and have kids and their lives change, or they just drift away from active participation. The forum doesn't really need that much moderation because we've become a long-standing online community with a personality and tone that are consistent, so we've never needed to bring on any new ones to replace the less active ones. Moderating at this point is mostly about cleaning up spam. We're a pretty big forum so we attract a lot of spambots.
One of the great things about the TMF is there's not pop up ads, or a million banner ads all over the place, you have it set for tickling companies only. How important is the success of the commercial companies to the continuation of the TMF?
I guess I would distinguish between companies that come from the community and are run by real tickling fetishists, and ones that just advertise on the TMF because it's financially smart. People who are known on the forum, and are active and friendly, are very important to me. The ones who just sort of slam their ads onto the forum and don't even seem to really be aware that we're a community could all disappear as far as I'm concerned.
Have you ever wanted to walk away from the TMF?
Not ever.
What would happen to the TMF if you decided to quit? Does it just run on its own?
It doesn't run on it's own but it doesn't need me to run it either. HDS (HisDivineShadow) is probably the only indispensable one because he's the only one who knows how to fix it when it's broken. I can't imagine I'd ever quit, but if I died I would hope that the forum would live on. HDS wouldn't be able to renew the URL I don't think, but he does have backups of the database and hopefully we'd pop right back up under a slightly different name.
That is definitely news. We may have to start raising up some leaders. Someone perhaps not yet born will one day take over the reins of this place!
You never know!
Any favorite posters/threads? Past or present?
Right now you're one of my favorite posters. You've lit the mainstream forums on fire, which is my personal favorite place to hang out so it's especially cool for me.
You're kidding. That is startling news for me to hear, thank you!
You're very welcome!
Over the years, there have been so many sub-forums and sections added to the TMF. No music forum, though! Why not?
Every time we create a new subforum in GD, we give people another reason not to post in GD. If anything, we need fewer specific subforums there, not more.
Gotcha. Well, what about this: when the Forum first started - let's face it - it was almost entirely guys, and pretty much it was the hub for where you would find out about new video releases. And then gradually the Forum fanned out into the colossus it is today. Now…there are a lot of sisters on the Forum. Do you ever think perhaps they should have their own subforum, a no-guys-allowed forum?
I always remember there being a fair number of women around, at gatherings and online. I think it's more that they aren't as comfortable talking publicly because some guys, with the cover of online anonymity, can be creepy assholes, or just assholes. Some women too, but way more men.
If anything, I think we've become more accepting of men overall. When the forum started there was a strong bias against male bottoms and gay fetish stuff, and over the years that's pretty much gone away entirely. Or at least I think/hope it has.
We kicked around the idea of a girls-only forum at one point, but it stalled out at "How do you determine gender?"
Do you think it's easier to be comfortable with yourself when you have an outlet like this? We now have people on the Forum who were kids when the Forum started and who came of age with this available to them. They seem a little more comfortable about it within themselves than, say, I was back in my early 20s. Or even now! Where do you think these younger people would be today, within themselves, had there not been the internet, or more importantly, this Forum? Do you think the Forum has helped these people? Or do you think it's just an evolution of sexual mores?
I think it's definitely a lot easier to be who you are today, than it was even 15 years ago. Not just in the tickling community or fetishes in general, but whatever you're into. The internet has enabled people to find other like-minded people, both for good and ill.
I think there's going to be a big increase in the next few years. What do you think?
I hope so - it's hard to say. It will depend a lot on our (my) ability to enable the forum to reach more people and evolve with the times. If we had real resources I think we could reach a lot of people and do some amazing things, but try finding funding for crazy fetish website projects.
Did you ever think you'd be still doing this 16 years later?
I never even thought 16 years ahead to be honest.
Does it feel like 16 years?
It does not feel like 16 years. I can't believe this forum has existed for so long.
Anything wild in the works that we don't know about? A TMF spaceship? Televised Golden Feather Awards?
Not at the moment!
What are the biggest hassles as a moderator?
The most frustrating thing I have to do is deal with people who are never going to agree with something I've done. I try pretty hard to be reasonable and even-handed on the forum, and to really be as free from personal issues as possible when I make a decision. But sometimes people are just going to disagree with you, and they're not going to want to stop trying to convince you. And a lot of times, they get insulting and personal, or threatening, and that can be annoying.
From time to time, people have been banned from the Forum. But I feel like the moderators are pretty patient and give people a lot of rope. I, for one, don't ever feel like I'm "being moderated". What does a person have to do to get her or himself banned?
It's not easy, you have to really want it. We usually only ban people who are actively trying to be assholes, and only after trying to talk them down off the ledge.
And they have to be being assholes to someone other than me, because I don't really care if people insult me personally. I've gotten mad about being moderated from time to time myself, and I've been tempted to tell someone to fuck off over it, so I genuinely don't take it personally when people do that to me. But if they're on the attack against someone else, or some group of people, and they won't back off when we ask them to a couple of times, that's when we'll kill an account. But even then they're generally welcome to return with a new username and try again.
I'm glad you don't feel moderated. I personally hate it when websites become little cults of personality where someone is constantly berating people for doing things the wrong way or violating some obscure local custom.
In the past, you have put yourself out there, in your own video clips and have even appeared on television…were there ever any ramifications in your own life from being so high-profile?
Not really, though looking back I'm surprised at how little I cared about that. I don't think I'd be so quick to do it today.
One question I've always wanted to ask a video producer: let's say you hire a model, you're all set, you have the money….she shows up…..and she's a total vegetable. She's not ticklish today, or ever. What's the situation then? Do you still have to pay? Do you try to fake it? It must be a very uncomfortable moment!
It's VERY uncomfortable. I've had it happen a few times, and I just pay them and thank them for their time. I feel like I owe them for coming and trying. They put themselves in a very vulnerable position in good faith, and I feel like the right thing to do is to pay them for it. They're always very upset when that happens, and apologetic.
Back to the TMF….what happens to people when they leave the Forum?
I've only heard rumors, but I think they just quickly die of boredom
Is there a time where one is too old and should maybe retire from the Forum, make room for the new crop? Or are we all going to die online together, like Jonestown?!!!
Eventually we'll all move to an island and retire together.
What can one do for the TMF, if so inclined? Is there any need, something somebody can help out with? Are you looking for a specific someone.....a tech person, a lawyer, a typist?
The only thing I wish we had more of is more active participants. We could always have more conversations going on, and those are the real lifeblood of a community.
Are there some unsung heroes that we don't about? Past or present?
HisDivineShadow is THE unsung hero of the TMF. Without him, we would not exist, period. He's a rock star who never takes a bow.
Wow, I did not know that. HisDivineShadow. He's the man.
No question about it.
Understood. Ok, one last question…..are you ready?
Yes.
Why are we so into this? What is it about this particular thing?
I do not have the slightest idea.
Me either. Hey, listen…..thanks, Jeff. And HDS, and Myriads, if you're reading this. Really. Truly. From all of us. Thousands of us. Thanks for all your hard work over the years. It's made all the difference to me, I can tell you that much, it really has. Thanks, man.
My pleasure. You guys have made a huge difference in my life, too.
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