What % of the general population?

[qjakal]

Just from a semi-serious thoroughly unscientific guessing standpoint, does ANYONE even dare venture what sort of minority we are? Obviously just as with many other minorities, we have our "closet" members who won't admit (sometimes even to themselves) that they are of us, and this will skew the results/guesses, but I'm just curious regarding how the community perceives itself...... I admit that for nearly 45 years I believed I was almost "unique" in this fetish, having run into no others of my ilk, at least knowingly. I subsisted on submissive playmates whose general taste for being dominated allowed me to practice my desired craft. The advent of the internet certainly has opened my eyes to the existence of a goodly number of fellow devotees, but I am still unaware of anyone in my own personal circle of friends and acquaintances who shares this passion. This leads me to believe that percentagewise, we are well under 1%......anyone else care to chime in with a theory?

 

[Strelnikov]

I'm a dinosaur too, and like you, I thought I was unique in pre-internet times. Less than 1% sounds reasonable to me.

Strelnikov

 

[qjakal]

War no more...

So, we're outnumbered by both Eskimos and African pygmies? This doesn't bode well for our political agenda! I had thought we could perhaps pass legislation using tickling as punishment for criminal activity, such activity to be defined by our benevolent leadership, of course. Jaywalking attractive women would be subject to QUITE a hefty fine on the "Qjakal Scale" of justice...

 

[Haltickling]

I estimate the number of tickle fans much lower: about 0.1 to 0.2 percent. That would still leave room for several hundred thousands in the USA alone, so even this percentage is too high.

But I'm quite sure that over 70 percent of all couples (married or not) use some playful tickling, completely unaware of our preferrence. And more than 90 percent are ticklish somewhere...

 

[qjakal]

Sigh...

Well, I think the actual # of ardent ticklephiles is most likely well under 100,000 in the USA, making us negligible as a PAC target, but leaving us quite vulnerable to ostracization and scorn in general...NOT an ideal situation, but realistic. Perhaps we make up for it in increased intelligence and energy?

 

[Haltickling]

qjakal, we certainly do!

And a small percentage always implies huge possibilities for growth! So many potential ticklephiles to convince, imagine!

 

[qjakal]

Convinced...

Ummm...never had a lot of luck "converting" anyone...lol...you either "are", or else you're one of the masses we prey upon....very vampirish,hmm?

 

[Myriads]

Numbers

I fear all your numbers are far too high. I'd be surprised if the numbers of people who could be described as 'having a fetish that was mostly focused upon tickling' in the US topped 25,000. World wide we might push half a million.

It's a small fetish. But still much larger then many.

Myriads

 

[bandt001]

Let's Do The Math...

This is an interesting question. Let's take a look at what we do know (and somebody please check my math!)...

- Currently, the United States is #1 in the world for Internet users, having the hightest percentage of it's population online. There are an estimated 259 million people online over age 16, and about 43% are from the US. So about 111,370,000 people from the US are Internet users over age 16.

- The current US population is estimated at around 272,691,000. So if this is true, then these Internet users over age 16 make up about 41% of the population.

- There are currently 1,363 registered members on the TMF. Now as we all know, this is THE place for tickle enthusiasts. Even the more inhibited/reserved will find a search engine and do a search on "tickling" at some point in their Internet existences. If they don't they probably aren't part of the population we seek to identify. Let's assume that they find the TMF, or at least that most of the online ticklefreaks are registered here.

- SO doing the Math, TMF members make up 1.22% of the population of Internet users from the USA. And Internet users (over 16) from the USA make up about 41% of the total population. So by dividing the US Population by the Number of Internet Users, and multiplying that times the population of the TMF, we can assume VERY conservatively that there are approximately 3,337 people out there who are ticklefreaks just like ourselves in the U.S. alone. And that's just the number over 16!


How can we get more accurate data?
- For one thing, the TMF is not currently showing up on the top pics at Yahoo on a "tickling" search, and it must be remembered that Yahoo is the most popular search engine in the world. Therefore, it's concievable that there are still a few out there who are searching but have not yet discovered the TMF. By resubmitting to Yahoo and the other search engines (altavista, etc) on a frequent basis, we can keep the TMF popping up among the first results to a "tickling" search. This would increase our numbers, which we could use to extrapolate and determine a bigger (and more accurate) estimate of the US population.

- Remember that this does not include those under 16, outside the US, those too shy to register, and a whole host of others.

Of course there are many other countries we can do this for as well! Our brothers in Canada, Russia, and other countries can plug in their own data...it would be interesting to see the results.


I doubt anyone has read this far, but if you have I hope you've found it fun and interesting! I don't think this will be showing up on a high school math test anytime soon...

Bandit

Sources: The US Census (http://www.prb.org/pubs/usds2000/section1.html), The Toronto Star (http://www.kkc.net/toronto-star/2000/0127/), and other places I'm too sleepy to remember right now.

 

[dig dug dog]

Hey Bandit,

Nice statistical analysis there...and post-midnight! A key question of course would be the ratio of registered users to non-registered. There always seem to be 5-10 times as many "guests" on the Forum as registered folk, according to the count at the bottom of the main page. This factor should be...factored in. By the way, I sent you an e-mail earlier in the week--hope you got it.

ddd

 

[qjakal]

Statistics!

Gotta love 'em! Using them properly(and improperly), I could convincingly demonstrate nearly anything...lol! However, the analysis, while grounded in basically good mathematics, is flawed due to understandable lack of "hard" data on our membership, registered and underground. I have a feeling we're more numerous then is generally suspected. Many of our brethren are most likely in various stages of the "purge" syndrome that was discussed here previously. This state of denial will skew the #'s considerably. I "watched" this site for quite a long period of time before registering, as my natural distrust of talking about the fetish is very ingrained from so many years of covering it with other activities. I assume most other people with these urges act in a similar fashion and with even greater caution. Still....nice work on the %'s and hope we're growing slowly and surely! Q

 

[bandt001]

Thanks guys!

Dig Dug Dog and qjakal both bring up excellent points. Especially D3's observation that I made a little sense even post-midnight!

Seriously, all that I did was to use the stats to come up with a conservative, semi-educated Guess. As these guys mention, when you look at all the flaws in census data, guestimates by Internet statisticians, number of lurkers ("guests"), purgers, etc... it stands to reason that (a) the numbers are very rough, and (b) there are WAY more of us out there than what I could extrapolate from those numbers.

But by staying conservative (unlike what I do in the rest of my life!), I figured that the number can only increase as we get more information. And that's good news for everybody.

Bandit

 

[ManInBlack]

Off by a factor of 1,000

(and somebody please check my math!)...

- So about 111,370,000 people from the US are Internet users over age 16.

- There are currently 1,363 registered members on the TMF

- SO doing the Math, TMF members make up 1.22% of the population of Internet users from the USA.

Well, you asked me to check the math and it seems the 1.22% part is off by a factor of 1000.

1363 registered members on the TMF divided by 111,370,000 US over-age Internet users shows that TMF members make up .00122% or about one thousandth of one percent of the population of Internet users from the USA.

That was the only arithmetic error I saw though. Thanks for putting together the raw data. This is a great thread.

MB

 

[qjakal]

Politics...

I orinally started it as an offshoot of a story I was thinking of writing regarding a "minority" siezing political control of a government by hiding their true affiliation until it was too late for the general population to stop them from passing bizarre legislation with dire consequences.....this naturally (about 3 am anyway) led me to think about my own personal minority and our various problems and social difficulties. We shall overcome...?

 

[tkrexx]

WHAT an idea for a story, qjakal!! And look at all the logical and emotional input from members...We may be a tiny minority, but for the most part we stick together...and as evidenced in this thread alone, we are blessed with an abundance of intelligence and recourcefulness...(myself excluded of course). Not to mention the raw and refined talent to be found in our writers, artists, vid producers, publishers and leaders...I say the time for world domination is NOW! Great story concept!
This from another Dinosaur...We're not just fossils anymore!

 

[qjakal]

Hmmm...

Also an intriguing idea...what ARE our occupations? Do we represent a typical cross section of society, with a certain % of blue and white collar jobs, or are we skewed towards a particular profession? Is there more of an "artistic" nature to those blessed(?) with this passion, or are we typically normal? I'll start it off...I'm almost 50 years old and semi-retired. I worked in middle level management most of my career after 5 years of college. I now "own" stores that produce revenue that allows me to indulge myself a bit. I would call myself upper middle class. I have various hobbies...reading, computer (all phases), weightlifting, racquetball and I make macrame hangars when I'm stressed out...lol. I SUCK at anything musical, other than listening to it, and wish I could play an instrument besides the triangle. I've been mostly happily married to a non-ticklee for almost 25 years, we have one daughter and several dogs.....whew!

 

[bandt001]

Poll Time!

This would be an interesting poll, if we could get as many people as possible to take it. Are you interested in setting this up in the Polls Section?

 

[qjakal]

Hmmm..complicated

That would be one hellacious poll! There are an awful lot of factors that make up anything as complicated as a human being...I was just trying to find any "common" threads...lack of musical talent, love of fast paced exercise, general level of income & intelligence, any craft hobbies...even with these limited parameters I think you can get an inkling of how complicated this would be...we're not even touching on a LOT of possible common grounds...TV tastes or lack thereof...lol. But, if someone wishes to try it, I suggest we get the admins behind the idea. We would need a fairly large number of responses to be statistically significant...

 

[dig dug dog]

I've noticed that even the simplest, easiest polls get a very low number of responses.

However, I'm also curious about the questions raised concerning the make-up of this community...

 

[asutickler]

Here's my 2 cents...

I seem to recall that toyou's Yahoo Group had over 5000 members. If one were to assume that (at best) one in four of the ticklers/lees on the internet belonged to this group, that would make 20000 of us on the net. Given the aforestated data that 41% of the US population are internet savvy, and that there are approximately 272,000,000 persons in America, then 272 million times 41% divided by 20000 makes us a one in 5576 minority amongst internet users. Assuming 20,000 of us is a somewhat inflated figure, that makes us pretty rare. Then again, millionaires, geniuses, professional athletes, etc. are also pretty rare, so it's not nececcarily ALL bad...

ASUTickler

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

Hmmmmmm.....

***

 

[Myriads]

Feedback

Fatboy,

Welcome to the world of feedback. For every 30 members we get, only one posts on a regular basis, and even then they might keep to one section that they are deeply interested in. For every 100 members we have, there are at least 200 to 300 'guests' who never join but just read.

This is average. 3% or so active membership is pretty much the norm in all communities.

Myriads

 

[bandt001]

Keep Tryin

Fatboy,

When Psycho first set out to create the "ultimate TK webpage" he didn't get much response either. People ignored him, or visited his first few attempted sites and didn't say anything. But he persevered, and look at it now!! The TMF is a shining accomplishment which outlived even it's creator.

So if this is important to you, I say keep trying! And now I'm gonna go take your poll.

Bandit

 

[qjakal]

The post about "Rocky Point"

Just wondered if you (bandt001) had read that one...seems there was a group in that tiny location at approximately the same time period, which would be VERY unusual if the #'s we've been throwing around are correct in any sense. An anamoly perhaps, but also data that could be used in the extrapolation process. If it IS the town near my own, it's quite small, even more so in the time frame he discussed (the 80's).........