YOUR HELP IS NEEDED - or - Getting confident to change things - my take from Ted #1

[SilentSnake1995]

I haven't been to all those different platforms, but I have been to a few. And the few that I visted were not as active as the TMF, and the majority of the content on those platforms were links to pirated material. Moreover, as you noted in your post some of those places are already dead. The issue, in my opinion, has nothing to do with platforms. The fact is the tickling "community" is small, a mere fraction of the general poplulation( how small I do not exactly know). As you noted the number of accounts on the TMF is not a true reflection of the actual population, but I do not believe that you are going to find a massive population on other platforms. Yes, you may find some people, but my guess is you are not going to find millions. Not only are tickle fetishists small in number, they are also 85-90% male. When you couple these facts together it makes difficult for a hetrosexual male to find a partner in the "community". A switch in platform will not change this if the above facts are correct. The only way app fixes this is if (1)there is massive population out there that has not joined the TMF, (2) that population has an even amount of women and men, (3) that population is more than willing to use this app, despite rejecting previous platforms. Let's just say I have doubts about all three of those points. I know that there are a lot of incels on here, but there is fair number of guys that are relationships on here as well, and from reading their posts and chatting with them, most found their tickle partners outside the "community" This is what I did, and I've been married over 10 years. That is why I think the best option for most is looking outside the community and their efforts would be best be placed in that direction rather than expecting to find a partner with an shiny new tickle app.

Since your argument is quite big, let me use my previous practise and respond with a list of points, bear with me:

1. I stumbled upon this thread around the time it was first posted. I advise you to read it, it's not that long. So, as you can see, a lot of people said "Yes", obviously. However, there were also some people who said "No". I also distinctly remember someone who posted one reply along the lines of "Well, if your answer is "No", then what are you even doing on a tickling fetish forum, huh?!" really agressive-like. But I guess that might've been my faulty memory, or maybe it was cleaned up. Anyway, my point is, people are different, even within such a niche fetish as tickling. It's not just "Being completely indeferent to tickling" vs "Getting sexual arousal from tickling". No, of course not. Between those two states there are a lot of subgroups of all varieties. Different levels of commitment, different levels of interest, different tastes in tickling. This is relevant to my next point, so please keep it in mind.

2. Let me mention a fact that a lot of people seem to miss. Tickling Communities is not a dating app, and it never positioned itself as such. I understand that finding a life-long patner is the end goal for many, however, thinking that it's the end goal for everybody is a bit presumptuous. Let me use an analogy to try and explain the idea behind the app better, or at least how I see it. Might not be the best one, but it's pretty accurate. Imagine yourself a guy in his early 20's. He is a gamer. He frequents a gamer-oriented bar in his hometown. Plays videogames with people there, makes new friends, shares drinks with them, etc. Now, there are a couple of ways it can go from here. Maybe he finds a girl he likes at the bar, and they eventually get together. If they do, he will most likely stop frequenting said bar as he now has a family with possible kids in the future, and that takes up a lot of time. Howered, he will probably continue to play videogames with his wife, as they are both gamers. Or he might find a girl he likes elsewhere, assuming she is still into videogames. Or he might find a girl that's not into videogames at all, and gradually get her into them. There will also be some people at the bar who couldn't find anybody, and people who weren't looking to find anybody in the first place and were just there to hang out with like-minded people. Now, switch "videogames" out for "tickling", and volia. That's what, I believe, Erotickles is trying to build. A network of "tickling-oriented bars" for people to frequent, since a lot of us don't have one in their city right now, or even in their country.

3. I agree that the platform is not the most stable thing, and they tend to disappear every now and again. However, people who were on the platform don't disappear. After the Tumblr NSFW ban people who were on the platform specifically for NSFW content, tickling-related and not, just switched to Twitter. Even though 8chan is currently down, it's strugling to get back up. Even so, there is a reason why we need a fresh platform with a fresh look at things. It's bad if the tickling community is small compared to the general population, but it's even worse if it's small and divided into a lot of smaller groups that don't really communicate with each other. If we can solidify it a bit, I believe we can achieve greater things compared to what we can do now.

4. I think you're underestimating the amount of women in the community a bit. I know there is no real statistical data to prove that, but based on my own gut feeling and observation across different platforms, I would say that the percentage of women in the community is about 25-30%, being generous. But even if it's smaller than that, as you said, you can always look outside the community, and I'm all for that! Especially after reading quite a lot of stories with the general premise being "My girlfriend weren't into tickling at first, but as I came out to her she gradually warmed up to it." on the aforementioned Reddit. Lastly, I want to assure you that this is a problem for a lot of different communities, not only ours. Actually, I feel like every group of people that's over a certain size will struggle with uneven gender ratio. Just look at the, again, aforementioned gaming community. The problem there is so obvious, to the point where it became a meme. So everything might not be as bad as you think it is.

 

[duderino84]

Not to be a dick but everything you post is worded and formatted like a spam e-mail for dick pills. Which is actually a point for your topic; nobody wants to indulge a kink if it's presented to them like a used car salesman trying to unload a lemon.

I'll sign up for your app, but holy crap dude, tone it down a notch.

This.

Sorry but to start, your pitch isn't a Ted talk. Furthermore, Ted talks are retrospective. Kind of like trying to explain positive aspects of being kicked in the balls. Third, I'm not even sure an app will help half of the demographic you're trying to appeal to. 4th, I'm not even sure what I tried to read, but tickling is, if anything, quite an individualistic interest.

EDIT: so I took a deeper look at your idea.... why does it (repeatedly) dump me in the UK and when I try to get my coordinates it can't find me? What are the color codes? I'm assuming blue is Male? Maroon and pink are what?

 

[SilentSnake1995]

So, I've took a more thorough look at the Erotickles' post history, and stumbled upon one interesting thing. There was actually a lot of buzz around this. This is quite evident if you look here, here or here. People gave their thoughts, people gave their support, in very detailed messages, I might add. People like CapturedDoll, who have been on the forum for well over a couple of days. Now, it's been 5 months since the app has been released for beta-testing, and it honestly seems like all that support has hit a brick wall. The subforum that has been created in General Gatherings specifically for the app is dead, almost no feedback. This thread, that has been created as a cry for help after 2 months of almost no feedback, also died quite quickly, most of it being the one-vs-one debate between Erotickles and Wolf. Why is that? What happened? Am I missing something? Has people burned out? Because I seriously don't get it.

EDIT: so I took a deeper look at your idea.... why does it (repeatedly) dump me in the UK and when I try to get my coordinates it can't find me? What are the color codes? I'm assuming blue is Male? Maroon and pink are what?

See this thread, the auto-focus doesn't work yet because... well, because it's being developed by one guy who does all the coding by himself. Blue means a male member is in the area and no group has been created. Pink means a female member is in the area and no group has been created. Purple means either both male and female members are in the area, or a group has been created. Yellow means a group has been created, but there are no members in said area. Don't really know why this is an option, but people from Poland, for example, has already created groups for every major city.

 

[duderino84]

it's a neat concept, but it's accessibility (and the accessibility of any fetish) means unfortunately rolling the dice and trying to meet people who have nothing to do with your niche. Forums and social networks like this or even this http://kinkyforums.com/ are just....passive outlets.

To paraphrase ero-tickles video about girlfriends that hate tickling vs girls he could find on a dating app (OKC, in reality) that preferred to be tickled during sex, even in an open forum like OKC results were limited.

So I'll take girlfriends that hate being tickled. Tickle them in the right places and that hate dissipates.

 

[CapturedDoll]

So, I've took a more thorough look at the Erotickles' post history, and stumbled upon one interesting thing. There was actually a lot of buzz around this. This is quite evident if you look here, here or here. People gave their thoughts, people gave their support, in very detailed messages, I might add. People like CapturedDoll, who have been on the forum for well over a couple of days. Now, it's been 5 months since the app has been released for beta-testing, and it honestly seems like all that support has hit a brick wall. The subforum that has been created in General Gatherings specifically for the app is dead, almost no feedback. This thread, that has been created as a cry for help after 2 months of almost no feedback, also died quite quickly, most of it being the one-vs-one debate between Erotickles and Wolf. Why is that? What happened? Am I missing something? Has people burned out? Because I seriously don't get it.

I've been busy trying to run my business. And personal issues at home. I just haven't had the time and forgot about this.

I think the app so far looks good! I didn't sign up yet... and the map is hard to move around and use. But I know it's still in the early stage.

 

[Lisatheticklee]

So, I've took a more thorough look at the Erotickles' post history, and stumbled upon one interesting thing. There was actually a lot of buzz around this. This is quite evident if you look here, here or here. People gave their thoughts, people gave their support, in very detailed messages, I might add. People like CapturedDoll, who have been on the forum for well over a couple of days. Now, it's been 5 months since the app has been released for beta-testing, and it honestly seems like all that support has hit a brick wall. The subforum that has been created in General Gatherings specifically for the app is dead, almost no feedback. This thread, that has been created as a cry for help after 2 months of almost no feedback, also died quite quickly, most of it being the one-vs-one debate between Erotickles and Wolf. Why is that? What happened? Am I missing something? Has people burned out? Because I seriously don't get it.

I haven't seen the app myself and don't have much interest in it but I think the reason why interest has dried up is because like you say it's being made by one person. As someone who's followed similar kinds of projects, albeit in gaming, it'll reach a point where you run out of shiny new stuff to show. To compensate, the project I follow, the guy tries to put out regular bug fixes. It's not amazingly interesting but it gives it that sense that the project is still alive. With a tickling meetup app there's probably much to go in the way of Progress Reports. That and if the app isn't functioning like Duderino says that'll also likely kill off interest, especially if bugfixes aren't forthcoming.

 

[tklfeather10]

Wow. You guys can sure suck the fun out of this forum!

Think they have read the bards "much ado about nothing"

 

[SilentSnake1995]

I've been busy trying to run my business. And personal issues at home. I just haven't had the time and forgot about this.
I think the app so far looks good! I didn't sign up yet... and the map is hard to move around and use. But I know it's still in the early stage.

Okay, just so we're clear. I don't intend to blame you, nor anyone else in particular for the lack of support around the app since it's release. The only reason I mentioned you specifically was to emphasize the fact that there were experienced people on the forum who supported this idea. Good luck with your business and I hope that your personal issues will resolve themselves soon!

So I'll take girlfriends that hate being tickled. Tickle them in the right places and that hate dissipates.

Yeah, you go do that. Who knows, maybe you'll even succeed... Or you might end up like that one boyfriend Anna Kendrick had, who was tickling her without her consent, didn't respect her boundaries and got dumped because of that. You never know, might go either way, right?

I haven't seen the app myself and don't have much interest in it but I think the reason why interest has dried up is because like you say it's being made by one person. As someone who's followed similar kinds of projects, albeit in gaming, it'll reach a point where you run out of shiny new stuff to show. To compensate, the project I follow, the guy tries to put out regular bug fixes. It's not amazingly interesting but it gives it that sense that the project is still alive. With a tickling meetup app there's probably much to go in the way of Progress Reports. That and if the app isn't functioning like Duderino says that'll also likely kill off interest, especially if bugfixes aren't forthcoming.

This is actually a very valid point. And, if you think about it, it puts us in a very bad situation. There is a lack of help from the community because the development is very slow, the develpment is slow because the app is being developed by one person, and it's being developed by one person because there is a lack of help from the community. Hmmmmm. I guess expecting someone to give a hand to the developer out of sheer enthusiasm is wishful thinking, huh?

 

[Lisatheticklee]

This is actually a very valid point. And, if you think about it, it puts us in a very bad situation. There is a lack of help from the community because the development is very slow, the develpment is slow because the app is being developed by one person, and it's being developed by one person because there is a lack of help from the community. Hmmmmm. I guess expecting someone to give a hand to the developer out of sheer enthusiasm is wishful thinking, huh?

Yeah and I imagine it can be quite soul-crushing for Erotickles too. I'm working on a coding project of my own and while I don't have any deadlines or audience it can be quite depressing when I spend hours working on it only to have to go on a long bug hunt with no real progress being made.

 

[duderino84]

Yeah, you go do that. Who knows, maybe you'll even succeed... Or you might end up like that one boyfriend Anna Kendrick had, who was tickling her without her consent, didn't respect her boundaries and got dumped because of that. You never know, might go either way, right?

So you think it's productive to believe that people around us just have this fetish and simply won't admit it because of some societal standard that doesn't facilitate people with different interests existing? That a silly app is needed to "convince" people they enjoy it by proving there's some underground community? This is it.

A majority of my partners have indulged tickling not because they enjoyed it but because they knew I enjoyed it. Some actually have when I presented it in an erotic context. You do understand what tickling must be for other people if they don't normally choose it as a standard form of pleasure? I'm not the kind of jackass that will non - consensually push for my satisfaction, despite any pop star examples you want to use to make your point. So no, it doesn't go either way because that would imply I don't receive consent.