Your insights: How is a lively tickling community formed?

[Erotickles]

The TMF (and other english/international community sites) seems to be a rare example of a formed tickling community.

In other countries, mine included, it just doesn't seem to take off!

There have been several attempts to do so:

• A forum in a general forums website
• A group in a mobile messaging app (and app that everybody use here)
• A designated website who stood almost deserted for almost a year

It was mostly the same group of people, almost entirely men, and the interaction was a lot like that of a group of guys sitting together, checking out by passers (clips and photos), agreeing on just how much they would like to tickle them.

So, does anybody have any ideas?!

1. What makes a community site inviting, comfortable, raising curiosity, feeling safe (especially for women)?
2. How did you find about the TMF (or other website)?
3. What ideas do you have to "spread the word" - so people who are into tickling but haven't yet discovered the site (or are not viewing it as something worth actively looking for) join in?
4. Any other insights or ideas / thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[Ickis]

I can give you an example of a successful local community:

Here in Russia, a relatively large and long-lasting tickling community organized something like 15 years ago, and the center of it was the local forum (actually two, since it split). The pinnacle of it was perhaps 10 years ago, with dozens of active participants, regular gatherings every month and a lot of new messages posted online every day. Since that time all that activity gradually decreased, so nowadays both forums are basically abandoned and gatherings are small and rare.

There can be few reasons for such centralized activity to rise and to fall.

At the turn of the millennium, new technology allowed mass access to the net, and the only one available option to chat was a forum. Most of new participants were grown-up, working professionals, married and divorced, and they came into community having an adult attitude and certain life experience.

Those young men and women for the first time realized they were not the only one with the tickling fetish in the whole world, and it was the great relief. Many people were eager to write new stories, translate foreign texts, find or take photos to post, chat on-line and meet, hoping to find a partner. So, the community started with a virtual explosion of pent-up energy of many mature participants all together.

Definitely, none of these activities would be possible without our ladies, who devoted their time and kindness to the forum, reading all posts and answering to everyone, starting new threads and organizing gatherings.

While the forum gathered Russian-speaking ticklephiles from all post-soviet territories, there never were more than few dozen active members to chat, and large and regular gatherings were only in Moscow city. Actually, true ticklephiles seem to be so rare, that even in the forum’s heyday it could be estimated that for every million of population there was only one active participant ready to write and come, and ten more who just lurked read-only. Perhaps, there must be some critical mass for the community to be born, which can be found only in really huge and densely populated regions.

Over the years, most people left the forum – for some everything was seen, said and done, some were hurt by the rude attitude, or just didn’t find what they were looking for, some drifted towards other interests like bondage or foot-fetish, while only few new members appeared.

It looks like that nowadays all the local on-line tickling activity dissipates into countless private groups at numerous social media, with no one obvious center. There are no gatherings announced for everyone anymore, but I don’t think that there are less real-life meetings – it seems people prefer peer-to-peer format of communication now, never feeling the necessity to be the part of a large group.

Perhaps there is simply no need for a local forum any more. There are tons of free video everywhere one can reach in one click now, so the only thing newbies are interested in is a partner to meet, but the lack of communicative skills makes some shun gatherings, while others have no problems with satisfying their passion with their vanilla girlfriends, or someone picked up in the BDSM world, or a paid partner, or all these all together, and thus they don’t need the community either.

In the era of smartphones and mobile access to the net good old forums are simply not suitable for many people. I don’t know what can be a proper platform for a popular local on-line community now, but in any case, it seems people can be attracted only by a person – a lady of a charming personality, who can devote herself to the forum’s life, having no commercial reason on mind, the soul of the community – something you cannot obtain on demand.

So, it seems you’ve done everything possible, and the negative result just shows that there are not all the necessary ingredients for a local community to appear: really large the language-speaking population, one obvious center to chat, the grass roots activity of sociable participants willing to do something for the community, and some female charisma – like we used to have.

P.S. I know at least five Russian-speaking people – four male lers and one female lee – who live in your country, but they left the Russian forum long ago.

 

[Tenebrae]

I can give you an example of a successful local community:

Here in Russia, a relatively large and long-lasting tickling community organized something like 15 years ago, and the center of it was the local forum (actually two, since it split). The pinnacle of it was perhaps 10 years ago, with dozens of active participants, regular gatherings every month and a lot of new messages posted online every day. Since that time all that activity gradually decreased, so nowadays both forums are basically abandoned and gatherings are small and rare.

There can be few reasons for such centralized activity to rise and to fall.

At the turn of the millennium, new technology allowed mass access to the net, and the only one available option to chat was a forum. Most of new participants were grown-up, working professionals, married and divorced, and they came into community having an adult attitude and certain life experience.

Those young men and women for the first time realized they were not the only one with the tickling fetish in the whole world, and it was the great relief. Many people were eager to write new stories, translate foreign texts, find or take photos to post, chat on-line and meet, hoping to find a partner. So, the community started with a virtual explosion of pent-up energy of many mature participants all together.

Definitely, none of these activities would be possible without our ladies, who devoted their time and kindness to the forum, reading all posts and answering to everyone, starting new threads and organizing gatherings.

While the forum gathered Russian-speaking ticklephiles from all post-soviet territories, there never were more than few dozen active members to chat, and large and regular gatherings were only in Moscow city. Actually, true ticklephiles seem to be so rare, that even in the forum’s heyday it could be estimated that for every million of population there was only one active participant ready to write and come, and ten more who just lurked read-only. Perhaps, there must be some critical mass for the community to be born, which can be found only in really huge and densely populated regions.

Over the years, most people left the forum – for some everything was seen, said and done, some were hurt by the rude attitude, or just didn’t find what they were looking for, some drifted towards other interests like bondage or foot-fetish, while only few new members appeared.

It looks like that nowadays all the local on-line tickling activity dissipates into countless private groups at numerous social media, with no one obvious center. There are no gatherings announced for everyone anymore, but I don’t think that there are less real-life meetings – it seems people prefer peer-to-peer format of communication now, never feeling the necessity to be the part of a large group.

Perhaps there is simply no need for a local forum any more. There are tons of free video everywhere one can reach in one click now, so the only thing newbies are interested in is a partner to meet, but the lack of communicative skills makes some shun gatherings, while others have no problems with satisfying their passion with their vanilla girlfriends, or someone picked up in the BDSM world, or a paid partner, or all these all together, and thus they don’t need the community either.

In the era of smartphones and mobile access to the net good old forums are simply not suitable for many people. I don’t know what can be a proper platform for a popular local on-line community now, but in any case, it seems people can be attracted only by a person – a lady of a charming personality, who can devote herself to the forum’s life, having no commercial reason on mind, the soul of the community – something you cannot obtain on demand.

So, it seems you’ve done everything possible, and the negative result just shows that there are not all the necessary ingredients for a local community to appear: really large the language-speaking population, one obvious center to chat, the grass roots activity of sociable participants willing to do something for the community, and some female charisma – like we used to have.

P.S. I know at least five Russian-speaking people – four male lers and one female lee – who live in your country, but they left the Russian forum long ago.

Privet, Ickis, and thanks! This is a very complete and well-written post!

 

[ElFewja]

I believe the circumstances that led to a thriving, single community were more limitations of the tech at the time. There weren't a ton of producers at the time, either. There have always been divides, though: there were and still are more than a few central hubs for tickling, like the tickle theater and I believe some other forum that I only know about because some of my stuff was reposted there.

But, the reasons the TMF thrives is almost certainly due to the commitment of the admins. It came up sometime earlier this year, but there was a huge push to create a place where females would feel safe and I think that's one of the bigger reasons. Other than that, many of the clip producers hang out here and use the forums for advertisements, which then creates a ready access to media and information on the medium.

So, limitations of the internet that led to a few hubs, people gathered there, and then dedicated admins, plus a central hub for advertisements. I think, anyway.

 

[Erotickles]

Thank you, everyone, for responding.
Ickis, your detailed response was intriguing to read, and very useful. Thank you for that! 🙂

Anyone else?

 

[Laughthirsty Lr]

Ickis, great post. ElFewja makes a lot of good points as well.

1. What makes a community site inviting, comfortable, raising curiosity, feeling safe (especially for women)?
2. How did you find about the TMF (or other website)?
3. What ideas do you have to "spread the word" - so people who are into tickling but haven't yet discovered the site (or are not viewing it as something worth actively looking for) join in?
4. Any other insights or ideas / thoughts?

1. Having an easy going attitude and not judging other users and making that clear from the start, people willing to be
open and honest, contributing whether by standard everyday posts or submitting art work, stories, making and posting vids
and etc., respecting people's privacy and above all having good rules in place and zero tolerance for any kind of
harassment directed at others or malicious behavior.

2. Well, having discovered the internet around '97, getting my own AOL account in '99 and talking to other
knis's (people like us) via chat and IMs and using search engines a lot, I managed to find out quite a lot
and eventually found out about the TMF but, to make a long story short I did not join right away and instead
went to another forum and hung out there for a while and later came here, left at some point (maybe 2010 or so) and just recently came back.

3. I think maybe we need to put some videos out there (if you're scared, I understand. So am I.) to let others like us know
that they are not alone, they are not weird and that we want to be here for them, to help them any way that we can to
become a part of this steadily growing community and to encourage them to reach out to others.

4. It would be nice if we had our own country or planet. Okay seriously, I have some ideas, swimming about in my head but, they seem a little far fetched. Maybe start or become a part of a fetish organization that helps closet fetishists and young fetishists to discover their...I don't know. Fetishistic potential?? I'm trying. I really am.
I just think that everyone would get more out of it if there were some kind of large group that helped
us along, educated people on what we are really about and stuck up for us. Maybe I'm just dreaming...I don't know.