Blogosphere Appreciation Day

I was finally going to resume my movie reviews today, but something else has caught my attention in the last couple of days and inspired me to write this spontaneous post. It seems that our fellow bloggers have (also rather spontaneously) declared October 23rd "Bonnie Appreciation Day" to honour Bonnie, the author of My Bottom Smarts, for all that she has done for the spanking blogger community over the years. It is a nice gesture, and quite deserved I think. Bonnie maintains one of the most extensive blogrolls in our community, which often helps new bloggers to first get noticed. She hosts "Sunday brunches" for her readers to discuss a spanking-related topic of the week, like scheduled spankings or the use of mirrors to enhance a session. Last but not least, Bonnie organizes the "Love Our Lurkers Day" every year, where bloggers encourage their formerly silent readers to step out of the shadows and leave a first comment. All of them beautiful efforts that help to bring the community closer together. Thank you, Bonnie, for that!

I am not going to make this an official "Bonnie Appreciation Day" post, though. While I appreciate what Bonnie is doing, I can't claim that I was ever a very regular reader of her blog. So I would feel kind of hypocritical if I just joined in that chorus. However, the "Bonnie Appreciation Day" got me thinking about how the spanking blogosphere, as a whole, influenced my life. Without it and without me getting involved in it, I would never have met my mate Kaelah. Meeting Kaelah was, without a doubt, the happiest stroke of fate I have ever had. I have had other happy strokes of fate, but none comes close to this one. And it all happened here.

Anyone who has read this blog for a while probably knows the story already. For those who are new, here is the highly condensed version. To begin with, everything is Niki Flynn's fault. I first met Niki in 2006. I was mostly a spanking video buff at the time. I had already made some practical experiences with spanking as well, visiting pro dommes, but I did not really know anyone in the Scene privately. Niki was the first person I met who lead what one could call a spanko / BDSM lifestyle, who had a whole circle of like-minded friends who got together for conversations, parties, play sessions. I thought to myself, this is pretty cool.

Right around the time when I first met her, Niki started her own spanking blog. I had never spent time on any blog on any subject and was not a blog reading type of person at all. But I became one of the regular commenters there. With Niki living in the UK and me in Germany, there were few times when we could meet face to face. Her blog was a nice way to stay in touch. It also introduced me to some other interesting people. Niki's blog is where I first "met" Indy, for instance, as well as Pandora Blake. While Niki is responsible for first getting me into this medium as a commenter, Indy and Pandora are probably largely responsible for keeping me there. I remember discussing the finer points of spanking and feminism with them back in the day - those were some great, stimulating discussions. I realised that there were people in the spanking blogosphere who had the same propensity for annoying intellectual wankery as me!

Adele Haze was another early acquaintance from Niki's blog, as were Prefectdt aka Spanked Hortic and quite a few others. Many of them had blogs themselves, so naturally, I started thinking about doing my own as well. I knew that I was a good writer and that my perspective as a male top and occasional switch, as a movie buff and as a philosophical rambler could be an interesting and unique one. I eventually launched the blog in January 2008, and before I knew it, I was also publishing free video clips with Niki.

Kaelah, who was just beginning to explore her long-standing fascination with spanking online in mid-2008, saw one of those video clips on Spanking Tube. Through it, she found my blog and became one of the silent readers. On the Global Day of Delurk 2008, she left her first comment on this blog or any other. So this is the part of the story where I can be particularly thankful to Bonnie - Kaelah was planning on commenting sooner or later, and would have done so even without Bonnie's invention of the "Love Our Lurkers Day", but as things turned out, it was exactly the occasion Kaelah had been waiting for.

The rest is history. If you have not read Where No Man Has Spanked Before yet, I encourage you to do so now. It tells the story of how Kaelah and I got to know each other and became a couple, and it is probably one of the best posts I ever did in terms of the writing as well. A bit verbose as usual, but hey.... That's just moi.

Looking back at that whole string of events, some likely, some unlikely, some of them total coincidences, I marvel at how life works out sometimes. The relationship of Kaelah and me is about much more than spanking, much more than a shared erotic fetish, obviously. But the erotic fetish is how we first met, and the fact that we were right for each other in all the other ways as well is another one of those happy coincidences.

I am thankful to Niki, Indy and Pandora, Spanking Tube, Bonnie, and all the others who somehow were a factor along the way. And so, I declare October 26th my personal Blogosphere Appreciation Day. The spanking blogosphere is a place where good things can happen. And they can happen to you, too.