Just to keep you on your toes!
Made this for Brittany7 and the story is nothing earth shattering, but it works well within the context of the caption due to the great picture source. Hard to go wrong when the recipient of your trading caption ends up looking like that, and she certainly was appreciative. "There are just somethings that are not taught in the regular workout classes but a private one on one workout is what I really need to feel the pain and burn." was how Brittany followed up my post.
The irony of this caption, is that 2 days later: "I hit both GNC and Vitamin World looking for a certain supplement, Potassium Citrate, and neither one had it! There were no ladies versions available either. Oh well! One of these days, those stores are going to unleash a feminine wave amongst us, and *I* want to be on the receiving end! LOL"
Write what you know, right?
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As mentioned in the last post, Erin had hit one million views on her blog and mentioned a few thoughts on the TG community, specifically our subsection of captions, stories, etc .. I wrote a bit of a slog in her comment section, but didn't want to bog it down TOO much, so I'll be posting it here, with some annotations or add-ons most likely. Let's roll that fabulous bean footage!
I have never thought about mobile devices and the impact on TG blogs .. for a few reasons. One is that I spend 80 percent of my work day on the computer, and then I come home and spend 40-60 percent of my evening in front of my computer! Plus, I have my computer security locked down fairly well, with the VPN, security settings on web browsers, Cortina shut down as much as possible, password locked hard drives, etc .. I don't trust cell phone/tablet security at all, and believe it to be much more hackable, traceable and much more likely to spit up potentially embarrassing things to everyone, all in the name of convenience. I never really gave it any thought that many/most of my viewers were coming from a cell phone. Looking at my stats right now, I still have 65 percent coming from Windows people, and 10 percent Mac (non 'i' products). My question to you is "How bad does MY site look on a mobile device?"If you view my blog on a cell phone or tablet, please let me know in the comments or email me. I am kind of curious as to how it looks. Due to security reasons and how we tend to want to remain anonymous to the outside world and those we are close to, I never imagined that many people would pop in here on such an unsecured device.
I look at Tumbr and I can't get behind it. I would most assuredly have to 'watermark' my captions, and that seems weird since many times we cut that away when working with the picture as to not get in the way of the story/design. It also seems like people just 'gack' captions left and right so they'll have content in THEIR feed without link backs to where they came from. And as you've mentioned, they seem to favor more explicit photos with just a few sentences in their captions .. and I would rather see ONE well crafted caption than 20 in a row with "OH NOES! I'm a girl now and I'm getting fucked hard and deep! I LOVE being a woman!"I will be honest, I did think about using tumblr at one point, but as described above, I just can't get behind it. I don't want to have to watermark my work, especially after cutting out the photographer or model's informational mark to make my caption cleaner looking. On top of that, I don't want to have to compete with what I consider to be much inferior creations for the most part. I believe there is an artistry to this that isn't just slapping some words onto a smutty picture and calling it a TG Caption. Plus, any good caption seems to get shared all over the place, and often without proper recognition, as others use that work to draw views to their own list of stuff. Do you read more TG Caption Blogs or Tumblr listings type things?
That last paragraph really did hit the spot. We all need comments, for whatever reason we can come up with. For many, it's justification that what we are doing is being well received and enjoyed, and people like Felicia Hextus make you feel really special when she comments on a caption you made for her. For me, I like comments because many times I am trying to get a discussion going to engage the reader, and often I'll learn something in the exchange. People don't often understand how powerful and effect that positive words can mean to someone.Unless you have created something and had it looked at by a number of people, you cannot comprehend how important feedback is to those who made it. I reached out to someone in our community on the Haven a few weeks ago and gave her some kind words and appreciation .. and she just gushed back to me how welcome my words were and that she was getting discouraged with the lack of engagement even in a fairly close knit community like the Haven. She was possibly going to take some time of and do other things. This isn't some fly by night, 10 captions to her name creator, but someone that has made a few hundred at least. I probably sound like a broken record at this point, but 'Tip your waitresses and give verbal hugs to those that make things on-line you enjoy!"
So on that note, I conclude this huge comment (that I'll probably use to make my own posting and elaborate more!) with a congrats on 1 million page-views! I enjoy your work and always look forward to seeing your blog flourish and always have fun when we trade captions at the Haven. I wish much success for you going forward!It's true. My blog is BETTER when other people's blogs are doing well. When a bunch of captioners post around the same time, I see a higher page hit amount. They come here and see a post, then look to the left and see, "Oh Erin has posted something new as well!" or someone pops onto Dawn's page and sees my blog in her roster list. That is part of being a community. Another is when I make something for Sissy Kaaren and provide a link, and she does the same for me by including Dr. Dee Mentia as her "therapist" in some of her playful write-ups. Everyone learns a bit more about the both of us. When you post in the comments, that is how I learn about who YOU are and often gives me ideas on how better to make this blog. All these things build a community.
I think I've written enough over the last few blog posts to hold you over for a bit. Now it's your turn. Of course, I'm looking for responses to questions littered throughout this blast of paragraphs, and you can feel free to talk about the caption as well. I will respond to anything thoughtful or even playful. The sabbatical is just about over (fingers crossed) and barring further issues, should be done around the second of May, or Cinco de Mayo at the latest!