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About a rating
Site Discoveries
Honourable Mentions
May 2004: Outside Links: open in new windows.
I think it's only fitting that I review the sites that
offered me the greatest and most memorable assistance and
inspiration as I began my journey into the complex world
of on-line BDSM back in 1997/1998... (ratings and reviews
coming soon)
Kisses and Smiles
Wizdomme
Laura
Goodwin
Steel
Door
Gloria
Brame
Castlerealm
Ms
Christine
Femdom
Forum
Real Doll
Patricia Marsh
Mystress
World
Sexuality.org
Lady
Misato
Erotic Mind Control Stories
Elisse
Sutton
Deviant's
Dictionary
Disciplinary
Wives Club
Honourable Mentions
Act Seminars
- Toronto: Local Pansexual BDSM Seminars. Of particular
popularity is the SM101 class
Good
For Her - Toronto: Focused on women with women only
hours. A friendly happening and queers, transgendered and
sexually expressive people feeling especially welcome. Men
and couples are welcome too but men tend not to be their
focus. They also provide seminars and products to purchase.
Come
as You are - Toronto: A trendy sex shop that focuses
on expressive heterosexuals. Seminars and products for sale.
Their seminars tend to bring in authors of books and do
not usually duplicate the offerings of Good For Her.
Lava
Life (previously known as Web Personals) - A special
section for BDSM. I have met a whole bunch of serious BDSM'ers
on this dating service but ended up with one wonderful life
partner through the vanilla (non-kink) part of the service.
Lava Life and it's off-line telephone service is a premier
dating service.
AOL -
AOL is a great place to test the BDSM waters but I wouldn't
take it seriously. Chat features and instant messaging bring
BDSM to you safely but be wary of meeting people off-line
unless it's at a local munch and/or fetish event.
soc.subculture.bondage-bdsm
- While most of the inhabitants of this village are American
and a lot of posts of an off-topic and political/religious,
flame worthy nature often erupts, the group does offer some
good feedback and can help one further their discovery through
following links and doing research. Read the Charter and
FAQ's - Above all, don't post personals or commercial advertisements
or suffer the wrath of the local inhabitants and netcops.
soc.subculture.bondage-bdsm.femdom
- Sister or "sub group" to soc.subculture.bondage-bdsm
the inhabitants are less harsh and feisty and its focus
is on Femdom. Lots of great discussion erupts there and
the male submissives are often especially pleasant to interact
with. Read the Charter and FAQ's - Above all, don't post
personals or commercial advertisements or suffer the wrath
of the local inhabitants and netcops.
Ratings
Each Web site is rated on the following: Quality of Overall
Content (3 smiles or kisses), BDSM content (2 smiles or
kisses), Originality (1 smile or kiss), Web Design and Development
(2 smiles or kisses), Pansexual References (1 smile or kiss),Community
Involvement On-line (1 smile or kiss).
Some sites might have exceptional quality but receive a
low rating because ratings are low in the other areas. In
these cases, those sites will receive a ratings boost of
1.5 and will be identified with this phrase: Site needs
improvement but it has high quality content. Also,
there are those sites that might have a lot of quality but
I'm unable to view it because of the site design. Alternatively
a site might receive a low rating because of the lack of
free content. Since I know what is behind the closed door,
I'm aware of the quality of content. In these cases I will
add a ratings boost of 1 and the site will be identified
with this phrase: Site has a high quality but it's mainly
pay for play.
If site owners and Webmasters want their particular ratings,
I'm happy to provide it but I will only post the overall
rating of the site on this page.
I can be contacted at: ratings@ladysun.info
(to discuss the ratings) or sitereview@ladysun.info
(to submit a site for review). Only quality sites (with
a 6 or above) are reviewed.
Site Discoveries
While I was evaluating and reviewing sites, I noticed a
common theme: quality, care and dollars. Those sites that
had high quality content tended to also have areas on their
site that were not free or that solicited for a visitor
to buy something. In my opinion, this is a good
thing!
I think it's important that individuals understand the
value of their offering and since a lot of these sites have
been around since the beginning of the Internet's explosion,
I think it only makes sense that eventually they would realize
(through loads of email contact, compliments about their
site, etc etc.) they have some quality content to offer
and to respect their intellectual and artistic beings by
offering content for sale.
Since 2000, it's my experience that most people take from
a site and then go off to another one without as much of
a thank you. Well that's what the net is about: free information,
hyperlinking. When one is doing this for free, spending
time and resources, after awhile that can get a little difficult
to deal with. Eventually quality site owners start asking
for people to volunteer their time, resources and money
to the project since it takes so much time, resources and
money to get the quality up on the Web in the first place.
While a quality site owner might originally start their
Web project with no ulterior motives, or interests in making
money, other than to pass on their knowledge and help others,
it becomes a necessity to start soliciting to ensure the
quality work continues.
Each of the sites I visited gave me the impression they
cared more about providing quality content and helping others
grow than the almighty dollar. But lets get something straight,
we don't live on Enterprise, and thus we all need money
to make our world go round.
And lets face it, if people don't offer to support and
contribute to a site in the way a site needs it and on a
volunteer basis, it's liable to morph into a pay site or
a site that peddles their wares. Is that so wrong or odd?
So, in closing, don't get offended or upset when you see
a site owner being an affiliate or having items for sale
AND God forbid they actually contribute to the community,
because they have bills to pay too and if it wasn't for
their generosity or interest in quality content, you wouldn't
have their site to look at in the first place.
Now you wouldn't expect any other professional, business
or expert to provide services and information for free,
so stop expecting BDSM professionals, businesses or experts
to do so. Be glad for the free assistance they give you
and stop questioning their credibility as a practicing BDSM'er
when the don't.
Honourable Mentions
These sites generally have one goal or purpose and that's
using the Web as a tool to promote their: service, event
and/or product. Content tends to only be updated when the
service, event and/or product changes. Also, honourable
mentions tend to solicit for payments of their goods and
services and tend not to develop their sites or expand on
their offerings.
