A Note For Newcomers

I wanted to clear some things up in light of a recent comment I responded to, without realizing that not everyone here has been around since the beginning of this blog. I often forget that not everyone was there at the beginning with me on MSN, Excite and Yahoo!

Firstly, I personally tend to think of this site as a "website" more than a blog, meaning I expect (or rather, hope) new visitors will go back and read older posts and view older artwork posted here. A lot of people use Blogger as a "journal", which means old posts are pretty much just interesting backstory but nowhere near as important as the latest (current) post.

Not so at Banjo's BBS! Here, you might find your favourite artwork is buried in a post from a year ago. The latest posts are just that, the latest. Everything prior - barring a few status update type posts - are as hot (or not, depending on tastes!) as they were when first posted!

Reports of my demise... you know the rest...

Yeah, I know. It's been a long road... a LOT longer than expected. I won't go into great details suffice to say I'm tentatively "back" as of this week. I was hoping that would be the case after Christmas, but with sick family recovering (so thankfully) yet needing care, I've had to prioritize looking after then until they could cope better by themselves.

Still, is it any surprise that it was an old female friend sending me a 'scolding' email that finally brought me back?

Thus, this coming weekend, there will be several new posts going up, including hopefully a (much-delayed) book review, some art (new and 'flashback') and a couple of features I hope folks find fun (or at least, interesting). I've even been working on a story I'm thinking of posting, though I'm a bit nervous that it might be too 'mean' for some folks' tastes!

As to the future of this blog... I had a bunch of content almost ready to go before everything hit the fan late last year, so my hope is that I can at least get those posts and pieces finished up and out for you to enjoy.

I will likely space them out a day or so apart, to give people time to comment (and of course notice there are actually new posts again!), but yeah... new stuff is on the way. About time, eh?

I hope the spanko and blogging worlds have been well since I've been offline (I've not only been absent from my blog, but from the whole frakin' blogsphere!), and hope all my friends and readers are doing well too.

I'd also like to thank my long-time close online friends who've given me space and time to sort things out. As much as I've missed you, I really needed that break... though I look forward to hopefully resuming correspondence, friendship and - of course - this blog, for 2013.

I've a lot to catch up on, and a lot to comment on too. For everyone who's stuck around... I hope this will be fun again for both of us!

Here's to 2013 being a better year, and a much more spanky one, too!

Cheers,
Banjo

A Christmas Message

Christmas again? It comes around so fast, it seems.

It's been a pretty hectic and unpleasant year for me in the latter half, both personally and for this blog; just when I'd think things were sorted out and going okay, something else would strike.

However, recent events have reminded me of the proper perspective. I very nearly lost someone very close in my family, and it's been a nightmare few weeks. I won't concern you with details, but suffice to say that their recovery has been nothing short of miraculous; when doctors tell you that "death is a best-case scenario", hope is in short supply. I don't talk about my faith here, because that's really a private thing for me and not a topic for this blog, but the fact that my family member not only recovered but recovered to about 90% of how they were (from basically "gone") is an incredible and wonderful gift no matter what you personally believe, divine intervention, the experimental medicines given, or something else entirely. I don't know how much longer I'll have them, and the road is still a long one, but I am grateful for any extra time we have.

Still, if the recent 'Not-End of the World' has shown us anything, it's that none of us know how long we have each other. Whether the cataclysmic end of all life on this planet or a sudden and unexpected illness or accident to someone we care for or even ourselves, we need to treasure every moment we have with those we love.

But for today, enjoy the holiday celebrations, but make sure you take the time to tell those you love how you feel. Rather than stress about presents or dinners, argue about long-past family issues or other trivial things, spend time with them. Love them. Nothing lasts forever.

Personally, I wanted to take the time to say thank you to my readers and especially my long-time fans and friends for your thoughts, prayers and support in this difficult time. You know who you are (and how slack I often am at staying in touch and juggling "real-life") but you're all so special and appreciated by me. I was thinking the other day of those old friends long gone, either passed away or simply vanished into the mists of the internet, and I again think of how we should enjoy each others' friendship while we can.

I am officially "back in action" as of today, despite the holiday chaos, and look forward to - I hope - finally getting back to the dozen half-written posts I began in my attempted reboot of this blog a month or so ago (trust me, they're all saved and coming!). Thanks to those who've stayed with me and waited patiently; I hope I can make 2013 a better year for this blog and its content than 2012.

I hope you all have a fantastic holiday season, however you celebrate. And remember to behave yourselves, fellow brats... or be on the lookout for those who aren't, if you're the keeper of the household 'Naughty or Nice' list yourself!

Merry Christmas!

Cheers,
Banjo

Brief Note

I just wanted to post a message to say that due to personal family reasons I may not be around for a bit.

I wanted to post this so that folks didn't think I was abandoning my blog again, and most of all as a way to reach out to all my closer friends I email and communicate with privately too... I'm just not in a place to be able to contact everyone individually right now so apologies for this impersonal "blanket" message; you know who you are, and I will be in touch. Your friendship means a lot to me.

As to the blog, I've loved being "back" this past week and getting feedback again. I already set a week's worth of posts up to automatically post here on-schedule, so you may still see new stuff, and I hope you enjoy. Please continue to comment on old and new posts. Please continue to have fun here. I'd hate to dampen any enthusiasm or sense of enjoyment here, I just wanted to tell you why I may not be replying to everything right now.

Thank you to everyone who welcomed me back so warmly and kindly on my return, I feel bad about this but I have to prioritize. Yet you - my friends online, my blog readers, those I've met recently and those I've known for many years - are all very special parts of my life, and something I try to never take for granted.

I will be back.

Reboot Celebration (Bottom)Bash!

Yes, it's true! I'm back!

Sure, I missed my blog's one-year birthday (that was September 5th!). Sure, I missed my OWN birthday (that was October 2nd!). But better late than never, right?

(famous last words of the nervous young man coming home past curfew?)

It was a bumpy road, and I was nervous even as I published yesterday's post, that Blogger might decide "yeah, delete that blog again for having the audacity to post!". But it's still here, touch paddle-wood, and thus so am I.

I needed the break, after events in my "real life" and all the stress of Google/Blogger's deletions. I needed to refresh and reassess things. One of the things I reassessed was how much I missed this blog and all your comments. So, if you can hang around, if you can keep on commenting and letting me know you're out there and this isn't for nothing, I'll keep on blogging with what you want to see, read and enjoy. As I've always said, I do this for you.

For missing those milestone dates above, and for being away so long with so little explanation, I can only apologize. Hopefully, bringing this blog back and finally making good on my promises of not just new art, but new fun original content of other sorts as well.

I made the artwork below as a very special gift for a good friend a while back (which might explain the level of self-inflicted severity! *blush*), so I hope they won't mind me sharing it here in this form, but it feels like a fitting statement on my being gone for so long.

"A Very Sorry Little Banjo"

Also, this piece does kind of look like how imagine the aftermath of a "Celebration Bottom-Bash" as well. All about the celebration (and celebrators), no regard for the bottom being "bashed"? Or maybe just the result of a celebration like this?

In all seriousness, I'm genuinely touched and honored to know that there are still folks out there who want to see my art and read my ramblings. The idea of having "fans" still seems odd to me after all these years.

Anyway, let this week's "rebirth" and celebration begin!

Banjo's BBS 2.0 - Back4Real2Morrow

Yup. No kidding.

I'm back tomorrow... Google-willing, anyway. :)

It's been a while and a long road back, but I hope to see you all then. I'll try and make it worth your while if you stick around!

Things to come over the next week or so, starting with tomorrow's "Celebration (Bottom)Bash":

• New Art (yes, really!)
• Some of the long-promised "feature" articles (at last!)
• Banjo's Birthday Report
• Love Our Lurkers Day (belated!)
• Unbiased reviews and unpaid fanboy gushing
• A new competition!
• Celebrity (and other) fantasies
• A return to the Emilyverse (*gulp!*)
• And maybe... new fiction? (no promises on that one, though!)

Hey, if I can't make this site look the bestest ever, I can still make the content decent, right?

Oh, you want some hints on actual content? Here's a few themes to muse on and wonder about...

• Culture shock in Japan
• A very hot summer job
• Teacher's pet
• Weekend at Auntie's
• Half-term hell
• Superhero spanking
• Latin heat
• New sheriff in town
• Video Game Grrls rule
• Angry, sexy, crazy?

Plus several classic art "blasts from the past", too, retouched, re-rendered and reposted.

Thanks again for your patience... hope to see you at the party!

Cheers,
Banjo

Note: after using them since I started on Yahoo, CJB.net have discontinued their URL redirect service, which has broken every single URL on my art from then until now. Until I can find a new service and update ALL my stuff, please use this blog address banjosbbs.blogspot.com or (as a backup in case of Google-woes), my old Yahoo Group groups.yahoo.com/group/banjos_bbs. Sorry for the inconvenience.

A Brand New Ugly Look!

Less than five minutes after publishing the previous post, my blog was deleted by Blogger/Google again.

Again, I had to go through the whole "beg to be restored" nonsense, until I got it back again today. Blogger officials still flat-out refuse to tell me what is triggering the auto-deletion "robots" they ridiculously employ, but several volunteers on their message boards agreed with what I'd diagnosed all along: it was something in my whiz-bang custom template that caused the "protecting" (LOL!) robots that look for malicious spam scripts to remove me. Thus, regretfully, I have been forced to remove ALL custom template work from my blog for now. I may reinstate some of it (some things are now "broken" here - due to removing so much of the "guts" of the site) since I can't fathom how countless other blogs use things like LinkWithin just fine, and I can't seem to.

Apologies for how crap my blog now looks... it's rather shameful compared to the work I put in to making it look nice and different before, but if the alternatives are "looking crap" or "getting deleted every month or more" I have to consider the former preferable.

Honestly, the one thing that's held me back from an alternative like WordPress is that I fell in love with how customizable Blogger's templates, look and interface was; simple to edit and could be highly customized to look awesome and be easier to use than the "defaults". Take that customization away... and alternative services seem much more viable.

*sigh* Blogging is supposed to be fun and not stressful, isn't it?

(Oh look, I'm now missing the old "dashboard" across the top of Blogger. That will add some extra frustration, eh?)

Update

A quick update:

A few weeks ago, various behind the scenes issues of running my blog were starting to get to me; even though mostly minor things, it was getting more stressful than enjoyable, more of a chore rather than "fun". At the same time, a very close friend's site disappeared overnight (wary of some very scary new laws in a country I'm happy not to live in!), and then when Google shut me down yet again just after my last post (though only for a day, it meant going through the appeal process for the fourth time) was the last straw. 'Real life' and work had been pretty stressful too of late, and I felt I needed to take a week or so's break totally away from it all. Thus, I took myself off for a week's holiday.

However, I fell pretty ill about a week later, and haven't felt up to blogging or even being online much during that period. Without going into details, it was actually rather scary, especially since one's mind tends to convince you that the worst is to fear, but I'm pretty much on the mend now, and my fears of what might have been the problem seem not to have been the case, thankfully.

It has given me time to think about the future of my blog; I'm hoping that my time away will be case of absence making the heart fonder: that is, it will be more enjoyable for me to return to posting and chatting with readers.

I hope everyone's been well and safe in my absence, and continue to enjoy what I post here. Hopefully, you're all still out there! :)

Short version: I'm still alive, and regular service will now be resuming.

That's Extra Heretical!

This is a Public Service Announcement.

I've started writing up some of the articles I mentioned in this previous post, and it's a lot of fun. However, I wanted to post this short 'warning' first:

See, as I'm always complaining, F/m is by far a less common thing - especially online - than F/f or M/f. That means when I'm looking for pictures on the net to illustrate some point I'm making, show a certain spanking position, or discuss a beloved spanking model, 90% of the 'hits' I get in searches - or just the only pics that even fit - are F/f or M/f ones.

This means that in some of these future articles you may see - gasp! - girls being spanked!

I know, terrible stuff, right? Banjo's BBS has always been among last bastions of strictly F/m-only righteousness. When you hear the name 'Banjo', can you think of a more staunchly devoted, pro-F/m guy online? I've fought (flame) wars for the cause!

Yet, it has come to this... heresy!

Yes, Veronica... I'm as shocked as you are.

If you're so righteously F/m-pure that you don't even know what I'm talking about... take a deep breath, brace yourself and click here for an example of the kind of disgraceful heresy (or here for an example of something extra heretical) that may occasionally assault our sensibilities.

I really hope not to offend any of my readers, and that you will still enjoy the upcoming articles despite this.

I sincerely promise that Banjo's BBS will remain firmly pro-F/m whenever possible; I'm not about to start making X/f art or writing X/f stories, don't worry!

All I ask is that you bear with me in this awkward situation, amid these girls' cute, jiggling, red bare bottoms, and forgive me for the occasional...

*BLAM!*

(apologies to Girl Spanks Girl,  Cutie Spankee, Spanking Teen Jessica, and the wonderful Veronica Ricci (aka Audrey Tate)).
(additional apologies to Games Workshop... but feel free to send a sexy female Commissar after me!)

Follow This Blog?

Since Google removed the little button on the Blogger toolbar (that thing up the top, above all Blogger blogs), I've found myself following far fewer blogs.

Call me lazy, but it's just too much of a pain to have to copy the URL of a blog you like, go into the Dashboard, click on the "Add" button, paste the URL, choose private or public, click to confirm. Wasn't it easier when you could just click that one little button instead?

It seems this is a permanent change, as others have asked about it on Blogger's forums only to be told "it was a little used feature and we removed it". Still, no use complaining, right?

Instead, I've added a little gadget that pretty much replicates that useful button, at least for my blog. If you want to follow my blog (that is, add it to the list of blogs in your Dashboard that update with new posts), feel free to click on the new little button on the right (or here) that looks like this:

Oh, and don't worry... you can still choose to follow privately if you're shy!

Please let me know if this gives you problems, doesn't work, or tries to follow the wrong blog. Otherwise, I hope this helps and encourages you to keep a watchful eye on Banjo's BBS. After all, you never know when I might add a new post... maybe even - gasp! - twice in one month!

Rumours of my demise... aww, FFS! Again?!

Just in case anyone - like Joerg and a few others who emailed me - were wondering... yes, my blog was deleted again yesterday!

Again I appealed, and posted on Blogger's aptly-named "Something's Broken" forum... thankfully this time it didn't take them a week or more to restore it, and *fanfare* this time I actually got an "apology" email (likely a form letter, but still) saying I had been mistakenly thought to have violated "Terms of Service" (their way of saying "we thought you were a spam site", I think) and confirmation my blog was being restored (unlike the zero official communication I received last time, after the initial deletion information).

I'm still trying to get a proper answer as to what triggers the (pretty clearly) auto-detection of my blog as "bad" (every time it's been deleted, the reason in the first email is "malicious javascript", which suggests my customized template or gadgets). Heck, I've even had someone run my site through a malware checker! Nothing I can find (though I've removed meta data for "description" and "keywords" from my template today, in case that was it) and nothing anyone at Blogger/Google can/will tell me.

Anyway, at least I'm back again, but for how long... who knows? As I said on my old Yahoo Group page, the internet ain't what it used to be, sadly.

Hope everyone enjoys the new posts. It was ironic that after several weeks of feeling despondent and not "up to posting", the day I felt inspired and refreshed, I got deleted.

Do please keep the comments and feedback coming... I've more silly ramblings I'd like to post soon (and the super hot guest contribution I mentioned before will be up this weekend too!), but I need to know folks are still out there and interested in this disappearing-reappearing blog of mine.

Right... onwards and upwards, eh?

Normal service to resume shortly

Apologies for the "down time", folks.

The triple whammy of 'real life' being insanely busy of late, the fight to get my blog back up, and the worst flu I've had in years has taken a toll on me and kept me out of action and contact for a good few weeks. Add to that the sad news of the passing of an old friend whom I'd lost touch with a year ago, and I've not felt much like blogging or making art of late. :(

But I'm now recovered from the flu, got my blog restored (for now, anyway!) and hoping to pay tribute to my friend (a fellow spanko) here sometime soon.

I've got a bunch of new stuff to post, including a very special (and very hot!) guest contribution, a new topical art piece (hint: done to commemorate a very special day in April that should not have passed without celebration), and another new art piece that I've been working on for a while involving... actually, I think I'll make that a surprise... ;)

Again, apologies; I look forward to emailing all I owe replies to (you know who you are... and I'm sorry) and thank you all for your support while my blog was down, too. I hope you'll all continue to comment here on my art, stories, fantasies and other silly stuff... I love reading your feedback (and they do influence what I make and post).

Oh, and newcomers here? Please don't ever think a post is "too old" to comment on... unlike a lot of other blogs, this one is intended to be more of an open discussion forum, gallery and library with all posted material as relevant today as the day it was posted... so don't forget to browse through all the past posts and comments, or you'll miss out on some of the most fun stuff here! :)

Finally, a special mention: I want to say how sorry I was to see Otto's wonderful art blog had been seemingly removed by Google. I don't know the story behind it, but Otto is a talented artist and I hope he can get his blog back up - or find another option - to host Aunt Blaine and her delightfully strict and sadistic friends again soon.

EDIT: Sorry... it's also now that time of the month again for me. :(

Gone again, back again!

Yes, Google decided my blog was "malicious" again, just before Easter.

It got restored today, after (like before) I appealed the decision. Again, thanks to Nitecruzr on the Blogger forums for forwarding my appeal (I think the poor dude is the only person who's actually working at Blogger, and he's a volunteer!).

Again, there was no concrete reason given why, though I am guessing it has to do with the changes I made (see previous post, made minutes before my "deletion")... the fact that others seem to be able to tweak their blog's code to their heart's content and that whenever *I* touch mine, the blog gets flagged as "malicious script" is confusing and nonsensical... but I get the feeling that's Google these days, sadly.

I was told "Sometimes spam detection is unfair, but until the spammers go, we're stuck with it". But it's not the false positives that bother me, it's that they make their mistake my problem, and then take so long to fix it, with no apology or even information given. How can I avoid this happening again? No idea... they won't tell me. Also, having to chase hard-working volunteers on a help forum isn't how this should be resolved. Heck, they don't even notify you when it's been restored!

Sadly, what this means is that to be safe, I won't be taking chances again by improving my blog's layout/features anymore, since doing so seems to be what trips Google's "you're a criminal" robots... a shame since I've worked hard to make this "more than a simple blog" in terms of interactivity, fun features, etc.

But enough ranting... I'm back, folks!

And I'm feeling artistically inspired, at least, by the relevant theme of "guilty until proven innocent"...

Comments System Updated

I just wanted to let everyone know that I've recently customized the Comments system here at Banjo's BBS. Hopefully, this will make leaving comments not just easier, but more fun, too! I'm going to do my best to be a lot more responsive to comments here, too, so please do leave your thoughts, ideas, and feedback and I'll do my best to respond to them.

The first change you'll notice is that my 'comments' now have a nice little boarder around them. That's just to make it easier to find my replies and additional ramblings in the comments area.

The second change, and the much more important one, is that when you now go to read the comments on a post, you'll notice a clickable 'Reply' link under each person's comment. Clicking this allows you to post a reply to a single comment, rather than just adding your comment to the bottom of the pile (so to speak), making it easier to form 'discussions' with other posters or to just make it clearer which post you're referencing or who you're talking to (though I still tend to like to put an "@whoever" line at the start of my replies, and suggest you do the same, just in case Google removes this system in the future).

You can see an example of this in the comments area of the recent "Happy Birthday, Aunty Andrea" post, where I have used the new system to 'reply' to several posters' comments there.

If you'd like to try this feature out, please feel free to use this post's comment area... I've added a comment to show you the new 'Reply' option and my 'blog author's boarder' in action.

I trust my more regular commenters will enjoy this new feature and hope it encourages even more readers to leave their thoughts and take part in discussing the art, stories, articles and fantasies that I post here.

We now resume our regular spanking service

Okay! Well, that was scary... and not in that fun, spanky kind of way!

For those who were wondering, my blog was deleted last week, seemingly at random. It's been restored today, a fact I'm VERY grateful for.

As to the reasons for this "temporary service outage"... from what I can tell, Google inexplicably let "robots" scan their blogs to see if they're spam, maliciously coded, etc.

Last week, I installed a custom gadget (with code supplied by Google themselves, ironically) that would let users add my blog to their iGoogle homepages. Minutes later, I was warned of "suspicious activity" on my account and had to restore it. After doing so, I naturally changed my passwords and such... and noticed I had an email saying "your blog has been deleted for MALICIOUS JAVASCRIPT".

Yes. Just like that, it was gone.

Of course, there was no contact address in the email, and any "Contact Us" link on Google or Blogger just says "post in the relevant help forum". Needless to say, I did, and eventually got help from a very hard-working forum mod/helper (thanks again, Nitecruzr!) who escalated my request to restore my blog - or at least contact me! - to Blogger Team.

Days ticked on, and after still no word from Google themselves, I decided to politely ask on the help forum again today... but even as I did so, I found my blog had been restored this morning!

Fingers, toes and paddles all crossed this isn't a temporary or random reprieve. Needless to say, a hard lesson is learned about customizing this blog further, though.

I'm used to censorship, but it seems this wasn't the case here... just someone sending a robot (i.e. automated script) to do a person's job! Is it ironic that my blog seems to have been unjustly branded as a "malicious script" by a malicious script?

In any case, it's good to be back, and a huge thanks to everyone who posted on my old group (where I kept updating on the situation this past week) or emailed me in support.

As an aside... I don't know how many people notice, but the URL on all my artwork and downloads is actually www.banjosbbs.cjb.net which is a "redirect". That's for a very good reason: in case something like this happens!!! If my site(s) ever disappear, that URL will always point to my most current "home", or else a a notification page or contact point. Just something to note (and bookmark), folks!

Top Commenters Widget

Some people may have noticed the new "Top Commenters" widget on the right-hand sidebar and wondered what it was for...

Well, this blog feature will keep track of those guests, members and followers who post lots of comments here, and display their usernames prominently in a list.

The purpose is to act as kind of  a "thank you" to my commenters, since your name appearing in the list will act as a link (or "backlink") to your own profile, blog or website (if you've set it up that way). More comments for me = more traffic for your own blog/sites!

It also should help me single out those active folks who are giving lots of feedback for any "VIP" special events or "instant prizes" I might plan in the future (hint, hint!).

Please note, however, that the widget only tracks recent comments, thus will count the "top commenters" as the twelve people commenting the most, recently (i.e. if you post twenty comments today, you'll "beat" someone who posted thirty comments over six months). This is something I'm trying to fix, but I can't promise... so comment often!

"The Wait" epub fixed... and also now in Kindle format.

Just a quick heads up to let folks know that I've finally "mastered" the EPUB ebook format, so I've fixed the downloadable .epub version of "The Wait" to correct a few flow and formatting errors. It should hopefully now display nicely on most e-readers and tablets.

I have also added a download for the Mobi Pocket (.mobi) format, which I believe is the primary ebook format used by the Kindle. While I don't own one myself, it seems a popular device, and the fact it uses a somewhat uncommon format - especially compared to EPUB, which is used by most Android and Apple devices - means I wanted to support Kindle users with future downloads.

In both cases, please let me know if you have any trouble viewing the downloads or getting them to work, since I plan to support these formats with upcoming stories and e-book items whenever possible.