By Francisco Delatorre
I would say Spankmag.com, the e-zine by youths for youths, is rather
dry and empty, but maybe that's because I'm 21 and not 15. Despite
the site's annoying composition (snowflakes falling down the screen
covering up links!!#^%#&*^%$*^!?) and relative lack of original
content, the site manages to (barely) transcend its cheesiness and
form a comfortable, inviting group of peers who are simply interested
in shooting the proverbial shit. Part of why this works is that the
site doesn't bombard the user with too much information (as opposed
to the barrage of images choking the browser window). It's set up
in a relatively simple manner, with two main sections: articles and
messageboards.
While the articles section makes it easy for anyone to log in and
submit an article for publication, I saw only one article that was
definitely written by a teen member; the rest were authored by Spank!Archives,
a name used to indicate that these articles originally appeared within
the last 5 years and have now been recycled. These may have been written
by one of our younger peers (despite their often conservative nature),
but in the end it's not important who authors them. This seems counterintuitive,
but if 5 of the 6 articles are from the archives, it seems that the
site's core idea of participation and communication is being carried
out in other areas, not here. If this is the case, it hardly matters
whether the author of the article you're not reading anyway is an
adult or kid.
It seems that the site's real strength lies in its messageboards.
While there's really nothing particularly special about it (compared
to, say, any other teen forum), it has the right combination of serious
and silly, from a space where teens can post poetry and actually receive
feedback to discussions of virginity and respect to whether it was
Jet Li or Chow Yun Fat in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Who
knows? Perhaps this messageboard was cutting edge when the magazine
started 5 years ago and simply seems tame by today's standards. Regardless,
a community exists here, perhaps not a large one, but a close knit
one. It has a let-it-be attitude toward its members that is refreshing
for an observer, not to mention the more sensitive and insecure teen.
True, it may be super-cheesy, but it seems to serve a purpose, and
it seems to work. You won't find me posting poetry there, however.