Recognition of each other, I have been a verified member of ANW since January 2023. I have been going through the site regularly since then and I am still finding new and interesting blogs and articles and I especially like the photos that members take the time to upload showing us what they get up to and where they go.
To me it puts the personal touch to the whole site as we know the vast majority of our "Friends list" are verified so they are "our real photos" which we are wanting to share with other members to show our own naturist interests, life styles and where we get to in the world.
So my thoughts are, shouldn't we be recognising each other’s efforts more?
I mean if we take the time to look at a photo album or read a blog shouldn't we just click "Like" to show we have taken the time look at it and/or the individual photos? Or should we just pass on by without recognition of that member?
It is so obvious on the blogs and photos because we see how many views they get to the amount of likes they actually receive. I have seen blogs with 100's of views but only a handful of likes. Surely this tells the author that people aren't really interested or don't like the subject matter. You can always put an unhappy smiley if you don't like or approve of it.
I just think that if there was more interaction by the members for the members, it would encourage more participation. We don't need to become best buddies or even chat to each other, just a show of recognition could make someone's day. And who knows maybe even give them the confidence to explore naturism more in the real world, or simply share more of their naturist lives here on ANW.
On a more personal note. ANW has given me bucket loads of confidence to be nude outdoors and in front of others and share both photos and write blogs about my adventures. I even talk about it to people far more than I did before.
Isn't that what we are all about?
Before becoming a member here and getting the recognition and moral support by a few of the more experienced members, and many of the less active members too. I would never have dreamed of writing blogs and I definitely would not have had the nerve to contact Halil at Serenity to book a stay there at their naturist paradise. Now I am a regular visitor there.
I would be interested in the thoughts of others here.
Oh and if this subject has been broached before my apologies.
at June 30, 2025 8:41 AM BST 
Thanks for sharing this Colin. This is something that Steve and I are planning to push harder after we complete the restructuring of the explore section and with our 5th birthday coming up in May. Encouraging likes, comments and reviews across the Explore section and into the articles/blogs/podcasts/interactive projects etc. As well as offering us new information on pages in the explore section and new suggestions and more. We are going to highlight some special ways to collect ANW credits on various activity and, yes, remind people that if someone takes time out to write a blog etc then taking a moment to say thanks is not much of a hardship.
Of course if you don't like the blog you don't need to pretend. We want ANW to feel real. Don't make friends just to have a thousand friends, don't like everything but if it captures you for a moment share that.
For ourselves we have a long list of jobs to complete everyday on ANW and it would be very easy to never take the time to blog, but we feel these blogs and other input from various members it is a big part of what makes ANW special so we put aside very valuable time to write something new, and although it adds more stress to getting other jobs done we love it. So it is always lovely to hear back from others through comments, likes and reviews.
On a bigger picture we have had so many warm and positive messages over the years. People telling us the way ANW, Steve, myself and the community has helped in one way or another. And also thanks through donations, which are both warming and of great supportive help. These thanks and messages are so wonderful and really remind us of why we are doing this. We want to make a difference, we want to see people happy, we want to see naturism grow and we want to help people with all manner of personal feelings from body confidence, to emotional support, to finding friends ....
We know also that many people have found their way into a larger naturist experience. - like your visits to Serenity, or subscribing to magazine, joining national bodies, first trips to beaches and so on. Lots and lots of feedback like that from many members over the years - we know that ANW is growing the naturist experience and basically expanding naturism for individuals and in society. And that is great we want people out there supporting naturist opportunities and growing naturism, and in return we would love the larger naturist community to recognise the power and message of ANW and get involved with us in that message and process. Which in turn will have a knock on effect of making our impact even bigger and helping individual naturists even more. We feel that every there is a circle there that can be used to great effect.
This can work for individuals sharing photos, people writing blogs, clubs and bodies looking form members, venues looking for holiday makers etc. The more they get involved, the more the community reacts: the more the community reacts the more they get involved. We have an amazing community here and an amazing opportunity to help naturism and we all need to feed into that. With activity on one side and recognition and thanks on the other.
I meant to also say: don't forget the forum. You can add reputations, say thanks and like, as well as add new comments. And like and rate topics themselves too. Some entries in the forum are very cool and others are very detailed and like articles in themselves.
