A large portion of readers are not surprisingly from the US, with Europe and Australia not far behind. I have always had a large audience from the US ever since I started the Man Tools Project. Next year I might split out some of the larger countries into their own categories so you can see which ones they are. 

Again the majority of people identify as homosexual with a smaller amount being heterosexual or bisexual. I want to remind people that this means that some bators you encounter will have different preferences in terms of porn and other things. So be mindful of that and avoid using language that may be off putting for all sexual identities. 

Roughly three quarters of the respondents also bated daily or most days. We love to bate! 

In terms of bating with others this one was again pretty even across the categories. I would say about half of respondents are fairly regularly engaging with and bating with others. Which is probably about what I would expect. 

In terms of Lube, the biggest group is no lube , followed by water based, albolene, bator balm, oil based, silicon based. I must admit I am very surprised at how many of you are not using lube when bating. I am also surprised that Albo is not higher in that list given how much I associate it with the bate community. 

And then the last question is around using other things in your bate. Not surprisingly lots of you are using cock rings, poppers and sleeves. For clarity there are more responses but they were mostly single responses which didn't really show more trends. Again I think this needs to be explored some more in next years survey with a better question. 

Does anything in these responses stand out to you as being different to what you would expect? Do you feel differently to the majority in any of these questions?

You also provided lots of great suggestions for next year which I will be focusing on including, featuring more bator stories, featuring more guest contributors, and lots of you have been enjoying Telegram (which I also enjoy!).

Looking back over the topics covered in this years newsletters I think I've spent a lot of this year searching for myself and how I can express myself as a bator. I've also spent a lot of time talking about and looking for connections within the bate community.

One way in which I have found other bators has been through starting up a Jack Off/Bate club here in Sydney. This has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever started in my life. But what I want to encourage others to do is find a local club that they can join. If you don't have one in your area I want to encourage you to either visit one or start one yourself. Being able to connect in person with other bators is highly rewarding.

Along with starting my bate club the second most rewarding thing has been my weekly Twitter Space with my friend Nick. Having a forum in which guys can come and chat about and explore bating, bate culture, and bate clubs has also helped me explore my own bate practice. Over the holidays I want to encourage you all to go and listen back to some of the episodes.

This exploration with Nick has also lead me to start exploring all the varieties in which we identify as within the bate community. From pure solosexuals, to people who are in relationships, to online bators, in person group bators, and even various forms of kink (cum, touch, edging, CMNM, cum control). We all are unique individuals with different wants and needs and we all have a place within the bate community.

I want to end with a note to tell you that being a bator or identifying as a bator is great! I don't expect everyone to understand what that means and it means many different things to all of us. But know that you have a home here within this community. That you are accepted for exactly who you want to be and we are in this together.