Covering January 1, 2025 – December 29, 2025.

As this year closes, I keep coming back to one simple truth: ConsentCulture.community isn’t built from ideas in a vacuum. It’s built from people — from the questions you’ve trusted me with, the gentle corrections, the “hey, what did you mean by…?” messages, and the conversations that start in one place and keep unfolding in another.

So this is not a victory lap. It’s a thank you note. It’s a listening report. And it’s a marker in the sand before we step into 2026.

What made the writing possible

Most articles this year didn’t begin as “content.” They began as:

• emails that arrived late at night, when someone was trying to find the right words
• texts that started as a single question and turned into a full conversation
• calls that helped me understand what was actually happening underneath the surface
• in‑person chats — sometimes at a café, sometimes at an event, sometimes at a party — where a topic would land and we’d all go quiet for a moment

If you’ve ever shared something with me in any of those ways: thank you. It matters. And it changes what gets written.

What we built together

This year we kept building the site in a way that (I hope) makes it easier to learn without needing to already know the language.

That has meant:

• Articles that slow down complicated topics and make room for nuance (browse the full library).
• Hubs and clusters that group related ideas so you can follow a thread without starting from scratch (for example: Kink Exploration Hub and Sexual Health Resource).
• A growing Glossary for the moments when someone says a word and your brain goes “wait — what does that mean?” (start here).
• FAQs that try to meet real‑world questions with clear, practical answers (browse FAQs).

We also learned something simple but important: sometimes the most helpful thing isn’t a new opinion — it’s a clearer definition, a better example, or a gentler way of saying the same truth.

If you want the gentle, non-vanity version of the numbers behind this year, I put them in a separate companion post: 2025 by the Numbers: A Listening Report.

Feedback, repair, and the responsibility of language

I want to say this plainly: I have made mistakes. I have misspoken. I have written something that landed differently than I intended. And when that happens, the goal isn’t to “win” an argument — it’s to reduce harm and improve clarity.

This site is educational. It’s here to help people think, communicate, and make safer choices — not to shame people, not to inflame conflict, and not to turn anyone into a cautionary tale.

One piece that sparked a lot of feedback, questions, and debate this year was:

Language, Labels, and the Space Between

That article has pushed me (and many of us) to be more careful: to ask better questions, to check our assumptions, and to remember that labels can help — and they can also flatten people if we use them carelessly.

Ask Gareth Anything: your questions become the roadmap

Next year we’re bringing a new format to life: AGA — Ask Gareth Anything (a cousin of an AMA, but a little more… on brand).

There are already 220+ questions queued up to go live in 2026. And something I didn’t fully expect (but now can’t unsee) is how many of those questions:

• sparked a new article
• turned into a series
• became a hub or a cluster because one answer wasn’t enough

This is the work I want to keep doing: writing that responds to what people are actually asking — not what looks good on a content calendar.

A global community, held lightly

One of the quiet surprises of 2025 was seeing how far these conversations travel. Readers showed up from 200+ countries and territories. That doesn’t feel like a “metric” so much as a reminder: the questions we ask about consent, communication, boundaries, and care aren’t local. They’re human.

How I’m thinking about linking (and what I’m not trying to do)

I’m often asked whether I should link only to the “popular” pieces or also to the pages that haven’t been found yet.

For 2026, I want to do both:

• Link to the resources people already return to (because they’re clearly meeting a need).
• Also link to the quiet pages — the ones that might be exactly right for the reader who hasn’t discovered them yet.

If you’re looking for a few places to start (or revisit), here are some paths readers spent real time with this year:

• Stag / Vixen and Hotwifing, Stag/Vixen, and Cuckolding
• Mastering the Art of Dominance
• What are munches, and how do I attend one?
• Service Top (glossary)

Looking ahead

My hope for 2026 is simple: more clarity, more care, more practical tools — and a continued willingness to update, correct, and refine when new information (or better language) emerges.

If you’ve read something here, shared it, questioned it, disagreed with it, or helped improve it: thank you. I’m grateful for the trust, and I don’t take it lightly.

Note: ConsentCulture.community is an educational resource and is not a substitute for professional medical, legal, or mental health advice.