A reminder: Why I left in the first place

As the number of Suicide Girls increased it became harder to grok each person as an individual.

Nudity is cheap, porn is free and universally available. The value wasn't in the nudity and it wasn't in the tattoos. It wasn't in the quality of the photography or the subjective aesthetic appeal of the individual women.

Instead, the value was in the interaction with approachable and unique individuals. Seeing a person as a symbol of sexuality, and interacting with them as an individual provided a unique product. Nudity and porn are available free, but the individual is lost entirely and replaced with a symbol. Being able to see the person as a symbol while interacting with them as an individual was a unique combination. When combined with the quality of discussion in the community forums and the capacity for community organization in the groups Suicide Girls possessed a clear value as a unique product.

As the number of SGs and members began to increase dramatically it became more difficult to interact with and approach individuals as individuals. The increase in membership correlated with an apparent decrease in quality of the community aspects, the forums especially. The rapidly increasing number of models made approaching any new model as a unique individual somewhat more difficult. Old models and friends began to drop out. Personal and professional issues between SG Inc., it's members, and it's models came into the public sphere, and the actions of the various groups involved undermined an important part of SGs advertising; that SG Inc. was actively creating a community that was concerned more with community, empowerment of women, and breaking down of objectifying, dehumanizing, or destructive sexual products than it was with the pursuit of profit for profits sake. With the understanding that their was no altruistic social justice motive to the business Suicidegirls immediately lost an important element of it's appeal.

The continual attrition of early Suicidegirls and members and the enormous influx of new Suicidegirls and Members rapidly changed the nature of the community at a pace that was difficult for some established members to follow. The appearance of many competeing alternaporn sites removed the monopoly of novelty. The emergence and wide adoption of social networking sites reduced the importance of the social networking aspect of suicidegirls.

In the end, the products offered by SG at cost could be found for free or at reduced cost in other venues, the community value was absent or severely diluted, and SG had lost the very valuable image of a progressive organization with a social justice and underground culture agenda that was advanced as being more important than profit. Ultimately, the product was no longer worth the price.

So... you came back to complain about why you left?

Nope. My freebie should be running up soon, and it was this or spam 2 girls 1 cup everywhere. I figured this was more likely to shock you jaded, world weary psychopaths.

But, sure, why not? I didn't pay for it, if SG wants to give away free memberships to a bunch of old members in a thinly veiled marketing ploy I'm as happy to bitch about a free lunch here as anywhere else.

Yeah but this is your blog entry. No need to post it here.

Honestly, who cares?

see, that's part of the problem. why don't you engage him in meaningful dialogue, thereby giving him the chance to experience this 'unique phenomenon'?

Welcome back, creepy dude with the black lipstick all over his face!

I was always like "Why'd that creep leave? I need closure!" So, thanks.

Yeah... nothing earth-shattering there.

Morgan's tits ARE a unique phenomenon.

FrankMask does raise some valid points. How many hopefuls have a MR set up but have never written a journal entry or posted a comment? I could probably find SGs who have only posted one or two journal entries and less then a dozen comments half of those would be thanking people in the set thread.

SG has changed and in many way not for the better. I was not certain that I would renew my membership too when it was up for renewal a few months back.

Really? You think this is a new, shocking revelation? *yawn*

They have free porn and social networking on the internet now? Why was I not informed?

Also:

Uh-huh.

I really fail to see how it's harder to engage people on a personal level just because there are more people. There are six billion people in the world but I still have friends.

Woah woah woah... let's not be talking crazy now.

There are tons of members and models that are active on here and have no problems making friends or relationships with other people, despite the large ever-growing population. Maybe the problems you're experiencing aren't a result of The System?

Also, "I didn't pay my four dollars" is the new "pander to me!".

Actually, truth be told, I'm not a very good example, as I'm not overly social on this site. I haven't been to an event in years, don't really blog or respond to blogs. I'm a Boards/Groups/tits-only kind of member. Most of my Friends list is people I met long ago or people that added me for god knows what reason.

What exactly is supposed to change? Make it harder to join?

You must now pass the `I'm worth of visiting SG' exam as part of the membership application.

Question 1: Are you awesome enough to be on SG?
Question 2: Do you really think you're awesome enough?
Question 3: Have you been a member of SG for less than 5 years?

If you answer yes to any of these questions, you may not join.