I struggle with this decision every year. My annual subscription renews at the end of February. Should I renew? I actually started thinking about this in November 2017. I’ve been waffling on this decision frequently ever since. Some days I think I’ll renew. Other days I think I won’t.
It’s not about the money. $48 for a year of Suicide Girls is an extremely fair price; one that I can easily afford.
It’s not about any critical comments I may have received to any of my blogs.
It’s not about anyone but me.
Last year I considered not renewing, I suppose because I didn’t think my contributions were appreciated, or that I wasn’t appreciated, or that no one would care if I left. They were, I was, they would (sort of). I just didn’t realize it. A few comments and private messages helped convince me to renew and hang around for another year.
This year is different. I know people appreciate my contributions. Comments like this one from @starry
and the comments from @leemalee after I featured her in my reimagined PINK MAGIC blog series reminded me of that.
But this year I’m struggling with the decision to renew is different. In 2016, I wrote a lot of blogs, including the weekly PINK MAGIC series that may or may not have helped turn quite a few girls pink. I also wrote about a variety of other topics. Some of my blogs were featured on the Front Page.
But in 2017, I stopped writing PINK MAGIC, not because I didn’t enjoy writing them, I thought they were not appreciated, or people did not enjoy reading them. I stopped writing them simply because I didn’t have the time to write them anymore. Each edition took 3-4 hours, sometimes more, to write: deciding on the girls to feature, picking the photos from photosets, Instagram, profile photos and other blog photos, reading through girl’s profiles and blogs to find interesting things to include, and actually writing the blog. The writing part actually took the least amount of time.
I also stopped writing as frequently about other subjects in 2017. A decent percentage of my posts were Instagram imports of the photos I took throughout the year. Some others were attempts to promote my new photography venture, which, after a while, I felt was a) not exactly appropriate for someone who has not even shot a set for possible submission to Suicide Girls, b) wasn’t fair to my followers to be inundated with promotional blogs, and c) were not getting any results anyway. (I’ve since stopped doing all of that.)
In 2016, I reviewed virtually every photoset published to Suicide Girls. In 2017, for the most part, I only perused the photosets of girls I follow.
Don’t know if it’s become apparent, but because of the other things I’ve been involved with this past year, photography, trying to build a photography business, spending time with my wife, jamming with my musically gifted friends, and dealing with my medical issues, I haven’t spent nearly as much time using the Suicide Girls site. While I log in at least once a day, it’s often just a quick look at the top of my feed to see if there’s anything interesting, view my favorite SG & SGHs latest photosets and, maybe, comment on a blog post or group thread, I don’t use the site like I once did. I am not engaging with people on the site like I used to.
This is why I keep asking myself “should I stay or should I go?”
I have a few reasons that pull me toward renewing:
1) I’ve made quite a few friends here and this is the only place I interact with them. I think I’d miss them if I don’t renew.
2) I’d miss photosets of my favorite girls. Some have Patreon pages where I could see their other content, but some don’t. But I can’t afford to support all of those who do have Patreon pages in the way I would like.
3) Even though I don’t use the site like I once did, I do still visit at least once a day. It’s become ingrained in my daily routine.
4) Although I don’t write, interact and engage as much as I once did, I still enjoy reading everyone’s blogs, learning about people, their lives and more.
5) I still have aspirations (though diminished) of shooting a set and getting it into MR (I don’t care if it gets bought).
The main reason for not renewing is simply because I don’t use the site as much as I did before.
I’m not looking for someone to help answer my question or give me reasons to stay. I’m simply writing this to help me decide for myself what I should do. I haven’t made my decision yet, but writing down my thoughts has helped clarify things for me some.
Thanks for reading.
Stay Tuned...
DeadGuitarist
