A decline in the doll hobby?

As a newbie myself, I'm still trying to get a sense of the forum and hobby in general.
Yay! There are other shy people! I'm so 'in the closet' about owning BJDs that I mostly lurk. If I do post, it's usually just a passing comment, nothing revealing. So it would seem many people are lurkers for what ever reason.

As a newbie, I do hope the hobby does not decline! I checked out BJDs a year ago and the over all selection of dolls, clothing, wigs, eyes, etc has gotten so much better! A serious decline would mean less selection and more DIY. Either way, I'm super happy to be here!

 

I was looking at the front page:

Most users ever online was 1,073, 05-09-2008 at 09:20 AM

So according to the front page, we peaked in 2008. I don't think it is necessarily that people are losing interest, but when times are tough, they focus on other aspects of their life ie essentials rather than luxuries. The marketplace is slower but it depends on the doll. I tend to find that people who expect to get what they paid don't interest me when I'm purchasing. If the price is near new, I'll pay the extra and get a doll that is guaranteed new. To buy secondhand, I want a genuine saving. I'm at the stage where I'm trying to tone down my collection and focus on the dolls that I have. I've got so many, I don't really need more. At the start I collected loads of wigs, eyes, shoes and accessories and I'm now finding that I've run out and tend to think that my collecting will focus on making the dolls that I have look good rather than finding new ones. I haven't seen anything out there that looks likely to replace BJDs in my collection however.

 

I'm not a newbie, but I've tried to semi-resurrect older threads to get things moving in the Debate and General Discussion sections. I'm actually finding myself branch off into new parts of the forum that I normally don't frequent at all or as much, like the Gallery or the Sewing/Accessories section.

Where the thread deletion comes in, I think most people have that happen when they're new here. When I first joined, most of my threads were either merged or deleted. Eventually, you'll get the swing of things, and more of your threads will "stick".

 

I started the hobby in 2007 and got really heavy into dolling in 2008-2009 and around the end of 2009, I became pregnant with 2 little girls. I had my daughters in July 2010 and was still dolling up until I had them. Now that they are here...I HAVE NO TIME TO DO ANYTHING! Don't get me wrong, I my daughters to death, but I miss the hobby severely and I am currently trying to get back into it slowly. Yes, I do not post as often and I am not as active as I used to be, but that hasn't lessened my love for ABJD's. I also ran 4 custom group orders for minimees in 1 year...very busy!
So, if you ask me "WHY" I have not been as active lately it's just because:

LIFE HAPPENS! ​

 

I know I lurk a lot more than I post, I do like reading a lot of the discussions but I rarely reply unless I really have something to say. I think the hobby has gotten bigger, I seem to run into more people that know what BJDs are than even a couple years ago. I'm not sure if it's just a lot of us lurking more or if it's because the economy around the world is still struggling a bit but It seems like it's still running strong ^___^

 

For me personally, It's just a lack of time combined with other circumstances. My life has been hectic, money has been tight, and i've lost my camera chip. So what few projects I am able to find time for i can't really share them because i have no images to share XD.

On top of that, It's just a very hectic time of year. The cold air of winter is already looming over us here and there is a lot of work to be done preparation (rural area with power outages in winter = REALLY NOT FUN). Not doing so means we can be pretty bad off for 2 weeks or more if the storms get bad this year too.

And it's not that I don't love it here, but after a long day i'd rather read than post. ^^"

Just in general, I think it's a combo of money is tight, so people have less to put into projects or dolls, and it's a very busy time of year, there are preparations for cold weather, holidays, and all kinds of junk for everyone. I'm sure before long things will bump back up.

 

Well, I know I certainly haven't been posting or taking pictures as much as compared with the beginning of my dolly interest. I have a lot more pictures of my first doll than any dolls that have come after. I think I post more in the feedback threads than anywhere else. Hahaha...

I also don't post as much in the gallery threads as well now--my own threads and threads posted by others. I only really have interest in certain dolls and since there are a million and one doll companies and molds now, I tend to ignore the majority of the threads in the gallery. Not that I have a good high post count either way. (O_o 5 years and only ~200 posts? There are 'newbies' with twice as many posts.)

There are also a lot more threads that have answers to questions people may want to ask so that probably accounts for some of the 'silence'. There's a request that asks people to do a search to make sure their question hasn't already been answered before posting a new topic after all. Mods are also pretty good at merging similar threads so it may seem like there's less traffic because new similar threads gets swallowed up by old existing ones.

 

I'm on every day and check my PMs and threads I follow. I also answer a lot of newbie questions and read in general discussions and debate.

I don't post nearly as many pictures as I should, since I have 17 dolls, if you include the ones on the way...but my reason for that is that I don't collect the "popular" dolls and when I do make the effort to post, I usually only get comments from friends....if that. It's not worth my time to set up, pose, take pix, upload, post....to get 2 comments of "hot! ^_^" If I want feedback or interest, I'll just send it to my friends. I don't comment much in the gallery either, but when I do, I try to look at the threads with few replies and ignore the ones with pages of comments.

 

As someone else stated, when you're new there's more to explore in terms of topics etc. Now, I don't feel the need to post as much. I also haven't bought many dolls this year due to focusing on other things. Yet, I'm still working on my family slow and steady.

 

I think people are certainly still out there buying up dolls, and rejoicing in the hobby. Every time I buy a doll, the company proceeds to tell me that the wait time is longer because they have so many orders, so there must be some people out there buying these dolls! The forums are quitter, but there is still a lot going on, the restriction on access probably figures into it, the economy in some places I've noticed that many people here aren't as willing to spend the kind of money it takes to be into this hobby, is probably another factor, but nothing to worry over. The hobby is safe, and there are new people entering into it everyday, that's the most important thing.

 

I've noticed the forums to be a little more on the quiet side, but I don't think that's an issue. It's still a really active forum (in my view) there's just a lot of things going on in RL that have a tendency to interfere. Or there's a lot of people who just like to lurk (Like myself.) For me, it's because I don't actually have a doll yet. I don't have much to talk about.

 

I've only been involved with this hobby for about 2-3 years, but it appears to be waxing rather than waning. The forums seem about the same, but I don't post a whole lot, so I may be wrong there. I feel like there's a lot more available to the collector now than there was even a year ago, though, and more general interest in the dolls. A lot of my doll collector friends who used to be into Blythes and Pullips are now collecting bjds.

 

I certainly do not think it is a decline in any way. I think ti is more the lovers of this hobby are becoming far more picky in those dolls that are bought, and in so being that are careful what they post and so on. I know my love for the hobby has not gone down and I have been in the hobby for 4 years now.

 

I would disagree with this. Certainly the boards are still busy, there's new posts every time I get on here. Maybe it seems quieter compared to 'rush times' because it's September, people are getting adjusted to school and money is tight and things. But there are definitely still newbies coming in and interest in these dolls definitely still exists!

 

I don't see any waning of interest in my doll groups and friends. There are lots of people who collect dolls and they are far more discriminating about them than when they first started. Also, there are a lot of other very active outside boards for individual fashion dolls and dolls like Kish and other American doll designers as well as artists and clothing designers and there is no waning of interest on them. As for me, I counted and to my surprise I own 10 tiny bjds. I really don't know how it happened but I just love them! The excitement is still there.

Merci

 

As a lot of people said, many (myself included) tend to be on here more when we first get involved in the hobby (for info, community involvement, or just exploring a site we've never seen before) but after a few years things do wear down. I used to be on here everyday for the first couple years (and during that time I bought both my BJD) but since then I've sort of moved on. Now I'm lucky if I'm on once a week, and then I rarely post anything. Interests change (I've moved on to figure collecting myself) and things that I've seen already so many times become less exciting.

That doesn't mean that I've lost interest entirely, I still love my two bjd dearly and wouldn't give them up for anything.

I do enjoy coming back here as often as I can though, and when you've been gone for awhile so many things seem new again. Personally, even if my interest lessens more, I think I'll still take the time to drop by every now and again to see what's going on.

 

Hm, interesting. I remember feeling that the forum seemed to slow down a lot in the summer before last. This year, I didn't notice it as much, though I was probably on more than ever.

At the moment, as a student, I have to say that I'm absolutely swamped from this point of the year onward. There are photostories and other doll-related things that I would love to post (and intend to, eventually), but for the moment, I just don't have the energy. As many other people have mentioned, there are lots of other reasons why the hobby may appear to be declining.

I also wonder if maybe the re-organization of the MP has caused some things there to slow down a bit. To be sure, I think the re-organization is fantastic for buyers, but I could understand if some sellers became a little tired from having the number of their threads to manage potentially double or triple.

 

I am in graduate school and not posting very often, but am still into my three Elfdolls and one Iplehouse. I have been sewing and thinking about posting some of my 1950's style dresses for sale. I make them by hand as a stress reliever and they are starting to pile up.

 

I've been around since April 2007... I have noticed a small 'decline' but it might just be that I'm on less nowadays and I don't surf through every single new thread and forum anymore.

When I first started, everything was very overwhelming: what to do, what not to do, faceups, clothes, wigs, eyes, shoes, the gallery, debates, discussions, critiques...

You could get really carried away looking at everything around here. So maybe the people who are noticing a decline have just realized what they use in the forum vs when they used to look at everything.