Do you sometimes miss your favourite BJD owners?

Yes, definitely! I first got into the hobby around 2006 (when livejournal was still a thing lol), but I took a break from 2008 to 2018, and in those ten years it seems like a lot of people have disappeared.

I'll be honest; I miss their dolls and stories. I may not have seen the characters in over ten years, but I can still remember their names and, in many cases, their sculpts. And of course, I was always a lurker

 

Oh god yes! Sometimes I look at their old LJs or flickr or blogs and get so nostalgic And sometimes they suddenly reappear and it's awesome!

 

Same here! There are a couple of members who I miss seeing on the board, either because of their dolls, and pictures or because of the discussions we had in various threads. Like you mentioned people move on, but I often wonder if they're at least OK.

 

Oh, yes. There used to be a pretty large crowd around my hometown and I’d attend a lot of meetups with everyone, but over the years everyone sort of just trickled off. The meets stopped happening locally too, and I think I miss those more than anything.

 

Oh man! Yes. Yes. A thousand times yes. Sometimes it makes me feel that the hobby is dead. I am rather new in the hobby compared to you Volks (entered in 2016 I believe) and mostly followed those on YouTube but now they all disappeared or quit the hobby, my absolute favourite channel ever (which made the hobby for me so rich actually) was deleted which left a huge scratch in my heart and I miss that ladies videos sooo much. So so much. I'd want to just write her a letter telling her how much I loved (Re)watching all her old videos and her stories and her dolls and how that made the hobby so worth it to me and how empty it feels for me now that all this awsome content disappeared (of course not meant in a bad way as questioning her or anything. Just expressing my feelings) but I guess I feel a little shy about that so... Yah.
But oh my. At the moment I'm also busy with exams and have so so little time for my dolls which also hurts me in my heart and I wanna continue the hobby and create so much more for my dolls and so on. Well anyway maybe better stop before I get all too emotional here xP. But yah hhh I miss these people soo much.

 

Yes! There was this person I admired but never had the opportunity to tell how much I liked her resin crew. Never looked into her personal life or whatever - her dolls caught my attention. But then I got some personal issues going on, I grew close to people in my local community, and ended up not checking on her work for a long while. Some days ago I decided to have a look... and BAM!, she changed entirely the focus of her collection to some different dolls I'm not really into. I didn't try to understand the change or anything (again, never had any interest in her personal life), but hope she's enjoying her new collection!

 

Ah, there was a youtuber I enjoyed watching talk about their dolls and I used to look at their flickr too, but I got caught up in some issues and didn't check for a while. The next time I checked, everything on both of those accounts was deleted! They still have an instagram, which is a relief, but it's not as satisfying because you don't get to hear people talk about their dolls and see them move around, or you don't get as many useful references and whatnot on that platform.

Speaking of less recent times, there were people I used to follow back in 2008 that I admired - one of them was a faceup artist, but for the life of me I can't remember their name. They got a Minifee Mirwen and sanded down her eyebrows and that's what made me want a MNF Mirwen at the time, and got me into Minifee for a while... I had email updates for their blog, haha! I wonder where those went, maybe I can find it again. I really enjoyed their blog; I enjoyed BJD blogs in general, because I really like watching people talk about how they engage in the hobby, the things they like.. Even if their collections aren't to my taste, that doesn't matter. The fun part is completely from hearing about what people do with their dolls.

 

I remember my first encounter with BJDs was on someone's blog, and I tried looking at it a few months ago and it straight-up disappeared! Oh well...

 

I'm new but the first person I came across where I was so in love with her collection, she hasn't posted anything in over 2 months. I just hope her life's going well^^ I do understand that life happens & hobbies change. I was active in my old hobby but haven't even logged into a site for that in 3 months since I found out about BJD's

 

I feel the same way about people disappearing, but it’s my fault for not keeping in touch. I have Lyme, and some years I’m just too sick to do anything, so I lose track of people. Right now I’m on a new treatment, and it must be working a little because I’m feeling creative again! Unfortunately, a lot of the people and artists I really admire have moved on, closed their Flickr accounts, etc. I get it because I have to drop out of sight for a while with my illness sometimes too.

Sometimes getting on here is the only interaction I have with humans all day besides my angsty teenagers and busy husband, so I do want to thank you all for being here! It makes me feel less like a trapped, ill person to be a part of something like this. I’m so thankful for the internet and for the mail carriers!

 

There have been a few YouTubers and bloggers that I've missed over the years. Although, a few of them said that they're taking a break from the hobby rather than quiting.

There's also been a few who have said that harrassment from other people in the hobby is their reason for leaving as well.

 

Yeah I feel the same way. When I first got into the hobby back in 2008, I made my first and only friend on here when I introduced myself over at newbieland. The girl who welcomed me on my thread shared the same love as I did for Volks dolls, and we bonded over the Volks Rozen Maiden line and she taught me a lot about the hobby. She had started the hobby earlier than i did and had some dolls already in her collection, so I felt at the time that she was a senior in the hobby. I was 14 at the time, and she was in her early 20's so she felt like an older sister figure to me. Since I was too young to afford any dolls at the time, I enjoyed talking to her about her own dolls and looking at all of the pictures she would share of them, and a few times I even remember sending her some fanart of her girls haha! I don't remember when the messages stopped coming, but I feel it was because both sides had things going on in life, so we just stopped coming back on here. I took my hiatus from here starting 2010 and didn't come back until late last year, and when I finally decided to start coming here more regularly I saw that it had been quite a while since she had last logged in. I do miss our conversations, and wherever she is I hope she's happy and that life continues to treat her well. Sometimes I wonder if she's still in the hobby, and if maybe she is sharing photos of her dolls on a different social platform. I really loved the dolls in her collection. I wish I could get an update and see some of them again! They really were very lovely. The faceup artist who breathed life into her dolls probably stopped taking commissions ages ago. Her name was Raburina and I haven't seen any of her works around here since before I took my hiatus almost 10 years ago.

Speaking of which, if I remember correctly there was a very skilled seamstress on here named Crystal Kitten who created the most ethereal dresses for her dolls! They were outstanding! So dainty and frilly and so fun to look at! I was a huge fan (and still am) of the Japanese songstress trio called Kalafina, and their songs always reminded me of the beautiful dresses Crystal Kitten would make for her dolls. I also remember I was a huge fan of the faceup artist Dr. Seiji for their natural faceup style for their dolls and clients! I really miss reading updates on their latest creations):

Those were such good times! I miss old friends and artists from the past. I really do hope that they are all doing well. Sometimes I wonder if they think about the time they spent in the hobby, and if they are still in it as well.

 

I miss seeing Morbidollz, Belladonna and FrozenWings. I loved following those three sisters back when I discovered the hobby in 2006-2007, but it was first in 2015 I was able to buy my own bjd and by then they had all disappeared from the hobby. It's because of FrozenWings's Sadie that I still want to get a Chiwoo. I hope I can find one secondhand someday

 

Before I was on DoA, I was a very active member of JunkySpot Forums and chat. There were a few people in the chat that I talked to almost every single night and got to know personally. Then they closed the chat and we started to lose touch with each other. My collection started to go in a different direction and JS stopped selling the companies I liked, and since JS forums only allows sharing dolls bought from JS, I stopped posting there. I do miss the friends I made there, but when I went back to look a few years ago, I didn’t recognize any of the active people now. I often do wonder what happened to my old friends and their dolls.

 

It feels like so many people I used to talk to have drifted away. Part of that is me... I tend to alternate throwing all my energy at various projects with throwing all my energy at improving my career, avoiding burnout by rotating the things I'm focusing on at the moment, and I went through a prolonged, several year period of focusing on career stuff. But now it feels like many of the people I used to follow are gone, and the people who are active now aren't doing the same things. They're nice in their own way... but they aren't the sorts of things I loved to follow.

Which makes me wonder if maybe I should possibly start posting project journals of the things I'm working on and creating, because surely there are other people who would want to see more like that? But that's intimidating...

 

People come and go... that's the nature of the beast in any hobby community. There was a thread not unlike this one on a tabletop RPG forum that I frequent not so long ago. "Whatever Happened To-" and a lot of the gang wondering where formerly familiar posters had gone. There was one last summer on an MMO-related forum I read, and I can even remember seeing the same conversations come up on newsgroups and mail-lists back in the internet's Dark Ages. It's just one of those universal things.

All that said, I've sort-of been around long enough now to see a couple of waves of new owners arrive, make an impression and then disappear. Some I miss seeing, some I honestly don't. Others eventually wander back. Call it the hobby 'Circle of Life'.

 

There are some artists & folks on the groups & boards that I really miss but our local club closing is the saddest for me. We used to have a great group of folks & had to move to a bigger place as we grew. But then the restaurant we were meeting at closed for remodeling & we never found another place to meet. Even when it reopened we didn't go back & our last annual picnic tanked as well. I often wonder what happened to many of those folks & even the core group has drifted apart. I do so miss that gang. Now my only contact with doll folks is online.

 

I don't have much contact with the nearest local groups, and my online presence has dwindled a lot as I got busy, then I got CFS/ME, which kinda brought a gigantic change in my life for the last two years.
The last few years I mostly lurk because I don't have the energy to constantly redirect people to the Search Function and the Stickies, I haven't had the health to do big involved shoots anymore, and actual conversations for me mostly take place in very specific craft threads like the Shoemaking one.

 

While there are still a number of old-timers still around (Hi!!!), there are quite a few who have come and gone. I do miss them, but what can you do? Available time and interests change... I'm less active in-general than I used to be, taking fewer photos and posting less, and going to fewer meetups.