It's a fact of life that nothing lasts forever; we've all had the wrench of changing schools, jobs, homes and partners; friends move away. There will always be a turnover of members, people move on, interests change and there's always more and more demands on our time. We probably lose a lot of members when they find themselves a new girlfriend, get married or start having children.
It's sad when valued members leave but hopefully new ones will come along to replace them. Likewise the babes move on - just looking at my favourites in the last year Roxy, Ashleigh, Courtney and Tanya have left and another has gone to a channel not represented on the forum.
The recession hasn't helped either. We all know that a number of channels have closed in the past two years and there is much less choice, but if you're only getting 60-odd quid a week on the dole you shouldn't be spending half of it on a wank call!
But we mustn't forget that hobbies and interests fall into the category of being transient as well. We have to consider (and I think it more a probability than a possibility) that the "golden" era of the babechannels may well be over, and they will go the same way as the hula-hoop or skateboards ie a burst of wider popularity for a few years which gradually dwindles to a core of enthusiasts. I think OFCOM is just a scapegoat, you can have as much hardcore interaction on your laptop through sites like Adultwork as you want, it's just that people are moving on to other things. The chatlines will never go away completely, there'll always be a demand for such services, but advances in technology might mean that in a few years time we'll still be watching and talking to the babes but through a totally different medium.
Having said that, there's no doubt that the squabbles on the forum have put people off. On Tuesday night I was having a drink with the only other forum member I've ever met in person and he made it clear that he rarely posts and doesn't get more involved because of the level of nastiness.
Which brings me to some personal news. The forum will be seeing a lot less of me after Xmas. I've been working from home for most of the past 18 months and I've got into the habit of having the forum open in a window in the background so can dip in and out when I have a coffee break or am waiting for a conference call to start. Even on the days I have to travel to client's premises I use my own laptop and can have a sneaky look at the channels and the forum during lunch.
However, the main contract I'll be working on from January requires me to work at the client's premises and on their IT system so accessing any adult-related material will be out of the question