For those of you that are still here .. C'mon in!
If you'd like to comment about the actual caption, please feel free, but the rest of the post is going to be more of a discussion about caption blogs rather than anything to do with the caption.
Another captioner heading out the door .. Rauk22 .. and I am starting to get numb to it all. Well, not quite, because as you can tell, each time someone leaves, my "abandonment issues" rear up again. Viewers of TG blogs are great to have, and even more so if they comment, but usually the bulk of keeping a community alive falls on those that continually post the content. They become the main reason that people start up a routine of finding the TG Captions they love, and hunt to discover new ones to feed the hunger.
I can't speak for everyone, but I never feel like I'm in competition with any of the other TG bloggers out there, other than I want to make the best and most creative work I can, and if they up their game, I want to do the same and make them even better. I want everyone to do incredible work. If the average person goes to
Hailey's site, or
Simone's site and see something stunning, they are going to come back in a day or two to see what else they are posting. They are also going to check out my site,
Elena's site, etc .. and its totally reciprocal. They will see a sissy caption I made, and from a comment by
Leeanne, or a referral click on my links column, find more places to visit, until they've worked up a routine of 5-10 (or more!) sites to visit fairly regularly.
I can make a caption, and it inspires
Britney Shagwell to make a continuation .. or reading about sissification and cuckolding from
Kaaren expands my TG captioning palette. I liken this to when I was involved in my band and we got together originally and just jammed out songs we liked, which over the period of months, jelled into a form of what we wanted to do in our original songs. I heard groups I had never seen and came to appreciate and made my musical worldview exponentially larger. The same thing has happened organically over the years in the TG community.
I've had many friends leave over the years to do other things, be bullied into leaving, experience life in new settings, Love or Marriage or Death, get bored with the boundaries we set in this genre, or get discouraged by the lack of comments and acknowledgement of their creative outlet. It doesn't matter if its for good reasons or not, they left, and people will continue to leave. From my perspective though, the last few months have been particularly devastating to the TG community.
Take a look at this site from
Mindy Z. She's got quite a large grouping of TG Caption links in her Blog List. Because her list is in alphabetical order, its so disheartening to see all the blogs that haven't been updated in at least 2 months or more. When someone goes to Mindy's site, and they do because she posts almost every day, what do you think they think when they see so many inactive blog sites either closed or abandoned? Looking at my blog list isn't nearly as bad since I have it sorted by most recent post date, so you don't see the inactive blogs until you get toward the bottom.
The latest captioners to leave aren't necessarily the straw that broke the camel's back, but many of them were essential viewing to enough people that their lack of presence puts holes in that chain of sites people love to visit as part of their routine. Do they try to find other captioners to fill that void or do they put their hands up at some point and disappear as well?
To the readers out there, we TG bloggers KNOW you are there, in the numbers of page views, but even more when you let us know what you think. I have noticed that Ian hasn't been around lately, and I hope its just a vacation or period where he's not able to access TG sites. Kaitlyn hasn't posted on her site in 2 months, and if you are out there, let us know that everything is going well! As people that "consume" our product, make yourself known and influence this community that needs to flourish during a downturn of interest.
If you are a captioner or would-be captioner. NOW IS THE TIME! Let them know who you are and what you do! Make them get invested in your work and see you as essential viewing. Up your game by trying a new technique or reflect on your progression since you started (or lack of progress?)
For those who have thought about making captions .. its never been easier to do! Even if you post a picture and place the text in the body of the blog, your presense will be known. Tell people about your real life .. or make up a flamboyant persona of who you would LIKE to be. Don't be sad that your favorite captioner isn't making captions anymore that you can relate to, make your own. Go to
Rachel's Haven, sign up, and look at the wonderful tutorials for free software. Ask the very captioners you visit everyday how they made the text all bendy or what routines they go through to clear their mind to be creative. I can't imagine anyone turning down your request for information! Be a part of the community instead of just observing it.
And trust me, I understand how real life works, and have been dealing with a few issues myself, but if/when we ARE here in non-meat space, the community needs our involvement when we can. Make a difference while you can. Each and every person that has been a friend of mine through here did. Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet!
Savatage is one of my favorite old school metal bands. They've evolved and many of the musicians and songs have become known with a more familiar name, Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Enjoy!
My promise to you, readers and captioners .. Post a link to your TG blog in the comments, perhaps to a piece you've created that you think might be your "signature work "and I'll feature it in an upcoming post. Its time to start building up another list of active blogs.
