I started Miss Ruby Reviews in the early hours of 2015. I was shy, I was uncertain, and I wasn’t sure if I’d even last a week. But, somehow, I stuck out the first week, then the second, and the third, and eventually I made it to my first spring as a toy reviewer. Those first three months were the hardest. Like many socially anxious introverts, I struggled to make connections. It wasn’t that the community was unwelcoming. Quite the opposite. The sex blogging community was friendly, vibrant, and active. It’s just that there were countless old bonds of friendships; I was unsure how to forge my own connections in the established system.
I only felt like I actually joined the community one day when The Minxy Milly, an Aussie blogger I’d been following for a while, invited me to join a sex toy reviewer Skype group. There were several other bloggers there: Naughty Reenie, Lexi from Deviant Kitten, Blissfully Orgasmic, Sweeten Dirty, Pimento Mori, and others. A little while later, Rose from On Her Back joined.
The thing about introverts is that we can’t handle big groups of unfamiliar people, but we certainly love connecting with familiar faces in tiny-group settings. As it turned out, this Skype group was exactly the thing I needed to start to feel comfortable and connected with the community. It only lasted for a few months, but outside of the public eye of twitter, we could share advice about companies, products, and tactics. And I could learn. I learned a lot about reaching out to companies, dealing with bad companies, and starting my first giveaway. I also formed friendships; my blog may have not made it this far without that group, and I’m so thankful to each member from it.
(Side note: If you’re interested in joining a similar group, a new Slack group for sex bloggers is starting).
The Skype group didn’t last forever. It started to phase out in 2016 and many of its bloggers went with it. The first to go was The Minxy Milly, who was swept away from us by education and family commitments. Naughty Reenie quietly followed, and that was hard to see. Her humour, fantastic artwork, and wealth of knowledge were so valuable. Other bloggers I knew from twitter, The Gritty Woman, PeepScoop, Pimento Mori, and Beck and her Kinks, have also faded away since I started. Most recently, just this week, Rose from On Her Back had to leave us.
That’s a fair number of bloggers. But I’ve only been here for a tiny snippet of the overarching sex blogger history. I’m currently shy of my third-year blogiversary. Hey Epiphora and Dangerous Lilly, our wise matriarchs, have been around for nearly ten years. And in ten years, countless bloggers have come, left their mark, and gone.
It’s jarring to search for a blogger you’ve known and admired and find nothing but the stark whiteness of “Page Not Found.” Some other bloggers, whose expertise and enthusiasm made such an impression on me when I first started, have since quietly stopped blogging; their blogs lie neglected for months and years. I worry about them. I worry they’ll also join the figurative graveyard of Page Not Founds. I hope they’ll come back.
In some cases, we know why a blogger stops blogging.
Recently, Rose from On Her Back was required to delete her blog. She gave me permission to share her fears that having a sex blog might harm her character in her case against her abuser; it’s a horribly sad reason to stop blogging, though she hopes to re-join us when it is safe for her to do so. The Deaf Queer recently stopped blogging as well; they needed to focus on schooling instead of reviewing, and the costs of running their blog were high; they were also satisfied with their toybox.
It’s nice to have explanations when we can.
But we usually don’t find out why a blogger stops blogging.
We can only know that we miss them, that we hope they’re well, and that the community doesn’t quite feel the same without them.
We haven’t forgotten you <3
Sex bloggers who have grown quiet or shut down:
Updated last Aug 30, 2021. The most recent closures are at the top of the list.
- Ero-Centric
- Hermione Danger
- Red Hot Suz
- Reviews By A Nerd
- Sexational
- Squeaky Bedsprings
- Toy Meets Girl
- Dangerous Lilly
- Mamz of lejournalreview
- Ninja Sexology
- Marvelous Darling
- Sensual Delights
- Deviant Kitten
- Mary Q. Confesses
- Blissfully Orgasmic
- Aeriesroom
- Carnal Queen
- Lorax of Sex
- Ruffled Sheets
- Poly Love & Sex
- On Her Back
- The Minxy Milly
- Pimento Mori
- Naughty Reenie
- The Gritty Woman
- Beck and her Kinks
- The Deaf Queer
- For Sploosh’s Sake
- Kara Sutra
- Perineum Plunders
- Come Heather
- Screaming Violet
- Property of Potter
- Archvixen
- Beautiful Dreamer
- Krissy Novacaine
- Scarlett Seraph
- Purple Elysium
- Elodie
- True Pleasures
- Little Spoon
- Garnet Joyce
- Dirty Little Whispers
- Blacksilk
- Backseat Boohoo
- That Toy Chick
- Essin’ Em
- Between My Sheets
- Evil Slutopia
- Kinky Biker Mom
- Femme Fagette
- Saraid
- Kira’s Kink
- Millenia Toybox
- Holly (Menstrual Poetry)
- Coy Pink
- Red Sneaker Diaries
- Teal Valentine
- Naughty-Corner
- Just like heavn
- SubsMissives
Remember other sex blogs that are no longer with us? Comment below.
Last Updated on August 30, 2021 by Miss Ruby
