Due to a number of factors, the end of last week I decided to close down the Co-op. I haven’t deleted it, just “disabled” it. The fact that no one noticed/spoke up reinforced the fact to me that it was time. My lovely husband, wanting to support me and the Co-op, found what appeared to be a really good alternative platform for the Co-op. It would allow me to move everything that we had and even transfer over memberships. It allowed for “mods” or plug-ins where phpbb didn’t, and even though it seemed to be sort of an answer, I had a couple simultaneous camel-back-breaking straws that made me decide to disable everything and give up on it for now. There was too much criticism and not enough help.

But the heart and soul of why I even bothered to start the project still remains and was reminded to me in reading Soren’s query on his blog last week: Sex bloggers should be banding together to share information. This point was also raised at a blogger get-together that Carol Queen and Tied Up Events hosted the evening before the NYC Sex Bloggers Calendar Party. Prior to starting the Co-op I used to get emails at least once a month from other bloggers asking for my advice on things like paid text links.

One criticism that had been raised was that the Co-op was private and it shouldn’t have been. The closed-doors of the Co-op was not meant to keep out bloggers or make life more difficult for members; it was so that we could safely and privately discuss things that a lot of us wouldn’t want to say publicly, such as frank discussions about affiliate programs, advertisers, etc. I don’t know where that’ll be discussed now but perhaps I’m the only one who wants the input of my peers.

So while there are still many topics that I wouldn’t have on the Blogger Education pages, there’s still a good bit of info that can and should be shared. For example: tutorials on taking on paid advertisers; signing up for affiliate programs and reviewing toys for the first time; useful Blogger & WordPress tips.

I would host this over at e[lust] and do it as a series of nested pages (like I have above here for my own stuff like the Sex Toys tab). I would also have comments open for questions and discussion, and I would welcome information pieces written by bloggers other than me. I know that Epiphora is in the works writing up a sex toy review guide (or was talking about it, right?) and I could even have more than one person write up pieces on that topic and others. Get in 2 or 3 points of view.

Bloggers, please weigh in. Even if it’s to say that you think this is a waste of everyone’s time. If you’d want to contribute a topic, let me know that, too.

Edit to say: Perhaps I should stop beating a dead horse….