Nothing lasts forever. The last few seasons are proof of that. Pride, passion and ambition; what we saw under GW Mk II feels like a distant memory. And we haven’t been able to recapture that buzz since. Of course, the members of that squad would always move on at some point; taking on new challenges elsewhere. Now the time has come for us to move on too. And this is what it means for BoroGuide and its role as a Stevenage website that has been proud to serve you.
Why now? What changed?
July 2022 will mark our 20th anniversary, which is a milestone that not many others can match. To be honest, we thought we’d make it through the 2021-2 campaign, and decide next summer what the future held. So, our retirement isn’t a knee-jerk reaction or sudden whim. It’s been on our minds for a while.
But why now?
Well, it’s fair to say that we’ve long been rather uninspired by what’s happening on the pitch in the past few seasons. And that does have some impact.
A colleague from the day job said of another activity that “I’m happy to do it until it stops being fun”. Not sure we can sum it up any better. But other things are making it harder to keep up with the demands of running a Stevenage website. The day job is actually one of them. After writing website content professionally for seven hours a day, five days a week, the idea of writing a 700-piece on our next opponent once or twice a week isn’t such a great one.
There’s also the social media element. It’s a young person’s game. And it’s a growing struggle to sit down on a Sunday morning or afternoon, trying to plan a week’s fill of worthwhile content to tweet, post, or Insta. BoroGuide existed as a Stevenage website long before Facebook or Twitter even came around. If that makes you feel old, think how that makes us feel.
What next for BoroGuide?
In the short-term, we’ll continue to maintain the data for the rest of the season. Our OCD brains would explode if we left it incomplete mid-season. Then, we’ll decide next summer if that’s our exit point for good. The joy of the data entry and stepping away means that we can do it on our own timetable. And it’s a five-minute job. Simples. We’ll also…
- Update the site with any January transfers.
- Post backward-looking articles when we feel inspired. We still love that stuff. And we still have about a year’s worth of Remember Them? articles to get through based on one a week.
- Continue to chase down the missing line-ups.
- Possibly redesign the site so it’s feature-led, not article-led.
- Try to keep the site online for as long as possible so you can still refer to it.
The bottom line is that you just won’t hear from us as often. We’ll make our 20th anniversary in slightly different shape to how we imagined. But we can only put in what we get out. And, apart from your kind words on Twitter, we’re not convinced that some of the things we’ve been doing will be missed. We also think that it’s better we either do or don’t do something. No point doing something half-arsed. We’ve decided the don’t option. It’s a farewell, though. Not goodbye…
