Verisign raised .COM wholesale prices on November 1, which got me thinking about all those side projects that never made it past the domain and a landing page. If you've got a few unfinished websites, how many years do you keep the names before calling it quits? Is there a particular sign that makes you renew again, like traffic, a working prototype or a plan to actually build the site?
For me the test is whether I've touched the project at all in the last year. If the only thing that happened was the renewal, the domain isn't what's holding it back, and a decent name is easy enough to find once the idea comes back for real.
I give it two renewals. If nothing was built in that time I let it go, unless the name is short or brandable enough to resell. Keeping a simple list with the idea, the renewal date and what I paid helps a lot when the renewal emails come in.
Definitely. I'd suggest considering whether you've made any progress on the project over the past year. If the domain is the only thing you've kept up with, it might be worth thinking about whether you still need it.