Spam

Hi folks, Joe here.

Early on Tuesday morning, a couple of Blipfoto contributors set about using the site to promote an organisation they're involved with. They spent a great deal of time spamming comments on scores of journals, leaving a link to their organisation's website and an 'invitation' to take part in one of its 'events'. They posted their advert on my journal and I received several complaints that day from others in the same boat.

Regardless of what they were promoting, these contributors blatantly abused both the Blipfoto system and the fantastic community of people who use it. As a result, we've decided to remove these contributors and their journals from the site.

One of the things I love most about Blipfoto is the genuinely supportive and mutually respectful nature of the people who use it. If there's one thing about the site worth protecting, it's that.

I know of many contributors who have their own commercial interests, or are involved in causes they might want to promote to the rest of the community, but they don't, because they understand that Blipfoto simply isn't the right place to do it.

I've said it before, but I'll say it again: If you want to use the site to let others know about something you're involved in, please run it by us first. If we think it's going to be of interest to the community, we'll do everything we can to help you promote it. If we don't, we'll just say no - simple.

As the site grows, it's a sad inevitability that this sort of thing will happen more frequently. While we already act quickly to moderate and protect the site from many forms of abuse which doesn't reach you, we ask that you don't ignore anything we may miss it and let us know - even if the cause being promoted is something you sympathise with. One day, it won't be.

Anyway, thanks for reading - I'm off to develop some new features...