Very Bad Hair Day

We've all had them

I'm posting this tonight partly because it was impossible not to share it really. It's been a windy day. I met Danny here in Leeds this morning as I took a few minutes out waiting for my connection to Shipley having left Roam in London at 6am. He even got up to walk with me to his local station. It was a great little visit.

I'm also posting partly to add a few more words, which I also feel a need to share. It's amazing how divisive these changes to blipfoto have been. That shows in the first instance just how very much this community cares, and also how different we all are in response to change. It's been a totally fascinating phenomenon to observe. I've certainly discovered that I'm far more resistant to change than I had hitherto realised!

I have a huge investment in this site in terms of time and effort, and I desperately want it to be successful. That's one of the reasons why I was so upset by the changes. It looked like they might be committing commercial suicide. One can only assume that the funding is in place to ride the storm. At the end of the day we have to understand that this is a business, and the site has to be profitable. I have no problem with the founders trying to make a pot of money, although I do tend to believe that the prime motivation is not so much financial but simply wanting to bring the experience to as many people as possible. Ambition comes in many forms.

There is a problem though, one which I have bitter experience of myself, which is that the money men often have very little real idea of what makes software like this tick. I think the community has a far better feel for what defines the soul of blipfoto than the folk at blipcentral. I think that became pretty obvious last week. So, encouraged by the email that was sent out today (which I presume everyone received), let's continue to engage politely and try to steer this site back where we collectively want it to go. They are hearing our concerns and I believe now that they are genuinely listening. Let's give them a chance.

For all those who have left very thoughtful comments recently, and conferred an improbable number of hearts (far more than the number I've been notified about), thank you for your support. I am so time poor with work that I really am on an almost essential break here at the moment. Now I've got that off my chest I'm free to get back to what I should be doing.