Crossed Wires

The community does not seem to be happy! I've found the comments on the latest two entries of the BlipCentral Journal utterly fascinating to read. You could not get any stronger confirmation of what a diverse community this is. They range across the whole spectrum, although outrage possibly dominates. Perhaps by having my own rant before Christmas I already got a lot out of my system for I don't actually have anything like the strength of feeling that a lot of members are demonstrating after today's announcement.

When I first saw the link to the important message from Joe I thought it was going to be an apology. "Good for you, " I muttered to myself. He's going to man up and say sorry for the monumental cock-up that this upgrade (read downgrade) to the site has been. So I was rather disappointed when it turned out not to be an apology. On the other hand, I was also reasonably happy to hear what he had to say.

The business model for this site has never stacked up. My biggest fear, and it should be everyone's biggest fear, is that the site goes under as a going concern. It simply has not grown at a rate which can sustain the income it needs. That has surprised me over the last few years too. I had expected it to take off in a big way. The concept is fantastic but it simply hasn't caught on. This remains a really tiny community in internet terms and you can see that right away in terms of the number of views on blip's own blog. Only a thousand people have enough interest in this site to read about what is going on with it. That is a tiny wee drop in the ocean of people posting photos on-line around the world. Blipfoto has to grow to stay alive, however much we would like it to stay a cosy little community.

I've heard Joe talk about his concept before now and he does so very eloquently and with great passion. I don't harbour any of the fears about advertising or copyright that a lot of people appear to have. We will probably never know how much his hands have been tied as far as the interface is concerned. The news of this partnership with Polaroid certainly explains a lot of what has happened this last couple of weeks, although far from everything. I'm sure that many of the decisions made have been forced rather than the result of choice. The deal might also explain the paucity of communication. Again, hands have probably been tied as far as the release of information is concerned.

There seems to be a lot of crossed wires at the moment, both at Blip Central and in the community. Having this news come so quickly on top of the makeover before Christmas has caused a great deal of angst. Again, the way this deal has been presented, without any real detail, has just fed the fires of cynicism and speculation. The whole thing continues to be a big mess in public relations terms, at least as far as the loyal and long-standing membership is concerned.

I'm still not getting the same satisfaction from posting blips as I did before the revamp but I'm trying to be open for that to change. My youngest son says he doesn't feel the same inclination to view my blips on his laptop because he can no longer see the whole image. This modern generation have absolutely no patience for anything that doesn't immediately work well. His reaction when he first saw the new interface is not printable. That remains my biggest issue, that my photographs no longer present well to visitors. As far as I'm concerned this partnership is good news - provided that the necessary changes are made to once again make this site a pleasant and elegant experience rather than the frustrating and clunky one that it continues to be right now. To make a further connection to today's blip, reach out and be open with the community that has made your site what it is. We deserve that as much as you deserve your success.

And, finally, if this deal wins Joe (and his team) some financial security then more power to him. He truly does deserve that. It's sad that he couldn't go it alone by growing the site in an organic way but as that didn't seem to work there was possibly no other choice than this kind of partnership. I don't really buy all the spin on it in the video, but I don't consider it a sell out either. Let's at least be happy that the experience we all enjoy here seems to have a secure future.

PS I rather enjoyed this post on the forum tonight from KeithKnight in response to the topic "White background is harsh":

With today's announcement we know the solution - you need to view the site while wearing Polaroid sunglasses.
Will we all be getting a free pair?


PPS I have just realised why so few bugs have been fixed since the release of the new site. The development team have been spending most of their time on the rebranding exercise. But I have some sympathy with that. The community is no longer the only stakeholder. That's just a fact of life we have to get used to now.