The Way Forward

Cloudy but bright?

A final word, for a while at least, on the changes here at Blipfoto. I've been following Joe's Q&A session and he's been giving all the expected reassurances. I've now got a personal guarantee that no ads will ever appear on my journal, whoever is viewing it. I didn't expect anything otherwise but it was still good to see that written in black and white (although it's now since disappeared ... which is a little disconcerting).

I've often said that blipfoto suffers from an identity crisis. Is it a journalling site or a photography site? I joined initially to keep a journal, but I then got hooked on improving my photography. The challenge has always been to try to post a photograph which has a universal appeal but is also personal and pertinent to my day or my journal entry. For the most part I've succeeded in that, which possibly explains why I'm fortunate enough to have many followers. And having a faithful following feeds that desire to post something worthy each day. I've loved every moment of the journey.

And that journey will continue, although I think it will now be a little less about the photography and more about the journal - which is closer I think to Joe's original vision. My journal will be continuous but the changes in the last few weeks have broken the continuity of experience. Now is a good time to change the way that I use the site. And this possibly fits well with the new partnership with Polaroid. I think I do get the synergy. The experience is likely to become more about capturing that decisive moment each day than processing a great photograph.

Once the bugs are sorted out I'm sure I will again be evangelical about blip. There is no reason why it should become a very different place to the one it recently was. Most people here do use it as a journal first and foremost, for recording personal moments, building a history to look back upon. I do believe that the more histories this place is home to the richer the whole site will become. I think we will see tags used in all sorts of ways to build ad hoc groups and record global events. It could be very exciting indeed ... if this fantastic community continues to support it and build relationships the way it always has done.

So my final word to anyone who is wavering in their commitment is just to hang in there. Give the guys a chance to cure the problems and keep posting. The only immediate threat to the blip experience is if the stalwarts of the community were to depart. It would be a tragedy if that happened. The management of the change has been a debacle but let's forgive them that and try to be positive. It's going to be cloudy for a while but I think the future is bright! (And, yes, I hear you, it bloody well will be with this bright white background ... where are my polaroids? !!)

PS I discovered by chance a fantastic feature today. Perhaps some of you know about this already but I have only just found out about it. The biggest problem with this new site was simply navigating to the journals I wanted to drop by. It is now very easy. If you want to go to my journal quickly (something you all want to do of course), just type "@e" into the search window in the black toolbar at the top of the screen. It will display all the journals you follow beginning with "e". Type a further "a" and the list will be filtered more. This works on user names not journal names. As long as you know the blipper's name it is a very quick way of going to a specific journal. A rare bit of credit from me to the developers. This is sweet. And it works for your own tags too, by just entering "#" and the first letter of the tag you want to search on. It's very neat.

PPS Almost forgot, for the journal side of life, only highlight from a day trying to work was a short late afternoon bike ride out to Langbar, catching the only bit of sun of the day at a very opportune moment. I feel very, very unfit. I've got to start putting some work in.