Polaroid Blipfoto Q&A

Earlier this evening Blipfoto founder Joe Tree took live questions from the community specifically on the Polaroid Blipfoto Partnership. 
 
So, replying from his hotel room ahead of the official launch of Polaroid Blipfoto at the Consumer Electrics Show in Las Vegas next week, Joe did his best to reply to as many questions as possible.
 
As always, all feedback will be recorded and used to enhance our plans as we continue to move forward into the next exciting chapter…
 
As promised, we have rounded-up the key questions and answers for everyone who couldn’t take part in the Q&A live.


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What do you see as the benefits of the Polaroid partnership, and why should the Blipfoto community welcome it?
There’s only one way forward for Blipfoto, and that’s to keep growing and reaching more people. The only way we can secure a place in the future is for the place we’ve created to become important to many more people.

Most of us have used Blipfoto to keep a simple record of our most treasured photos and memories. Our partnership with Polaroid allows much greater focus on developing the tools and features which make that an even more rewarding experience.

But another huge reason we’re all here is the community; the wonderful friendships we’ve formed with others around the world, many of which have become close relationships away from our computers and smartphones. A bigger community based on the same values allows more of those relationships to form.

And in practical terms, this partnership will open all kind of doors for the community; new community projects, photographic competitions, things you’ll be able to do with your photos you probably haven’t even thought of.

So if you just want to carry on keeping a personal photo journal of your life, this lets Blipfoto always be the best place in the world to do that. If you want to use your journal as a way to make new friends, do creative things with others, push your photographic skills, make books, or any number of as-yet unknown things, Polaroid Blipfoto will be the best place in the world to do all these things too.
 
 
Why was Polaroid chosen as a partner and as a 'lead partner? I am unclear what they bring to the ethos of Blipfoto. Was the recent re-design driven by Polaroid?
Polaroid is one of the best-known and most loved photographic names in the world. With a 75 year history behind it, it’s been part of all our lives at some point. As I said in the video you saw yesterday, it allows us to make the Blipfoto concept relevant to and reach many, many more people around the world.

Polaroid haven’t dictated the new design. Of course they have had to be comfortable with how we use their logo, but they absolutely haven’t told us what to do - the new design was conceived and developed by my team at home in Scotland.
 
 
The Polaroid name and it's photographic associations feel like a good fit with Blipfoto, but my impression of Polaroid over the past few years is of a company that's lost its way. Are you confident that Polaroid are in this for the long haul?
Yes, 100%. I've spent a lot of time with Scott Hardy and his team over the last 18 months and the future looks very bright indeed. What's most exciting for me – and I hope can be shared by the community – is that we have a chance to be part of the future of one of the world's most iconic and loved names.
 
 
Both parties refer to this as a "partnership". Can you please tell us whether ownership of Blipfoto Ltd has, wholly or partially, changed hands?
This is not a merger or a takeover - this is long-term partnership between two separate companies. Blipfoto has not changed hands.
 
 
I think the partnership with Polaroid is a masterful and inspired outcome for everyone in the former Blip community.  Congratulations on achieving this. I am really excited by what you have achieved and wish you, and all at Polaroid Blipfoto continuing success with all of this on behalf of us all. Thank you. My question is to ask if the excellent arrangements you made to archive everything on Blip with the British Library Archive will still continue under your new US/UK partnership?
Thanks. I'm happy to say there's no change to the arrangements with the British Library. Hopefully the US Library of Congress will now sit up and take notice too..!
 
 
Are any of the Polaroid high heid-yins blipping yet?
We'll be spending the week with the Polaroid folks and I'm sure by the end of the week they'll be joining in!
 
 
For me, the only important question is what is going to happen, short, medium and long term with regard to copyright?
The rights around your images haven’t changed at all, and no images have been sold or promised to anyone else. The contributor owns and always will own the copyright on the content they publish. This is clearly stated in our Terms of Use:

https://www.blipfoto.com/legal/terms

When you upload a photo, you grant us (that is Blipfoto Limited, the UK company you have an agreement with as a user) the right to display your photos online - which we need to simply be able to show the photos in your journal.

You also grant us the right to use your photos to promote us (again, Blipfoto Limited) and permit us to let others do the same on our behalf. In practice this covers us for things like sharing your photos on Facebook, Twitter and other places.

For any more significant use outside Blipfoto we always seek permission to use the photo - as those who have been kind enough to allow us to do so will confirm.

We’re photographers too. This stuff is important to us and we have no plans to change it.
 
Nothing has changed around copyright. We're hugely respectful of our users' image rights, the terms are the same as they have always been and we have no plans to change them.
 
 
Is Blipfoto going to remain ad-free?
It’s still a vital part of the ethos that your membership guarantees you an ad-free experience. We have no plans to change that. We have no plans to introduce outside advertising anywhere on Polaroid Blipfoto.

 
 
Why were blippers who invested in good faith as Lifetime members not informed at the time of what your long-term plans were concerning Polaroid when we were invited to upgrade our membership?
The Lifetime Membership offer was made in early 2014, a good while before the partnership was agreed. We wanted to give the existing community an exceptional one-time offer, which helped meet some of our running costs at the time. I'm very grateful to you and all the others who put their trust in us and took up that offer.

We announced this partnership at the earliest time we possibly could have and the two things were not connected.
 
As you know, some of the features you pay for through your premium membership are unavailable temporarily. The most-loved premium features from the old site are coming back, and we’re adding a whole pile of extra goodies.

To account for any disruption while we go through this transition and some of the member-only services are unavailable, we have already extended every annual membership by three months.

In addition and as a thank you for your support so far, as part of yesterday’s announcement we extended every annual membership by a further 12 months, and all Lifetime Members will receive a second full lifetime membership to gift to someone of their choice. There’s also an exclusive competition coming soon just for Lifetimers.

We had a small mix up yesterday which meant a few Lifetime members received both the lifetime member email and the normal member email. As a lifetime member you will receive a second full lifetime membership to gift to someone of your choice and we’ll also be running an exclusive competition for lifetime members. More details on both will follow next week.  Sorry for any confusion.

So, in short, we have explained and compensated you for the brief disruption to your membership features, but are still totally committed to providing you with a full and improved premium membership package very soon and long into the future.
 
 
Will further life membership deals be offered in future?
Lifetime Membership will probably come back in the future as a standard membership option. When it does, I’m confident you’ll see what exceptional value last year’s offer was, and our commitment to always give Lifetime Members the best of Blipfoto still stands.
 
 
What has become of "Lifetime Memberships" and the "365 Book" that was purchased along with these memberships?
Nothing is changing around the Lifetime Memberships or accompanying 365 books - it will be all honoured. 

As you know, there is this brief period of disruption when some of the members' features are not available, nor the shop. This will be back soon, but you can contact us directly with any specific questions - we'll be more than happy to help.
 
 
It appears that the Terms and Conditions of Blipfoto membership have been slightly altered - is this legal without informing members first?
We have made some minor changes to reflect the Polaroid partnership, which we are entitled to do from time to time. They are available at the bottom of the page for all to see.
 
 
Are you planning to bring back the books and when?
Yes, and as soon as is humanly possible – along with some other goodies...
 
 
Will Polaroid continue to update and improve the site because currently there are so many glitches, for example views/ the spotlight/top blips ...to inspire?
The same team are working on Polaroid Blipfoto as were working on Blipfoto last week - and they're working just as hard on it. 
 

What can we do, as your customers and fellow blippers, to keep this community together and special? 
The simple answer is to keep on blipping! We provide the framework, but the community makes it human. If people keep doing what they've done here for the last few years, this will always be one of the most special places in the world.
 
 
As part of the merger who decided that the white background would be implemented?
It's not a merger, and the new design was entirely conceived and developed by the Blipfoto team.
 
 
One of the things that has made Blipfoto into a community has been the connection Blip Central has with its users and I particularly liked that if you were going to use an image for publicity purposes we always got an e-mail checking for permission (even though the T&C's allowed this anyway). Will we still see this kind of personal touch that sets Blipfoto apart from other sharing sites?
As it sounds like you've experienced, we've always tried to deal with our users, the community and its content in a respectful way. This won't change - we're photographers too, and you won't find more devoted or addicted Blippers than those working behind the scenes!
 
 
You say "There’s only one way forward for Blipfoto, and that’s to keep growing and reaching more people" I am not convinced. To take that to its absurd conclusion you will eventually have to start exploring space before long. Why not stick with something that still feels like a community?
Just because something is bigger doesn't mean it can't feel like a community. My experience from the beginning of Blipfoto is very much that the community aspect increases with size - I don't expect that to stop.
 
 
Looks like the recent refresh moved Blipfoto to Amazon Web Services. Is this within the EU region (and will it always remain so) or are our images now hosted within an AWS US region?
Everything is still hosted in the EU. We're aware of our responsibilities around data protection and wouldn't move anyone's data without prior consent.
 
 
Do you see BlipCentral continuing to be based in Edinburgh?
Yes - I do.