Sad

Gus and I walked from Arnside to Beetham via the Fairy Steps, stopping in the woods for this photograph above the snowdrop bank.  The woodland tracks were churned up, and we both had very muddy legs - the shot is framed to show him looking pristine.  But is he wise or sad?

I'm sad.  As usual I have been slow to pick up on events, or the lack of them.  But it does seem as if we, the passengers in the Good Ship Blip, are sailing along eleven days after the crew abandoned.  It was comments by Mindseye and Veronica that finally alerted me yesterday.

You have to admit it doesn't look good.  None of the Blip Central Team have blipped in the last 11 days, including Joe Tree who until now has missed only one or two days since he first started Blipfoto.  The Blipfoto Twitter and Facebook accounts have been eerily silent.  There has been no Pick of the Week.  There is no comment from them on the Discussion pages, individual emails have had no response from the Team. There is an obvious lockdown on any communication with the community.

We can only speculate on what has happened, but it must be something serious.

Blippers are wondering how they can preserve their journal entries.  Most of us will have the original photographs, I guess, but few will have saved their narratives.  And there is no easy and quick way to do that now, certainly not for me with over 1300 entries.

Then there is the community, we all have so many contacts in blip world that we haven't yet connected with through other means.  There are alternative sites, including a Flickr Blippers' Overspill Group.  Flickr has its moments - for example, Gus's last appearance  there has had over 13000 views - but it isn't the same, it lacks the community feel that is uniquely Blipfoto's.

I'm sad to think the crewless ship really is heading for the rocks; I'm sad for Joe and his hard working Team who have brought us so much pleasure and fulfillment over the years; I am sad for the potential loss of all my journal entries that I assumed would always be there; I'm sad for the possible loss of friends and contacts.

I shall add an email address to my profile page in case anyone does want to get in touch if the worst happens, and I shall start squirrelling away contact details for my friends and contacts here.

Did anyone call the Lifeboats?