Blipfuture

With apologies to Agatha Christie and all those thriller writers that use the ransom note as a device.

If you are a Blipper yourself you know the problem, but for those few people that look at my Blips on Facebook, you are probably unaware of what is happening. Blipfoto is in crisis and will close down shortly unless it can be rescued. The users have been given an opportunity to buy the site and a crowdfunding appeal is currently under way. The organisers have suggested that Blippers use today's Blip to say just what Blipfoto means to them.

Blipfoto is one of those rare things that is greater than the sum of its parts. It's a photo-sharing site, but you don't need to be a good photographer. I've learned lots about photography from other peoples pictures; how they choose subjects, frame them, process them etc. It's a social networking site, but unlike any other I know. You network here with people you don't know rather than those you do, and it's not all 'virtual'; I've had several 'Blipmeets' with others and met some really interesting people from all over the UK and even New Zealand in 'real life', making some good friends I wouldn't otherwise have met. It's a Blog and a diary; it gives you an opportunity to record your day and look back to see what you have done in the past. And it's a '365' photo site (and a better one than some others I've looked at) which, although not compulsory, encourages you to post one photo every day, and that discipline forces you to look at the world slightly differently; you're always on the lookout for that special shot so you start to become much more observant of the world around you.

But above all, Blipfoto has proved itself to be a community, and a supportive one at that. It would be a shame to lose it either for current Blippers or for those who might like to join in the future so I would encourage anyone who hasn't done already to visit the crowdfunding website at https://www.blipfuture.com/invest ; it's the last chance to save the site.