Some Questions Answered

Posted by Blip Central on behalf of Blipfuture CIC

Hello again everyone. We were delighted to see the reaction to the last Blip Central post announcing the new plan. If you’ve not read it yet, please do take the time to do so, as well as the new business plan on our crowd funding site.  It announces the collection of the crowdfunding on or shortly after the 26th of January. Following this date, we will begin the final legal process of acquiring Blipfoto from the current owners.

Current Totals

We’re also very happy to see 35 new donations come in since the announcement, increasing the fund by over £1,700! The grand total now stands at a shade over £132,000 (including PayPal donations), with 1891 people currently registered on the crowdfunding site, an increase of 33 since Friday. We’re happy to see that we’ve only had a very small number of requests to cancel pledges, amounting to £340.

If you’ve been considering pledging, or topping up your pledge, then please do think about doing so. There is still time. Every little helps us with the ongoing running of the site and enables us to do more.

Questions Answered

In this post we have the answers to a few questions that have come to us via the crowdfunding site and to our email address at info@blipfuture.com:

- Will you continue to support the phone apps?
- How do I cancel my pledge?
- What will the membership fees be?
- How can I help?
 
Will you continue to support the phone apps?

In the new plan, taking into consideration the currently level of crowdfunding, we have removed the guarantee of support for the Android and iOS (iPhone) applications. However, this does not mean we are intending to discontinue them right away. We would like to keep the apps as part of Blipfoto, and indeed are planning to change them post-sale to remove the Polaroid branding in the same way as we are planning to update the main site. If we have more funds than expected (through crowdfunding or high membership take up), supporting the apps will be one option around which we will be definitely consulting with the community.

There is also a distinct possibility that sufficient technical ability exists within the blip community itself that the apps can be supported by the community on a “best endeavours” basis. In fact, we have already been approached by skilled people in the design of mobile apps from within the community who have offered help. 

How do I cancel my pledge?

We hope that you won’t want to cancel your pledge(s) having read our new plan! We would prefer that you talk to us first about your concerns, preferably by email to info@blipfuture.com.

However, we understand that a few people may feel they wish to cancel. Anyone wishing to cancel their pledge should email team@sharein.com using the email address that they used to register and pledge on the crowdfunding site. All they need to do is to state in the email that they want to cancel some or all of their pledge, and the amount they wish to cancel.

What will the membership fees be?

We’ve had a few questions asking for more clarity on the level of membership fee we would apply in the future. This topic was covered in our blog post on 16th December and our position remains the same. In summary from that post:

“Our mission is to become sustainable, which will depend on paid subscriptions.  However, free memberships have always been a part of Blipfoto. We have not committed to membership pricing or structure as it is something we intend consult on with the community. The community should have a say in this since it will be so crucial to success.”

We originally said that if the take up of membership was low we would seek to cut running costs first to create a sustainable future. In the new plan we have already cut costs to reflect our better understanding of the likely numbers of members, but it still allows for the setting of membership fees at a sustainable level, provided there is good support from users.

How can I help?

We have been really pleased to see so many offers of help and suggestions from the community. We have been taking note of them, and will be working through them once the crowdfunding and sale of the site has been completed. The key to the long-term success of Blipfoto will be engaging the community in its running so we are already thinking hard about the ways in which this can best be achieved. The plan is to put together a structured process for recruiting volunteers into specific roles and, don't worry, we will certainly be letting you know when that's ready. We will be wanting to hear from you!

With huge thanks to you all, from Annie, Bob, Graham and Ian at Blipfuture CIC.