All Work, no Play

The end of the working week, for me (Chris) a tricky day as I had two team members on planned holiday and another two off sick. That left just me and my 3rd party team. We managed but I'd never knowingly plan to work like that. Thankfully it was a Friday! 

This was always going to be a day to reflect, as it's been 5 years to the day since "that" Blip Central post: the first one announcing the crowdfunding. That was a hard day - really stressful - so its date is ingrained on my (Annie's) memory. The site also decided to celebrate by being down when I woke up!

It's hard to put into words the last 5 years. It takes as much time as you'd like to put in to run the site. During the lockdowns we've taken a specific step back from all but urgent work, to keep ourselves sane. Otherwise normally my time is spent managing the bills and accounting of the company, solving technical support requests and moderation issues, and working through technical changes to the site. As it’s a volunteer, spare time role, it doesn’t get as much as I’d like - but there is no more to give.

One result is I personally have dropped much off the social aspect of the site, which is a shame. I just don't have the time to browse and comment as I used to - so my partner in Blipping is left in charge. Chris does a brilliant job running this journal for the both of us! 

The best thing is that the community in the site largely just gets on with it: chatting, supporting... in a year such as this it’s great to see. And that’s why we put in the time - so everyone else can just carry on looking out for each other.

So this is just an indulgent, personal note to the tiny team, on an anniversary of a hard day - all those hours put in have added up to the site still being here 5 years later. Well done, and keep going...