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Part of the motivation to blip daily comes from the reward system. A token of achievement at selected milestones in the form of a little red balloon or a new camera helps to keep that motivation on track. Balloons appear more frequently at the beginning of your blip career. This helps keep the initial motivation going to get to the first major achievement of the Gold Camera. From then on, the balloons appear at 500, 730 (two years) and again at 1000 where the prestigious Blue camera is awarded. Truly worthwhile achievements are never easy and whilst the wait from 500 to 1000 is a long one, the reward at the end is worth it.

It's difficult to pinpoint when it started, but a quick blipsearch shows the first '400' celebrations appearing about a year ago. It seems to have caught on now with an increasing number of blippers choosing to celebrate it. Being as it is a mere thirty-five entries after the Gold Camera though, is it really necessary? As the community grows (and with this left unchecked), I think we'll see more and more of these unofficial blipdays. Celebrating at 400 will of course lead inexorably to celebrating at 600 and 700 and once this happens and blip starts to saturate with century celebrations, it won't be long until the first '450' appears.

Seeing the first batch of blippers reach one thousand entries was a great moment for blipfoto. All their hard work and dedication to the cause is, frankly, inspiring, and the Blue Kyptonite camera is a fitting reward. I'm sure I speak for every blipper when I say I can't wait to be the owner of one. It will take a while before we start to see blue cameras appearing regularly, but I'd still like it to be a special occasion when it happens for me. Will it be a special occasion in a couple of years though? Or, will the achievement of the 1000 milestone be diluted somewhat by being unlucky enough to share the limelight with those celebrating 900 and 1100 on the same day? I think so.

There, I've said it. It's probably not a popular opinion, but with the investment of time and effort I put into blip, I don't feel guilty about voicing it (hence why I've gone for my journal rather than the forums where a similar topic died a death). Just because we count in base 10, it doesn't make every multiple of 100 a blipday. We're entitled to post anything we like but drawing attention away from the blip reward system by celebrating every hundredth entry (regardless of the effort put into it) might lessen the achievement of the official milestones, both for the person celebrating and those who feel obliged to congratulate when they see someone with their hand out.