A few thoughts about thinking about Blipfoto

Thank you for the comments yesterday about my tentative enquiry about people thinking about Blipfoto. It seems some people do wonder about our organisation and community.

As I said I have written in the past about Blipfoto but in the last years, what with the Italian project, I have taken a very passive role as  a paying member and shareholder of Blipfoto.

So passive indeed that I have not 'kept up', or at least I don't know if there is a conversation about Blipfoto to keep up with.

I think this is also on my part tinged with a hesitancy to raise any issues because the very survival of Blipfoto seemed so precarious after the community 'buy out' and because the organisation is being managed by volunteers who already have very busy lives. 

To be honest, I am also wary of upsetting the fierce loyalties that live within the Blipfoto community. 

And maybe, because, at the end of the day, if it ain't broke then why fix it.

But I find myself writing things in my head nonetheless as I go about tough outdoor tasks.  Maybe that's just because I'm bored and find the pandemic life difficult, because the silence of autumn here in the high hills is just a little bit overpowering,and the sudden arrival of short days and early darkness throws one back on one's limited resources.

But there are also outside stimuli that have set me thinking or, at least, reflecting.

A big external stimulus has been the recent whistle blower revelations about Facebook.  These link into more longstanding critiques of the Facebook model of social media.

The accelerating pace of our climate crisis and COP26 have also given me pause.  Could Blipfoto as a community be 'doing something' - sharing ideas, local experiences and initiatives.  Don't ask me how and God knows there are enough NGOs out there campaigning on this stuff already.

Then there is the internal Blipfoto stuff.

I like many have recently renewed my membership. Happily enough it has to be said. But i did think £32 seemed a very good deal.  I know I could have made a contribution as well but I think I'd just rather pay more to, and don't ask me how, to achieve 'more'.

I'm also aware that I'm not a great member of Blipfoto. I used to assiduously reply to every comment I got but I just don't any more. I do try and browse people who have commented and liked posts I've put up and comment or like back.

Some of this has to do with the way my computer and camera usage has changed. I now do just about everything on a mobile phone, take photos, edit photos, write stuff and browse and comment and like and favourite.  With my fat fingers I just find it a much more laborious to make comments than I used to. Tip tap mistake delete predictive texting tip tap mistake delete predictive texting.

I thing that I am also acutely aware of is that way the Blipfoto members disappear often without explanation. It's an odd thing that, isn't it? And yet their accounts and photos remain visible. Indeed I still follow a number of them in the hopes they might return.

This seems a glaring difference between a geographical or kindred or professional community and a virtual social network: in the former you'd ask someone else if they knew what had happened to so and so, or you might just hear about them in social chat but in the social media world relationships seems to be very atomised and individualised.  Clearly, there are all sorts of issues with data privacy protection and regulation here. 

But I still find it odd and disturbing. Am I missing something, I wonder?   I was looking at some old Blip entries  recently and they suddenly stopped. Eventually it was revealed in the comments below that the person in question had unexpectedly passed away and there was a great outpouring of grief.

It would surely also be interesting to know why people stop Blipping.  I have heard people say, "It is just taking up too much of my time" and I wonder if there is an expectation that if you just post  a photo with no words and do not comment on other community members or like or favourite that somehow you put yourself beyond the pale of expected behaviour. Or maybe you start to disappear as the likes and the comments dry up.

I'll stop there for now.

The long and unseasonably warm autumn here continues in a blaze of glory. I suddenly noticed these hazel catkins in waiting. Had they been there all along or was it that the leaf-fall revealed them. And as my ivy clearing works have continued this beautifully proportioned spindly tree has been revealed against its back drop of hazel, downy oak, walnut and false acacia.

I hadn't realised this was my 2500th Blip. But perhaps it is apposite to reflect on things on such a day.