bye bye
While uneasy about the direction of the changes to this site - particularly the lack of consultation, I was prepared to suspend judgment until the dust settled.
I was looking forward to my full year without a miss in twenty-one days.
Then I started hearing from 'blip-friends' who were being suspended for their postings on the issue. These suspensions seem to be a virtual excommunication and like all good strikes at apostasy they do not seem to allow for appeal of any kind.
Just having noticed another happen I realise that I will be suspended fairly soon.
Bye!
Comments
Talk to you soon Worry pas!
I love your manichean last blip.
Very black and white.
I'll hang in there for another while to check the developments.
I'd better post this fast before you get wiped.
I am feeling a bit emotional.
More than a bit!
~ raheny_eye
1. Nobody has been suspended for posting on 'the issue'. Take a look at the comments on the announcement and take a look at the forums - there are literally hundreds of postings on 'the issue', with many diverse and opposing opinions. None have been deleted and nobody has been suspended for their opinions.
2. The suspension you just 'discovered' was requested by the contributor themselves.
3. Aside from a contributor request, account suspensions are only ever made on the basis of a breach of the Blipfoto rules. If contributors express opinions sensibly, accurately and inoffensively, there's very little chance of the moderators stepping in. If they don't, and continue to do so, the moderators will step in.
4. "They do not seem to allow for appeal of any kind." Wrong. Any visitor to the site (registered, unregistered, logged in or not logged in) can contact us on any issue of concern to them, include anything to do with moderation. All emails received are responded to quickly, honestly and accurately.
The people running this site are exactly that - people. We're very clear about what is and isn't acceptable on the site, and I was quite clear and open last week in my announcement about the future of Blipfoto.
You can either like that or not like that, and are welcome to stay or go - that choice is completely up to you. Regardless, there's absolutely no justification for the above and some of the other material posted on the site by other contributors in the last 48 hours, and our moderators are absolutely right to deal with it how they have.
If something is really concerning you, please get in touch - I can assure you we'll be more than happy to help.
~ Joe
Joe:
"Blip, ponder, blog pick" was being ironic: she actually had a very pertinent posting.
"Valopikku" sent me the content of her last posting and it was also to the point and not unsavoury in any way.
"Cagedbird" is known for her big mouth and big heart: I doubt that she needed to be thus treated.
Seems that none were given reasons for being suspended.Nor were they informed of an appeal process.
The one common thread in these (and other suspensions) seems to be their subject.
Personally I am truly saddened by the treatment that these friends have received by blipcontrol.
Leonard
~ worry_pas
Leonard - you make a lot of assumptions, both about the contributors you've listed and those of us behind the scenes.
One of those contributors has already apologised for their conduct, another requested - and was given - a full description of the reason for their suspension and invited back on to the site. The third we haven't heard from.
Bizarrely, the main concern seems to be around change, yet nothing on Blipfoto has changed. The very people opposing change are the ones most actively fuelling it.
I'll make no apologies for sticking to the principles which underpin Blipfoto (see rule 7) and not debating this any further, but will once again extend my invitation to you, or anyone else with concerns, to contact us privately.
~ Joe
Joe:
The fact that these 'blippers' all have certain sensitivities in common perhaps mean that they could have been dealt with a bit less harshly. If just for optics than anything else.
I have no issues with said principles but since you did create a community, a little more responsiveness to concerns would have been highly constructive. It is all too easy to dismiss these as fear of change but, in fact, what I see are concerns about the heart of a very unique creation of one Joe Blogs (albeit self-confessed Thatcher baby). No system, no solution, no plan, no bible is perfect: a few tweaks and twiddles would have meant that the likes of Bisk and Valo would have stayed and thus continued to greatly enrich your virtual Bella: and not undermined the commercial viability of the next stage of its life...
maybe enriched it - in the most basic sense of that phrase.
~ worry_pas
noticed my last comment has been deleted.
was that by you L or blip?
~ McDawg
Lenny the Lurker. There is a ring to it ;-D
I miss your shots. I really do.
~ raheny_eye
You will be sorely missed. Hope you stay a wee bit longer!
~ MissU2
If you are going to lurk, you might as well participate and post, no? ;-D
The Rolling Stones have had numerous farewell tours, why don't you have several farewell blips?
Nothing is final in life. Well, death maybe. But then again it's not longer life, if it's death.
See what I mean? :)
Come back!
~ raheny_eye
I've been so in a world of my own that I missed this blip, but I'm very sorry to read it. Hope you do return.
~ marypot70
Hi Leonard. I hope that you get to read this.
Skyroad has sent a rather poignant appeal (I know that he would have me for that adjective) in the forums:
http://www.blipfoto.com/f_view_topic.php?id=539&fid=6&mode=post
He is not a Founding Member, he has not sold his soul, I am sure that he could do with a bit of help.
Hope you are well. Keep it funk!
~ raheny_eye
