Holding on...

Decided to join in the collective show of solidarity with the blip community today and post a photo of myself reaching out to hold hands with whoever ends up appearing on either side of me. As I had to take the photo with the self-timer on a camera with an aspect ratio of 4:3 but making sure my hands were not too far outstretched to crop square, I've ended up with a rather odd expression (at least, that's my excuse). But it will have to do. I can't spend all night attempting to take the perfect selfie!

The future seems very uncertain. We might all still be here posting our daily pics but it seems that the blip I had grown to love, even though I've only been here for just over a year, has gone forever. I don't feel I want to be part of something run by a big, faceless corporation (one of the reasons I left flickr after the yahoo take-over). But I'm torn between that and the feeling of not wanting to leave a community that seems to have grown even stronger in the face of the current adversity...

One thing's for sure, I'm not going to pay polaroid or any other US corporate for the pleasure of blipping so if the lifetime memberships are 'liquidated' along with blip I'll be leaving. Even if there's a 'free' option, it's bound to include ads and I don't want them either.  Where will I go? Possibly 365 but, as my experience with flickr and now blip has shown, all good things come to an end. There is no safe, enduring way to host your photos and memories on social media. So it's a choice of accepting that wherever I go it will be ephemeral but enjoyable for a time or hosting pictures myself on my soon to be up and running new website and sharing them via facebook and twitter.
Not going to share my email on this public forum but you can find me on twitter @jenpinlondon or as Jen Pedler on facebook.
Meanwhile, I expect I'll still be here tomorrow. Losing blip in the same week as losing my beloved cat would be too much.
So for now it seems I'll Keep Calm and Carry On Blipping!