Blipfoto brand - it meant a lot.

Bex, I'm sure you've nailed it as far as why there is so much angst amongst the community. What a shame that the issue of branding has not been addressed or answered. Logically, if you take the position that the changes to the look of the site is down to the Blipfoto Team alone they must have agonised over the decision themselves. For them to change there must have been fundamental reasons and justification. So why not share this reasoning with the community?

Of course if they dont want share this with the community it leads to a different conclusion that the branding change was to reflect the new partnership. Even that is a justification for their decision, however little some might like it.

I do agree Graham. If the communication was more open, even if it was not liked, it would be much, much easier. I still think there is hope there!

Graham is right in that you have indeed nailed it here. It came back again for me this weekend, and that was mostly around the refusal to address what is clearly people's biggest issue. I fear the trouble is that there will soon be very many new blippers who will see this current interface as how blip is branded. Changing it back might upset even more people! I suspect they've painted themselves (and us) into a corner already.

Oh, woe is me,
T' have seen what I have seen, see what I see!

...was my first reaction to that ED but my mind started wandering and the relevance of the modern explanation made me laugh.

O, how miserable I am to see Hamlet now and know what he was before!

I think I need to just keep my head down for a while, go back to just posting photos, just because, and see what happens. I have actually been trying that but it just keeps coming back!

I hope you're wrong. I suspect you're right.

I felt Contraflow made a very dignified protest as he left the site. Now were there to be a similar demonstration of concern from all those wishing to see a return to grey, it might have a symbolic impact.

BTW I didn't mean you were being miserable! I meant I felt miserable!

The URL was part of the brand too. It was memorable, short and snappy and described the site well. When I clicked my bookmark and was whisked off to a completely different URL without warning, I thought the site had been hijacked. polaroidblipfoto is clunky and sounds like a site primarily driven by Polaroid's commercial interests, not the community. I think BlipCentral will regret giving up the old domain identity (especially if Polaroid goes down the pan again).

On a slight tangent, I note today that when BlipCentral tweet photos, they tag the tweets with #polaroid. They are not polaroids!

I've worked for two brands that were, in their markets, considered iconic that were taken over and subsumed within their new owners' brands and among the staff and some customers there was initially a great weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth at the dilution or loss of something iconic and precious. But really, it made not an iota of difference. No one ultimately cared. Some people flounced off in hissy fits but for most they looked at their jobs and the service and found it to be the same and the world continued to turn. And now no one remembers the names of those companies.

Brands are nothing but symbols of the products or services they symbolise. When Apple computers where beige boxes of shit, Apple was a dog hat no one would kick. When they were translucent boxes of fun, people couldn't get enough of them. The look and the name are all sizzle. You want to judge it by the sausage.

@Veronica - I've delinked my blip account from my twitter feed, because I objected to the fact that the text automatically attached to the title of the blip and the url also included "polaroid" as a hashtag. I felt that this was not appropriate. It's a shame.

@Arclight: yes, it's a shame. I haven't delinked mine because I know some friends and family use Twitter to keep up with my blips. It's an irritation I suppose I'll get used to along with everything else.

I will probably manually link some of my blips, but without hashtags. I notified the people I recalled sometimes favourited my blip/tweets. But I felt very uncomfortable being corralled into supporting the trending of a hashtag for such a company.

You've reduced your relatives' and friends' access to your journal because you object to the inclusion of the word Polaroid in the twitter hashtag? Go you. Sticking to the man there. Have you heard the phrase "cutting off your nose to spite your face"?

"You've reduced your relatives' and friends' access to your journal because you object to the inclusion of the word Polaroid in the twitter hashtag? Go you. Sticking to the man there. Have you heard the phrase "cutting off your nose to spite your face"?"

I have to say that it is rudeness like this that prevents a lot of people with good point to make getting involved in the forums. Whatever happened to "being excellent". I am not against people having an opinion, to quote Voltaire "I may not agree with what you say but I will defend unto death your right to say it", but one does not have to be downright rude to people who express a different opinon that your own.