Following on from the ipernity article entitled UPTIME 3535*, I wrote to Team Ipernity to ask if they had considered the possibility of working with a small group of members to explore ways that they could perhaps assist in securing the long-term future of the site.

It struck me then that there were many people, myself included, who were not only very enthusiastic about ipernity and believed in its potential, but who would be willing to help Team Ipernity in any way they could. Either by simply putting forward suggestions on how they thought the team could best achieve their goals, as many had already done, or by volunteering to give up some of their free time so that they could offer some sort of practical assistance.

For example, I asked them to consider their current resource issues and the difficulties they faced of not only running the site on a day-to-day basis, but also of trying to keep the spammers at bay. I suggested this might be an area where they could utilise a group of volunteers to great effect, acting as moderators if you like, with access to certain tools that would allow them to remove unwanted messages, issue abuse warnings, and even close/block troublesome accounts if deemed appropriate.

This was just one of the many ideas that had come to me following on from the 'elephant campaign', which is why I found myself sitting down and writing the attached document, also entitled Helping Save Ipernity and which I sent to Team Ipernity.

Some of the suggestions I made would have been easy to implement, others less so, and one would have needed to bear in mind when considering these ideas the potential for them to create an increase in demand and with it I guess might have come a whole new set of problems.

Some of them would have involved working with members, whilst others would have needed more direct action by Team Ipernity possibly even requiring further investment or at least some modifications to the site software.

The main thing was that I felt this document demonstrated not only that there were lots of things that could be done to make improvements and potentially secure the longer term future of ipernity, but that there were specific ways in which I believed members could help.

However, I stressed that the ideas I was putting forward were simply creative possibilities and it would obviously be for Christophe and the rest of Team Ipernity to satisfy themselves of their viability and to decide if they were appropriate.

I hoped that they would take time to consider the points I’d made and said they should not hesitate to contact me if they wished to implement any of them or simply wanted to discuss matters in more detail.

Now, whilst I did have and have continued to have further dialogue I have to say that the response to the document was not very enthusiastic. I think this can be evidenced by how little of it was taken on board. In fact, I think the only thing that was picked up on was appointing a Community Manager.

So, nearly 12 months on I’ve decided to publish the document. It may well be that if you take time to read through it you’ll decide Team Ipernity were right not to follow through on any of my suggestions.

However, some of you, especially those with a desire and a passion to save this site might just find something in there that you feel has some merit and which you might want to try and progress now that possible closure has been mooted.

If you do indeed decide to do that then I hope you have more success than I did over this last 12 months.

Best wishes


PAUL

www.ipernity.com/doc/autofantasia/43955428