[Deutsch] www.ipernity.com/blog/team/4715936
[Français] www.ipernity.com/blog/team/4715938


Report of the advisors

Happy New Year!

Dear members and friends of ipernity!

In December two years ago we received the bad news that the "eternity" of ipernity should be over after only 10 years of operation. Today, ipernity still exists - thanks to your commitment and loyalty, as well as the great commitment of some volunteers who are active as ima-Team for ipernity. As consultants to this team, we would like to take a look today at what we have achieved and then look further ahead to what awaits us.

Immediately after the takeover, the ima team had its hands full to stabilize the ongoing operations and revive functions that had already been deactivated. In addition, more than 180,000 orphaned user accounts were deleted to stop unnecessary expenses. Because this cleanup had to be done partially manually, it lasted until January 2018. At the end of January, the last instalment of the debts taken over by Ipernity S.A. was paid, so that ipernity has since been freed from its legacy.

At the same time, the feelers were stretched out to find an IT service provider for the technical support of the website, for ongoing adaptation to new requirements and for further development. Qwellcode GmbH in Salzkotten (D) was willing to support us in this respect. This was particularly urgent because nothing had yet been done to implement the EU-GDPR, which will finally come into force in May 2018.

Together with Qwellcode, we immediately started to revise the ipernity homepage to make the changes visible to the outside world. Many from the community helped to replace the agency photos used until then with good own photos. In this way a beta version of the new homepage could go online already in March. At the same time, the ipernity core program underwent adjustments that were necessary as a direct result of the company takeover: "About ipernity" was updated, the "Thanks" page with the history of ipernity was renewed, as were the meta-descriptions that are evaluated by the search engines.

Already in April the new homepage ran stable in all current browsers as well as on mobile devices. It was with a heavy heart that we agreed to limit the language versions offered to seven main languages for the time being. A greater variety would not be possible on a voluntary basis. For internal purposes, a controlling tool was programmed for the permanent monitoring of all economically required key figures. As consultants, we receive monthly reports for budget control.

At the end of May, the necessary adjustments to ipernity in line with the EU-GDPR were made on schedule. The data protection declaration was updated and a data protection officer was appointed. In order to meet the requirement of data economy, all accounts that had not been used for more than three years were deleted. All ipernity pages on which sensitive personal data is transmitted have been encrypted. For cost reasons, however, ipernity did not require complete encryption.

The first positive response to the ipernity change process came from the web rating portal trusted.de/foto-sharing. In a comparison of seven photo sharing portals, ipernity shares third place with Flickr. Other rating portals also became aware of ipernity, and Wikipedia has updated its article about ipernity in a way that correctly and appropriately reflects the latest developments: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipernity

Unfortunately, there were not only pleasant things. Ipernity accesses a complex server farm hosted by the Amazon Web Service (AWS) that requires administration of an undocumented nature and scope. As a result, several disruptions occurred during the summer. In addition, the AWS servers are designed for a completely different set of dimensions than we currently use, and therefore incur high costs. The attempt to migrate failed because ipernity's code is too tailored to AWS and therefore not portable. In this respect, the ima team continues to face a major challenge.

Furthermore, it became apparent in the summer that almost 400 club memberships counted so far were only carte members whose old two-year contracts expired in July. The ima team met this challenge with a special offer for ex-Iperians willing to return, which was well received. The number of members, which would have fallen to 1,120 without this offer, has been recovering steadily since then and now stands at 1,298 club members. Our thanks go to both the ima team for their speedy and careful response and to the returnees who have put their trust in ipernity again.

An in-depth database analysis also revealed that extensive unerased data remains from the first ten years of operation caused high monthly costs. After repeated advance notice, these data remains were deleted in November, with unexpectedly high server loads occurring, which unfortunately led to temporary impairments of ongoing operations. As a result, however, ipernity will have significantly reduced storage costs from January 2019 - with unchanged visible content.

Other smaller measures included the ipernity Android app, which had to be adapted to Google's stricter child protection rules, and direct registration via Facebook. Unfortunately, the latter had to be deactivated because the old ipernity software no longer meets the equally stricter Facebook requirements. The superfluous old logout page was deactivated. Instead, users are redirected to the login page after logging out. This was equipped with an additional info panel for current announcements. The information text on the login page was designed so that random visitors from the web are immediately made aware of our unique selling point as the world's largest non-commercial photo sharing community.

In October, the ima team took the website offline for two days for extensive maintenance. Two failed backup servers were rebooted and integrated, various service tools implemented, the ipernity menu cleaned up, the outdated ipernity uploader removed.

In November, the ima team presented plans for better differentiation of user fees. After extensive public consideration, the new subscription packages were approved at the beginning of December. They will come into force on April 1, 2019. New users will find it easier to get started with ipernity with the help of an attractive initial subscription offer. Club members receive an improved bonus for new members (3+3 months instead of 1+1). In addition, the frequently requested donation button has finally been implemented.

There have also been changes in the ima team. Pam Johnson, who keeps ipernity free of spam and answers all user queries via the hotline, fell seriously ill in September. Helena Paule took over her position at short notice. Rob Stamp, an ipernity user with many years of professional experience in IT, has joined the ima team alongside Sami Serola.

Technical support was also provided by Tobias Bauer, who recently joined ipernity from Flickr. Tobias wants to clarify whether and with what effort ipernity can be converted to SSL encryption at short notice.

And so it goes on with high speed after the holidays, which are only a short breather for everyone involved. Because the bar is high: In December 2018, the prestigious German technical magazine CHIP rated ipernity as one of the five best alternatives for Flickr: praxistipps.chip.de/alternativen-zu-flickr-die-top-5_48929

In January Rob will try to delete even more deeply nested data remnants in order to realize further cost reductions. In addition, the unavoidable exchange rate adjustments announced for February 1, 2019, will have to be implemented. In February, the current "free" users will be offered a transition to the future subscription packages. These subscription packages must be implemented in the ipernity software by April 1, 2019. At the same time, the first ipernity general meeting, which will take place at the end of March, must be prepared technically and organizationally. The FAQ still has to be adapted, and many other details are on a long list. There will still be no boredom.

So far the review of what has been achieved in the past year. But the end of the year is also the right time to take a step back and take a look at the overall picture. Especially as consultants who have a little more distance to day-to-day business.

In 2018 we were surprised to learn that the giant Flickr was taken over by the much smaller competitor SmugMug. We could count on three fingers which motives were behind the deal with which Oath/Verizon got rid of a loss-maker. After a short period of shame SmugMug cancelled the previously unlimited free Flickr accounts as well as the previous "Grandfather" accounts at half price. In October, Google announced the closure of Google+, Google's "social" community. Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat reported a decline in user numbers in 2018 - not just a slower increase, but a real decline. The founders of instagram left Facebook because they disagreed with the development of their app after it was bought by Facebook. And Apple's CEO even warned against the use of "social media".

All these events throw a spotlight on the question: What is actually "social media"? Or rather: What has actually lost the epithet "social" in this term? Can a website be "social" at all? Or is it just a huge bluff?

To tell the truth: "Social media" are as social as a pub! You go there to have a good time with friends or to make new contacts, perhaps just to avoid feeling lonely. That is one side of the coin. So far, so good. But pubs were and are being built by breweries that want to sell beer there. No more and no less. What counts is the profit that the pub makes. The social aspect is only the vehicle to get money out of the visitors' wallets.

And so it is on the World Wide Web. "Social media" are the pubs of the big IT companies. They were created to draw money from our needs. Not directly, which is why "social media" seem to be offered free of charge - but indirectly, by presenting us with "tailor-made" advertising. Of course, companies initially pay for their advertising, but in the long run we pay users for it again.

In such an environment, fair offers are not easy. But it seems possible. Gradually, the previous understanding of users/providers has given way to an increasing sense of community, as was the case with ipernity in the past. Discussions about the ima team's proposals are now much more constructive than in the first few months. The team listens, sometimes drops its own ideas and openly accepts suggestions for improvement. Sometimes there are unexpected twists, the result of a discussion can look completely different than the original suggestion.

The fact that the ima team is made up of cultures from different nations and not one direction dominates is also a benefit. The community benefits from the fact that all members of the ima team are photographers themselves. They understand the real needs of a photo sharing platform. But the biggest advantage is their independence. Nobody wants to earn even one cent with ipernity. Nobody can earn one cent with ipernity because the statutes do not allow this. And now even the first IT experts are coming forward to help free of charge.

For us this is the most remarkable signal. Ipernity - and by that we don't mean the website now, but the community as a whole - wakes up. The community recognizes more and more the chances of this project and wants to perceive them.

As consultants, we no longer see a small team bravely keeping the website alive. Very brave, by the way, because they sometimes do the almost impossible in the background. What we perceive are more and more members who interfere in a positive way. Especially in the last weeks an increasing dynamic of this engagement could be observed. And in contrast to other "social" communities, the tone at ipernity is predominantly very friendly, even though details are sometimes hard fought for.

It seems to us that this dynamic is nourished by the desire to have a truly non-commercial web, at least in part. A web as it was in the "good old days" of the newsgroups: autonomous and self-organized. In which "free of charge" did not mean that a service did not have to be paid for, but that it was free of profit interests.

The essence of a community is that it belongs to no one but itself. Even if one controls the technical means of establishing a community, one cannot control the community itself. At least not if the members have the free choice to be there or not.

For us, this is a very hopeful thought these days, when some things in the world seem to be falling apart. Perhaps what we are doing here is the beginning of a reconquest of "social media". Because even if it seems presumptuous to want to compete against giants worth billions, things have not gone badly for ipernity so far. The budget proposal presented by the ima team for 2019 is solidly financed. It doesn't allow big leaps like a timely, responsive reprogramming of our website. But it puts it on a healthy economic foundation, as it is necessary for a promising future.

In this spirit, we wish the ima team a good hand and all of you a lot of joy at and with ipernity.

Happy New Year 2019 to all of you!

Christian Bucher
Claus-Peter Unterberger
Lutz Petersen
Markus Fritsch
Sara Shrives