Group: Ipernity Members Association Project

Unfortunately nobody knows how much money is needed to safe IP further on.
But perhaps:

1. Each member pays a basic amount to IP to save it for the moment
2. IP raises up the tarif; no more free accounts for members until 200 pix
3. IP tries to get payed advertisement contracts

That's not too much, I know; but for the moment ... Perhaps it will give IP a chance to find a ( or a few ) investors for the future. This might be necessary !

But: we need the information how much money is needed in the moment and how much money is needed for a safe continuity. And we need somebody who does the negotiations with IP.

Ulrich

Agree with you Ulrich.
Jose

I am with you

bonjour totalement, pour pour la sauvegarde de ce site unique en son genre. Mais encore faudrait-il connaitre la nature exacte des problèmes du site ?
Cordialement

For what it's worth folks you might find my latest article and the document it links to of some interest. If nothing else it helps put the current situation into context for new arrivals and shows that it might not be as easy as you'd think to get Team Ipernity on board.

It has been tried, many times before.

www.ipernity.com/blog/autofantasia/4642918

Most informative and makes me realise I really hadn't taken much notice of what was going on. I was storing photos and only interacting with a few other people. Ironically I have only just found out a number of things like where to find other people's (non-contacts) articles. I never looked at Explore !

It became clear to me when I was looking for an alternative photo sharing site after the announcement of the possible shutdown ... that Ipernity is the best kept secret on the web. It did not show up on any of my searches! Somehow ... for it to grow ... people have to know it's there and not going to shutdown!

Be great if as many people as possible could check this out and help encourage as many other people to do so as possible:

User Poll - Make Your Vote Count!

www.ipernity.com/blog/autofantasia/4643022

Be really interesting to see what it throws up!

1. Clearing!
Convert old accounts - which aren't used since 6 months or more - into pay accounts, or delete them within 30 days, including all pictures, videos, etc. That reduces considerably the server costs.

2. Free Membersship
Limit the free membership to 3 months and 100 pictures. Allow only one picture/day to test the platform, as others do. IPERNITY is no cheap cloud, but a communication platform for engaged photo amateurs. Or isn't ist?

3. Payed Memberships
Take the money, which this account is worth! Other accounts with lower benefit cost more than three times as much: FOTOCOMMUNITY without limits 96 €/year! At significant lower performance!!!

4. Pro-active advertising
IPERNITY is different from FLICKR or 500px. Communicate this advantage! Many people, who might be interested, never had heard about IPERNITY. Why?

5.Focussing
DON'T WASTE MONEY in obsolete modernisms! Spend the money to STRENGHTEN the UNIQUE FEATURES of IPERNITY (high performance, good desktop practicability, etc.).

Summarized:
- reduce costs immidiately
- focus on the most important aspects, i.e.: What makes IPERNITY unique?

Nobody needs another FLICKR or 500px.
Me myself not at all!

With you on this just about all of the way !

Well said. I couldn't agree more!

Bravo Bernhard!

Fine analysis, Bernhard, totally in line with my comments in various discussion threads. And here again the reference to SmugMug. 300.000 members and no free accounts, Min fee is 40$ / yr. It can be done!!

Stimme Dir vollkommen zu !

Just who ARE the owners of this site and what, if any, are THEIR views ???
I would love to here from them and maybe we could make some progress !!

@ Jeff: Very goot question! Because if the owners intend to use the money and/or manpower to develope an additional useless FLICK-clone: It's not worth a penny!

I have read the above comments many times now with great interest.
Some things seem clear:

1) There is a web site which costs money to keep in order.

2) That money must come from somewhere.

3) Hence there are paying customers (and maybe some non-paying ones too)

4) That sounds very much like a business to me! You sell a service to customers!

5) Business could be large (eg Starbucks), or small (eg local coffee shop), but it is still a business which has to be managed to survive in whichever market it places itself.

6) Perhaps those with better business expertise than I might like to contribute some basic business ideas here:
6.1) Who are the customers? (Somebody said we are all old people!!)
6.2) What product do they want?
6.3) And at what price?
6.4) Who are the competitors?
6.5) What are the competitors offerings?
6.6) What is direction is the industry / market segment heading? (eg Panoramio also closed)

7) When we have answered those questions, then we can consider different strategies, some of which have been mentioned above, eg
7.1) Do we have a low cost product which everybody can join (but with few features). ie Simply a place to store your photos away from home?
7.2) Do we have a high end product, with lots of features, which commands a high membership price?
7.3) Do we focus on some specialised market segment, eg pictures storage and meaningful conversation about them?

Perhaps some dialogue around these points may lead to a viable solution, rather than just putting solutions up for discussion (all be it perfectly good ones!)

I remember someone once told me that trying to sell a viable product (or service) without doing customer and market analysis first was just like going to the toilet for a sh*t without checking for the presence of paper!

Best Wishes to all
Peter

Very constructive discussion so far!
(Besides the word's, that all of us 'missed the boat'. Thank you for that lovely degradation of all those, who try their very best.)

If we look to the market, as proposed, what do we see? Some very big photo-platforms, which chase the Apple-Generation. That cake is eaten. There is no need for another 'me too' product. In business terms: No offender has any chance any more.

If we look to the customers: They have an adequate choice between several applications for smartphone and tablet. The market for snapshot photography à la Facebook, Whtasapp, Flickr, etc. is saturated. But what's about the engaged amateurs? Those people who buy all those expensive DRLRs, bridge-cameras, etc.? Who run Photoshop to make the best out of their captures?

The big fish in that pool is Fotocommunity, which now struggles the balancing act to offend the mass market (with their misscarried relaunch from April '16) and to hold their old customers. The future will show, if they succed. My prognosis is: They'll loose the engagend amateurs. (I'm not the only dissatisfied refugee from fc....) And if they don't, than only because lack of alternatives. The performance of FOTOCOMMUNITY is deep below ZERO! They are vulnarable at that point! Besides that FOTOCOMMUNITY is mainly focussed on Germany, not worldwide. That's another chance!

My conclusion: As a virtual member of a think tank I would propose: Look to that pool of customers! They have most of money, they have most of time, and they demand best quality as well as highest performance.

Therefore:

6. Begin with the end in mind! (Stephen R. Covey, The seven habits of highly effective people.)
My vision: Photokina 2018 - Fotocommunity struggles furthermore in the sternmost exhibition hall (No.9), while IPERNITY has a stand within hall #1, promoted by Leica, but independend.

7. Build strategic alliances!
Look for high end companies like Leica or Hasselblad, or Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Fuji etc. at second level, or Adobe (Photoshop) as a partner.
(I know, they have own little communities. But they might have benefits to cooperate with an independent one.)

8. THINK BIG!
3.000 club-members today? What's about 30.000 enthusiastic foto amateurs wordlwide in three years? Not free members, but paying ones? Not liabled to any brand, but independent. The alternative draft to those low quality mass platforms like 500px etc. A high quality platform for enthusiastic amateurs - and as advertising platform for high end producers of photographic equipment as counter draw. For those, which want to sell more than smartphones!

***

You may say I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one: Steve Jobs (Apple), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Ferdinand Porsche (VW), Dieter Schwarz(Lidl), Otto Beisheim (Metro), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Michael O'Laery (Ryanair) . . . . did nothing else!

That' my blueprint for IPERNITY

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpajoF4Uyew

Thank you Bergfex for another very useful contribution to the discussion. What you have said makes a lot of sense!

I also remember a piece of advice that buying a company with a very poor performance is a sound move, providing you are good enough to turn it round and make it great again. So, can we buy enough of ipernity to turn it in the direction Bergfex suggests? If it has almost no value at present, why not?

Love your blueprint. With a little effort, it is certainly achievable if there is a will.

Leica does have its own site: www.leica-fotopark.com/de

good ideas!

@ Gudrun: I know. But that's nothing else as a rather useless little FLICKR-clone. And it's not independent.

I really love your visions, Bernhard. So far looks like a good business plan without numbers. We need to fill those in and secure the code somehow ... Cannot wait to go in active mode.

may be they are interested in a better one :-)

...and don't you dare to forget Wikipedia! ;-)

I am pretty much of the mind of Bergfex on this.

There has to be a sound business plan.Even at this point the site doesnt need frills and sparkles. It need a sound plan.. and stabilising first. Its lost many people with all this happening. I envisage ANY saving of it will take at least 6 months from agreement date ... followed by another year to rebuild the customer confidence.. people will not come flocking back IF any of this can be achieved.. they will sit out and watch... Stability HAS to come first.. and that will eat money.. BUT.. it CAN be done IF the business plan is sound.

The HUGE problem in any business is to find the small team who can do it.. that is going.. to my mind... to take a partner..... because we are not all going to be able to sit in a Conference Room and run the company !

I'm not sure that the area of ongoing software maintenance has been fully addressed. While we are happy with the current functionality, inevitably there will be bugs arising from time to time, and there needs to be a team of software engineers/programmers to fix any system issues.

Dear Raffaele!
1) Can you imagine, that is was Christmas time? (Looking to my view-counter the activities were near 50% between Dec. 17th and 26th.) Today they are "normal" again.
2) Can you imagine, that the most important things are said? (I'm sure, you know the 80/20-rule!)
3) Look to the article of W.Sutherland. There you'll find everything of interest.
4) What we are waiting for is the decision of the management.
Bernhard
btw.: Who are you? I miss your portfolio. No pics at all?

Je suis d'accord pour payer le juste prix du service, il faut prendre conscience que l'internet coûte cher !
Je suis d'accord aussi pour la reprise d'ipernity par les membres eux-mêmes.
D'accord aussi si cette reprise passe par l'achat d'actions.

Et bonne année 3017 à nous tous !

Info from Team Ipernity

www.ipernity.com/blog/team/4646844

So, maybe our ideas are going to bear fruit !

Yes,finally some good news,it will spread like fire,also cause many sites are closing it can be a great oportunity for becoming a big news and publicity is something Ipernity needs from the start,more people will hear about it and new members are always needed,of course paying ones,especially when flickr go down...Viva la resistance. ;)

Increase the Club membership fee ASAP. & search for a usable sponsoring system using advertisements on all user front pages.

Yes,good news for us and for flickerites also,its time to leave that dead site,iam looking carefully there and when time comes will start visiting forums and callin people here,there will be a lot of work there when shitstorm starts and i dont think they will have a lot of time for moving,it will be more hectic then last time when people went mad after that change,if i recall good it was 20.000 comments in 2 weeks.

think i mentioned some time back autodesk. they bought colour lovers and seem to be buying platforms. doesn't hurt trying.

And what about PicMonkey?

Until recently there was even an option on ipernity to "touch up with PicMonkey" any of your photo uploads. It seems to have disappeared on my most recent upload, but still perhaps one to consider! :)

oh non ! tout le monde n'a pas photoshop
personnellement, je ne me sers que de picmonkey malgré qu'il ait peu d'options, on arrive à des résultats corrects.
avant de le supprimer, on pourrait peut-être demander l'avis à la communauté...

My vote is to keep PicMonkey!

Ipernity has 100,000 members in total. At Present the income generated by 3,000 club members at €29.99 is €89,700
So if the present 3,000 club members doubled the club fee the income would rise to €179,400
If the remaining 97,000 non club members were to pay 15€ ( €0.29 per week)The income generated would be €1,455,000
The resulting increased income for IP would be €1,634,400
As an incentive to encourage non club members to pay €15 an increase in the number of images viewable in their poststream could be put in place.

As a further incentive, perhaps a mass email-out, warning that inactive and free accounts will be blocked from public view after a certain date, and will only be unlocked after the fee paid and/or revised T&Cs accepted.
Perhaps an account can be free (with much more limited image count) for a trial period only, unless it was previously "club" so if for any reason tour club lapses, you can still get into and renew ...
I would not advocate deleting material hosted on IP - that is a matter for the user of the account - but perhaps these blocked accounts could be "archived" in some way, until they are claimed.

I am quite impressed by Tess' calculation, even if probably only 10% of the free hosted people will accept sudden paying, even with €10, because this would generate 100K€, basically the same as the current revenue.
The only fear I have is, even us here are less than 100 to actively react out of the 3000 paying members : this is *less* than 10%...

All in all I believe a carefully crafted mailing to the free users may be worth trying.
(and, contrary to StoneRoad2013 above, I don't believe at all that an aggressive menace of shutting your free account will bring anything)

The remaining open point is, what can IPernity offer for a 10€ account that be better than the free status, but lower than the 'club' one? Four time the pics? Raw files and others?

I would not dream of being so drastic and threatening to presently non paying fee members. My idea is just to show ( by the above figures ) what a realistically small fee from non paying customers could help IP to possibly survive and leave it to their choice to pay or not.
If people are unaware of how they can possibly help they cant be blamed and the only way to let them know is to provide the financial figures.

It is a difficult balance to achieve - the implied 90,000 free accounts supported by 3,000 paying accounts is very unbalanced, and a low cost minimum charge might be a way forward, after a free trial period.
.
Sorry, I really didn't mean to be threatening to "free" users, just that "there is no such thing as a free lunch" and maybe that blocking I'm suggesting would be very much further into the future, if at all.
Perhaps only after several "warnings" and 6 months of inactivity on an otherwise empty account, or treat the first 3,6 or 9 months as a free trial and then cut the visible limit down to 100 or even fifty images ...

I thinks this is a more fair and just way to go forward with the non paying customers. Principally because your suggestions that having been contacted by IP of the problems of not paying you have rightly suggested that they be given a reasonable period of time to decide whether they are in or out. As we both agree ( as many others do also) IP cannot operate with the unbalanced income situation.

Three other quick suggestions:

1- There are other small companies that may be interested in somehow participating to IPernity, gaining access to 'our' very efficient technologies (fast uploads, all-formats support, commenting, multiple licenses, copy protection, very large sizes… all features that are just not supported even by the largest services).
An example of such potential partner is twentythree.net : having initially started as a (very raw) image hosting service under the name 23hq.com (now completely inactive), then evolved towards online editing and hosting for videos (so, a different line of business than ours), they may be interested to bring in their (few) users still on 23hq.com, benefit from Ipernity high-tech, and potentially invest somehow here.
Now, for 23 it seems they are either not interested… or even dead, as nobody reacts over there when contacted.
But still it'd be definitely worth searching for this kind of 'complementary partners' : there must be other guys besides 23…

2- A relatively unused feature on IPernity is the capacity to host non photographic documents.
The Team themselves mention this regularly with sorrow, but it seems their view of the customer base was the same as for photos : generic end-users like us.
I definitely doubt this; instead, my belief is they are mostly within all our online big newssites (newspapers), that more and more publish supporting documents for their articles, and for this use limited, complicated and intrusive external services like scribd.com.
Compared to a scribd, IPernity in my view only has advantages, and even already propose this "just copy that url in your paper and there you go" easy feature.
In other words : a side-by-side comparison should be built by the IP team, and brought to online newspapers, with more or less the same cost offer than the present Club one, maybe even largely increased (because online newspapers justify large volumes, and also definitely can pay much more than a single user)

Like the previous one, this action is one only Ipernity can do, not us, and actually my main fear is we find ourselves only with tech people in the IP Team.
What they need is no tech but actual business developpers, and I'm not sure they exist at this moment…

3- There may also be another way to valuate the specific IPernity support for big photos and raw files : helping all social-flux users to propose high-resolution pics.
At this moment, whichever you choose between Diaspora, Facebook, Twitter, your only possibility is to upload "too small a pic" for it to really be marketed, for instance (or to be offered as a CC license…)
One could easily imagine offering a kind of 'Diaspora/Facebook/Twitter' plugin that would allow their respective users to 'one-click-upload' a compact file in the flux that at the same time would automatically point to the IPernity-hosted source file, with whichever reuse license possible.
This at least is a technical proposal to the technical team ;-) and I insist on the orientation to give it : the aim is not to bring the service to us IPernity users -one MUST consider the other way round : bring it to the 'average Facebook user'. That's a Facebook plugin that must be developed, not an Ipernity button on IPernity. A button for NEW users...

HTH,
Hervé

People are used to free things on internet but that dont excist,we are paying it on some other levels,3 to top 6 months free after that goodbye.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pFX2P7JLwA

Marko, Ipernity is 10 years old...

This is the most important statement in the video you linked:
If you're not paying, you're not the customer--you're the product.

Facebook is 13 years old,flickr also,i dont understand what this means.
Something weird happened with IP in one point what we dont know,site was going very smooth,cloud thing was going on,first flickr refugess came and team was overwhelmed with work,there was this thing for smartphones,we cant say site was dead in technical way,it was evolving all the time,still today this platform is beautiful in both ways,technical and design.

Seems to me like they lost some money/funding and with that came uncertainty,probably real number of paying members was not that important cause site was safe.

When i first started to use internet i was also into this free thing for everybody,freedom bla,bla,so wrong,here we need total change,fucking manifesto.
Also what is so important that you said before is to keep IP working even for a year,if it goes down thats it.
Lets wait monday or tuesday like Audrey said,maybe we'll be smarter then.

Of course i was kidding,not manifesto in some ideological way,but we need game change on non paying individuals,its easy to go online and surf a bit about "old" photo sharing communities to see they are going to kingdom come.
Iam sure all this people dont have time to go from site to site with their bags full of memories and just wait for next closing.

Reply from Audry in New Perspective EN FR
Audrey d'ipernity has replied
The numbers are not exact, ipernity doesn't generate 89k€ annually since a part of Club members pays for 2 years (+ the taxes and charges).

But you are right, we need to address the issues generated by non-paying users and we are actually working on the question.

I think the majority of people share the same opinion about doing something about non-paying accounts. It's not fair the club members have to shoulder the burden. If non-paying members are not willing to put something into the site, I'm not sure they're really interested in it or care about it so whatever way the IP team chooses to proceed (archiving per Sara's suggestion) or deletion is fine with me since they're not part of the solution but a part of the problem. After all club membership amounts to slightly less than 11 cents per day (much less than a cup of coffee)! Furthermore, I doubt these non-paying members would grow the site or if they did, they would perhaps bring in more non-paying members adding to bandwidth and storage usage fees.

Thinking (again) about the "free" accounts last night.
I agree that something is required.
The much stricter conditions that are discussed may be applied to new or existing INACTIVE accounts (of which latter type I suspect that there are a great number). Perhaps the active account holders could be persuaded to pay a lower fee to maintain (increase) their viewable images.
It is a difficult (thorny and knotty) problem, but one that needs a solution.

Storage cost is only one factor -- what about the cost of bandwidth ?
Maybe a tiered membership with limits on the storage capacity and the quality of videos shown will encourage higher membership contributions.

If you want 1080p videos to be stored and displayed, you need to sign up for the "gold" membership. The "silver" membership would allow "720p" or similar size. Free would be granted 5 videos @ 720p. IMO the "silver" plan shouldn't exceed ~$50.

And ask a "maintenance fee" from all inactive accounts or else those will be closed & deleted. The latter part is harsh on the users and IP as well as it likely will diminish their numbers, making it harder to attract advertising dollars (or Euros)

More ideas :
Possibly make it easier for those with "free" accounts to pay something, perhaps on rolling three months contracts ?
I'm aware that not everybody has lump sums available all the time, and some are on very small or restricted incomes ...
Paypal or similar should be widely available, isn't it ?

One thing I had noticed are free & empty accounts with hundreds, even several thousands of favorites. On flickr such accounts were used to steal photos through the API or create galleries embedded in other sites.
With IP that may also occur and to discourage the misuse of free accounts, there should be a limit on the number of favs. And maybe look if there is a lot of bandwidth going towards API requests.

bonsoir stargazer :)
déjà que les étoiles illimitées sont distribuées au compte-goutte,
j'imagine qu'on sentirait encore davantage la radinerie si le nombre de favoris devait être limité...

Absolutely with Juleann here,no more free loading,very strict new rules and not complicated,keep it simple.
It has to be open letter to all users with a game change where users are politely asked to participate in saving this place...if they dont want,then goodbye or au revoir.

That's what I thought, but recently people have shut groups before closing their account and disappearing into the ether.

There should be a way for IP supervision to promote someone into a group admin other than by another admin ...

It doesn't matter which language you speak, if the onsite translation doesn't help me to understand I paste it into another translator which will be bit different and hopefully help me to understand.
Regarding the possible increase in cost all hobbies/interests involve some expenditure, think what a years subscription would buy you in the wider world for example a meal and a few drinks would cost you more, a premier league football match certainly not one of the big teams.
Buy a Club membership for 3 months and see what happens
I have just checked your profile some photos would be a good idea that is what the site is all about !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Totally agree with you regarding www.ipernity.com/home/raffaeledelre Yes a few pictures would be nice. Raffaele seem to use IP to post articles only.

I see Ipernity primarily as a photohosting site.
So, yes, I would expect to see some public images on a user's pages.

Having had problems on a now defunct site with users "stealing" images - by this I mean copying from other places (and users) and pretending the content is their own work - I prefer users to demonstrate sharing and interaction of their own work.

I think any restructuring of Ipernity would have to put greater focus on member satisfaction and getting the word around about this site so people become familiar with it. I believe there are a lot of people who still haven't heard of it. Also, while photo sharing is its main purpose, article/blog writing with inclusion of photos is a strong secondary purpose that shouldn't be underestimated. The IP platform is superior to many blog sites that don't permit sharing of illustrations and photos.

This survey in my opinion will not achieve intended result.
1
Ipernity need to send an email to all it's members to alert them on this new proposal and give them a chance to be informed
2
The time frame allowed ( 5 days) is far to short for important survey. If you think there is any merit in what I am saying I would ask you ( as you and the other musketeers who have work so hard in trying to solve the problems of IP.) contact IP with my ideas.
This survey will achieve nothing if the above is not implemented. Just my humble opinion

!!! to ALL USERS !!!!
thanks Tess ...

For clarification I wrote in IP's blog article:

My personal opinion -- there are two options. 1. Do nothing and Ipernity shuts down. 2. Members risk failure by trying to save Ipernity with the potential of success through an association.

If the survey advances to crowdfunding, the money would go purely for the site -- cloud hosting, platform costs. Nothing would go for salaries or to Ipernity S.A. the corporate entity that currently runs the site. The 50 Euro membership fee is consistent with what other sites charge and would cover the annual costs of maintaining the site based on current costs directly linked to this site and ensure viability for years to come. Of course if club memberships grow this figure could drop to reflect added revenue since the goal of this association would not be to make a profit nor for anyone's personal gain.

The survey is a first step to determine if there indeed is a willingness and ability to save Ipernity. So I hope everyone completes it so we can get a realistic picture.

Please be aware that at this time no one has asked for money. This won't be done unless it is feasible and realistic to save the site. If so, the membership association would become a legal registered entity in France so that it could legally receive funds to save this platform.

THANKYOU William.... this helped alot !

Survey done.. and be assured I would help in any way I can.. I have stated that before early in this group.

You said "The survey is a first step to determine if there indeed is a willingness and ability to save Ipernity. So I hope everyone completes it so we can get a realistic picture".

I hate to repeat myself so many times but it is crucial that all members ARE actually informed.
And the time frame needs to be extended for a reasonable time for those who now receive mail to respond.

Ipernity need to send an email to all it's members to alert them on this new proposal and give them a chance to be informed of the survey.

Tess, I agree that a mass email to all users is required.
However, doing something like that has a tendency to set off the "spam alerts" in email and ISP systems. Getting past that protection / blockage takes time, and using the alternative of smaller rather than larger segments of the user / membership base at anyone time.

Edit to Add -
Try a refresh your news / homepage - there should be a banner alert on it now .

I have just got my alert.

I put this comment on the Ipernity blog, but StoneRoad2013 has suggested it might be also be useful here:

Firstly, I would like to thank all the people who have made such great efforts to save Ipernity, but secondly, to offer a word of caution about forming an Association in France.

Probably for historical reasons, France is a very beaurocratic nation, and the fingers of it's beaurocracy are very long, and reach into many areas that would surprise people of other nationalities, and so it is with Associations, whose rules of formation and administration are very precisely defined.

I have no legal expertise, but I have been involved with forming an Association in France, and although I can speak tolerable French I am more comfortable with English, and I found a couple of sites in English that were very helpful in clearing up some of my misunderstandings.

I am sure that there are plenty of French people who are both bilingual and far more knowledgable about such matters than I, and who would be willing to help if the situation moves on, but these two sites may help English speakers to understand the framework of associations in France more clearly.

cesc.online.fr/1901.html

www.angloinfo.com/how-to/france/working/starting-a-business/non-profit-associations

Best wishes,
Mike

As I have already commented in IP most recent blog
Hi Mike
That's a brilliant link to French Associations Explanations and Rules. For the likes of me and many others I am sure who have no experience in this area.
Even the first few lines (below) are helpful in trying to understand the ramifications associated in building the proposed IP intent to develop an IP association

An Association Loi 1901 is the term used in France for a non-profit-making organisation of two or more people. The name comes for the convention having entered into French law on 1 July 1901.

A non-profit association created in France can function without being declared. In this case it does not exist as a legal entity and falls under the collective ownership of all its members.

However, the association must be declared if a bank account is needed, if it collects membership fees or arranges fundraising, or if the members undertake any legal action or buy or sell on its behalf.
Thanks for the link.

Tess Mc Kenna
Last chance to save Ipernity in my humble opinion.

My suggestion is if Ipernity do not extend the time frame for action on possible they are more than likely to fail. I have written to IP with a suggestion as written below
Ticket Number 437894
Hi Team
Survey
www.ipernity.com/blog/team/4648550?lc=1#comments

This survey in my opinion will not achieve intended result unless the below issues are addressed.
1
Ipernity need to send an email to all it's members to alert them on this new proposal and give them a chance to be informed. ( Not every members reads blogs)

The time frame allowed ( 5 days) is far to short for this important survey. I know there is merit in what I am saying and I would ask you to consider my views

It's a vital chance to save Ipernity Please don't miss it.

Above Ticket Reply

Hello Tess,

Thank you, we plan to send an email. But we must act step by step or we will be flagged again by email providers for spam.

We put an alert on the homepage for people to see the survey.

Best regards,

Audrey

If IP have failed to contact the majority of members by email even in small batches to prevent being flaged as Spam. ( as I have already said most people appear not to have read these blogs concerning the present situation and therefore are totally unaware of what's going on.) Emails are so much more important because most everyone reads their Emails
So in the end it is Vital to extend the time frame to allow the maximum input to achieve the Intended Goal.

8 days have passed and we have no info about the survey results... which leaves me thinking they must be not so good...

Survey only completed on 4 Feb, though it would be good a.s.a.p. to have some indication of results and some idea of what is likely to happen in the immediate future

The latest post I saw in this group with regards the survey was made by William Sutherland and said simply:

"The survey is officially closed. Preliminary results are encouraging showing that if members work together and keep their commitment to this site, the Ipernity platform can be restructured into a sustainable site and saved. More specifics will follow in the coming days. So keep the hope!"

The latest post I saw in this group with regards the survey was made by William Sutherland and said simply:

"The survey is officially closed. Preliminary results are encouraging showing that if members work together and keep their commitment to this site, the Ipernity platform can be restructured into a sustainable site and saved. More specifics will follow in the coming days. So keep the hope!"

Team Ipernity have just published an article entitled The First Results for the Survey, which I'm guessing many of you will want to read! :)

From what I read there, 900 replies (to be compared to the 3000 paying members here).
OTOH the IP team initially said they'd need another 3000 paying members to reach equilibrium.
Even it this figure of +3000 may have been exagerated, the fact that most of the 900 replies will have accepted to pay more (say, the double) means we have found the equivalent of 500 new members.
In other words : we are far from halfway through.
But we are probably close to being able to maintain the site as is, a minima, till the end of this year.