I think, or at least hope, that the majority of you who have been following this discussion and who may even have shown support for it by adding it into your faves realise how much I love ipernity.

When I felt it necessary to leave flickr in 2013, I opted to come here because, to me at least, ipernity was the best photo sharing platform in the market.

Nothing I’ve experienced since making that move has changed my opinion, so if the recent 'elephant' campaign, if we can call it that, has stood for anything then it has not been for change: it has more been a plea for clarity, certainty, continuity and above all else honesty.

The fact that the discussion has created so much interest shows that a large number of members shared my belief that things have not been right for quite some time: only 2 articles from Team Ipernity in 2015 and no posts whatsoever on Facebook/Twitter during that same period; reported technical issues not being resolved; support tickets being left unopened and unread for several weeks despite priority customer support being supposedly part of what you pay for when you become a Club member; a dramatic rise in not only the number of fake accounts, but also in the amount of unsolicited spam; and an equally significant increase in the number of people seeking to promote adult services through the use of ipernity.

However, to me and many of you out there, it has been the silence from Team Ipernity that has been most worrying and it is that silence that has allowed uncertainty to grow throughout the community over recent months.

Well now, at long last, I’m pleased to say that someone from Team Ipernity has finally made contact with me and whilst they have not answered directly all of the points raised I think this should at least serve as a ‘holding statement’ until such time as they are able to communicate with us more fully on the subject.

Given that they are obviously very busy and have expressed a concern about being inundated with direct messages I am not going to name the individual. Suffice to say the person in question has been significant in developing the ipernity project and I am certain the message is genuine.

Having apologised for the time it has taken to respond, they went on to say:

“Ipernity is safe. We do not plan to shut down the service in the near future.”

They accepted that there have indeed “been some small technical problems”, but pointed out that they’re “currently hiring someone to help fix them”.

Perhaps most interestingly though, they closed by saying:

“Yes, we had some difficulties, like many other photo sharing services. Not only financial. I will communicate soon about it. This is all I can say for the moment.”

So, there you go. Admittedly, t’s a much briefer response than I’d hoped for and as I’ve said I don’t think it answers all of the points/concerns that people have raised through this discussion.

However, it is a response and as such if nothing else it at least lets us know that Team Ipernity is still active, albeit very much behind the scenes. It also lets us know that there are no plans to shut down the service in the near future.

Beyond that it is still very much a waiting game, but at least we now know our concerns have been noted and that further communication should be forthcoming in due course.

I suspect I personally won’t hear anything else direct, but if I do I will obviously post details of it.

In the meantime, many thanks once again to everyone who has shown an interest in this topic and who has given the 'elephant' their support.

Kind regards


PAUL