Sad news indeed, but the article posted by Christophe earlier today makes it quite clear that barring a miracle this site will indeed close ... perhaps as soon as the end of January 2017.

For many of us this isn't a shock and those that were around in 2015 will no doubt remember my open letter to the team, which sought to shine a light on the fears that many were harbouring: the so-called Elephant In The Room.

However, following on from that there was so much goodwill directed to the staff from the membership and so many good ideas put forward as to how the site might be saved that we all dared to dream if not believe there was hope.

And those hopes grew when so many people moved here from Panoramio when it too closed down recently, but now their new home which many are still trying to settle into is also to be demolished. How ironic and how very, very sad.

It might not hurt if I believed that the people that run this site really had tried everything, but I don't think that's the case. I like many others have tried to engage with them both publicly and privately with little success.

I don't doubt they are sad that it is set to close, but I don't think they will miss it half as much as the people that use it regularly and who will now struggle to find an alternative home.

I think they lost heart some time ago and any recent efforts to apparently turn things around were little more than window dressing. The things that most of us would have thought might make a difference, like increasing membership fees or initiating some kind of crowd funding have not been tried.

Instead, they encouraged people to share their ipernity photos on Facebook and appointed a Community Manager.

It felt to me a bit like that old adage about rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic and now less than 12 months on it appears we have indeed been holed below the waterline and set to sink without a trace.

What a terrible shame. What a waste. What a sad day for everyone that uses this site regularly and who like me have found in ipernity not only a great site to host their photos, but a place where they have been introduced to so many great photographers and where they have made many good friends.

I know that I have certainly enjoyed my time here and I have appreciated all the visits, comments and faves that my work has attracted.

I will miss all of that.

UPDATE: 03/12/16

So, Where Next ...

UPDATE: 05/12/16

Just been published and worth a read ...

Pour vous répondre [FR]

As it says the English version will be posted tomorrow.