Just to be on the safe side, I have downloaded all my pictures from Flickr. I doubt Smugmug would engage in the kind of venal extortion scheme that was seen at photobucket given the value of the Flickr user base. Given the lack of details available on the acquisition so far, however, a prudent course seems advisable. Of course, I do already have copies of the pictures I've stored on Flickr over the years, but tracking down specific examples through an assortment of hard drives and usb sticks can be a tedious affair. So, I have mirrored the Flickr albums as folders on my laptop, including ten subject folders and a big bunch devoted to my collection of old cameras and the photos each has made. The pictures I have put in the care of the site represent my best work over the past ten years, so much of the value of the collection resides in its organization, which Flickr has facilitated.
Yahoo, the previous owner, allowed the Flickr site to deteriorate in many ways since the 2005 take-over. Most of the discussion groups have fallen silent. A lack of any effective policy regarding Flickr groups formation has resulted in a counter-productive proliferation of groups which serve no useful function. For example, if you do a search for groups on the site using the term, "New Mexico", you will turn up about a hundred groups. What you will find in visiting them is that they all have the same content because there is no practical limit on the number of groups to which pictures can be posted.
In spite of the current condition of Flickr it is probably still the most useful community on the web for exhibiting your photos on line and for talking about any aspect of photography. I'm hopeful that the new owners will recognize that fact and build on it to realize Flickr's potential.
10 comments:
I am a bit concerned about what might become of Flickr. Most of my images are archived in other places now though.
I think it is not a bad thing that our routines are challenged occasionally; it provides some perspective that might not otherwise be apparent.
I'm relieved that Flickr sold to another company whose mission is photo archiving and sharing. If it had sold to private equity, I'd be deeply pessimistic. However, I'm troubled that there is little said in the way of what's next. My blog depends fully on Flickr; 98% of the images shown on my blog are hosted there. If something happens to Flickr that breaks those links, 11+ years of work goes down the drain. I don't even know how I'd begin to fix all the broken links. It's not just time -- it's remembering which photographs I shared in each of -- hey, wow, I just checked, it's 2,000 posts as of today.
I wouldn't be surprised if the freeloaders like me ended up having to pay something for continued access to the site. It seems unlikely, though that they would disrupt existing links as was the case at photobucket. It is also hard to believe that Smugmug would choose to do a worse job than Yahoo of administering the site. One curious aspect of Yahoo oversight was that paying users supposedly got the benefit of ad-free viewing; but I don't pay, I don't have any limits on uploads and I don't see any ads. Just correcting that situation would create a whole new revenue stream.
Because I work in the software industry, and the industry is surprisingly small, I can say that through a private forum for industry leaders I have learned from someone who is in a genuine position to know but can't speak officially for SmugMug that what they're telling us is true: beyond replacing the Yahoo login with their own, they have no plans to change Flickr.
That doesn't mean they might not come up with plans one day. They just have none now.
I've been looking around the net for alternatives to Flickr, but I don't see anything nearly as useful in terms of individual prerogatives for displaying and organizing images, or in regard to setting up special interest groups. I hope the new owners will find a way of reviving the discussion groups. I don't know why those groups were abandoned six or eight years ago. I suppose it has something to do with digital, but I'm not sure exactly how that would undermine the groups. Perhaps digital users actually have little to say to one another since their machines are doing most of the thinking.
I sure hope that nothing drastic happens to Flickr. I really enjoy it a lot, and it is as close to social media as I use. I love the daily feed I get of pictures from all over the world. I upgraded to the "pro" level only so I can upload pictures from my computer.
I haven't seen anyone saying it likely that there will be major changes anytime soon with Flickr. That said, it seems to be just as hard to start a new group on Flickr as to start a new blog. I don't really have any good explanation about the dynamics of networking these days. I wish there were someone to go to for some trustworthy analysis.
I am able to upload pictures with my non-pro account and I don't see any other obvious limitations on what I can do on the site. It may be that the point at which one joined Flickr has some bearing on what a new account allows.
I have been using Flickr for about 10 years and have no plans to stop unless they start charging something exorbitant. I have a free account and the only difference I see is that I have to look at the same ad every time I look at my "All Activity" page. Seriously, the same ad. It never changes. Here's the kicker, it's just an add to upgrade to a pro account. Oh, the other difference is that I can no longer see my 'stats' page, which is actually a relief. I think there was a mass exodus event when Yahoo bought the site and made a bunch of changes to the way things functioned. A lot of the discussion dropped off, but there is still some good stuff there. The knowledge base that has been accumulated and indexed for searching is awesome in scale, quality and diversity. I have used SmugMug in the past to sell wedding photos and they seem to have their head on straight for that business model. It will be interesting to see what they do with Flickr.
It does seem like Yahoo missed an opportunity to do something creative with Flickr. I guess they just had too many other things going on to pay attention to the potential of the site. It seems to me there is an important balance to be achieved between giving such a site a direction with some careful leadership and leaving room for ownership by the participants. I'm encouraged that a number of people have commented on Smugmug's direction and responsiveness to user needs.
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