Flickr

Timmyjoe said:
Was on Flickr years ago, then found that folks were taking my images off Flickr and using them for commercial purposes. Contacted Flickr and their attitude was "Tough Luck, nothing we're gonna do about it." That was the last day any of my images ever appeared on Flickr.

Best,
-Tim
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For what it's worth, they've likely changed ownership several times since then depending on when this happened.
 
I have used Flickr for many years and will continue to do so. It works well for everything I need to do, infinitely better than Instagram. There are still a lot of very active group pools and the search feature is great.

There really isn't anything a web site can do to block someone from making copies of your images. Once you're viewing an image it's already been downloaded to your PC, and saving it for later use is pretty trivial. And there's always screen-capture.
 
I use Flickr to curate my photos into albums to share with family and friends. I haven't found anything remotely as straightforward for that use case. I just looked and I have monthly albums of content going back to 2005.
I'm definitely always open to suggestion on something better for this use, flickr has got more and more and more expensive without adding any functionality at all, which is a shame.

Instagram and the like leave me cold, I can't see the point myself, who cares about my photos or anyone else's for that matter in a giant ocean of everything. It's like plankton in the ocean but I am OK that this is just my POV and honestly what was the point in sharing it I have no idea.
 
Coldkennels said:
Erik, honestly: how is this even remotely relevant to the thread? Great photo maybe, but dumping photos into a discussion like this is basically just spam.
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Coldkennels, I get it, I understand where you're coming from, and I agree. But, it doesn't matter, nothing really matters... etc.

In my opinion (which also doesn't matter) the best thing to do at RFF is to learn to ignore the things you don't like and embrace that which you do.

Life is short, don't sweat the little things, sweat the sweaty things :)

All the best,
Mike
 
I use Flickr and I really like its keyword/tagging, and groups. I also like that I can follow photographers I like, and by looking at their favourites, find new photographers whose work interests me. I agree that it's become much more expensive without adding extra functionality. I've also had problems with unauthorised image usage (theft).

On the plus side, I've made enough from copyright sales from images ad agencies have found on my Flickr stream via keyword search, to pay for my photography hobby for the past 5 years, at least.
 
Lots of food for thought ... thank you for the posts.
Flickr still seems a little lacklustre to me but I`ll stick with it a little longer.
 
I don't know maybe I'm too old, I use Flickr and still like it after a decade or two. If you have pictures that are sensitive, simply do not upload them to the net(Flickr or otherwise). I personally will not upload pics of family, friends, or children, NEVER.
 
Timmyjoe said:
This was in 2011, so Yeah, may be totally different folks running it now.
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Flickr was sold to Yahoo! in 2005, who were then acquired by Verizon in 2017. I didn't realise Yahoo had owned Flickr for that long; I remember Yahoo's wild flailing with the UI and various other aspects of Flickr in the mid 2010s that drove a lot of people off the site, and assumed that they'd only just taken it over at that point. Yahoo does have a tendency to misunderstand the audience of and ruin everything they own, after all.

Then Flickr was sold to SmugMug in 2018, and that's who own it now. It's SmugMug that dialled back free accounts to just 1,000 images. I'm frankly surprised they've not made more changes since they bought the platform, but I guess it's too late to expect the users driven away during the late Yahoo era to come back.
 
I've only been on Flickr a little less than a year so I have limited experience. It's fine for my purposes which is a place to display my photos so others can see them. I started using Flickr when my printer died and I refuse to buy another. My photos look better on paper but displaying them on Flickr is a decent alternative. I pay for the "Pro" level so I can post unlimited images. I'm not into social media at all so the other photo sites are not interesting to me but I like following other photographers whose work is interesting. Many of them post here on RFF.

I do admit I was hesitant to post on Flickr due to knowing of image theft from the site. That's something that can happen to anyone no matter how careful they are. And, really, there's little to be done other than spending my entire life online to search for stolen photos and then paying an attorney to write threatening letters. Oh, well, that's not for me. As for avoiding posting photos of friends, family, etc., that would restrict my photography significantly. I'm just a snap shooter and I take pictures of everything and everyone and everyone's things. Not to be an A-hole about it but once a photo is taken it becomes mine and I can do with it what I want. I'm pretty sensitive to people and I've deleted lots of photos I felt would be in poor taste or would appear to ridicule the subjects.
 
There must be a reason why its changed hands like it has.
For me its just not the same place I joined back in September 2008.
Bit dull and lifeless these days .... or so it appears to me.
I was curious what others thought and whilst it still clearly offers advantages for some personally (on reflection) those are not important for me.
 
jayton said:
There must be a reason why its changed hands like it has.
For me its just not the same place I joined back in September 2008.
Bit dull and lifeless these days .... or so it appears to me.
I was curious what others thought and whilst it still clearly offers advantages for some personally (on reflection) those are not important for me.
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Flickr is still usable and albums/groups still work fine. It might go to the ether one of these days but meanwhile I just go with it.
Cold, and lifeless maybe but it doesnt have all the spam and dancers than the other sides do.
Plus the amount of photos available is incredible, and the Commons have great archives.

It changed hands for one reason only, MONEY!
Yahoo! was in a shopping spree at the time and gobbled it.
Then Y! went almost bankrupt and sold it to Verizon, who sold them to SmugMug (photography)
Hopefully SM will keep the best of Flickr as they are a photography company and might understand what people want.

After some comments here I tried to reinstate my ipernity account, and will give it a shot but seems to be cold and lifeless as well :D
 
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"Bit dull and lifeless" ... everything becomes a bit dull and lifeless after a while. Flickr is a useful instrument. There are a lot of people that use Flickr who produce original and interesting things. There is a guy who collects old pictures of the first aeroplanes, Kees Kort, wonderful! And I love and enjoy the work of LA FAUTEAUNEGATIF, Natasha Buzina and many others.

Erik.
 
Erik, thanks for the link to La Fautenunegatif. After a quick look at the images, I'm following this photographer and will look more closely later. Outstanding work!
 
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Dogman said:
I've only been on Flickr a little less than a year so I have limited experience. It's fine for my purposes which is a place to display my photos so others can see them. I started using Flickr when my printer died and I refuse to buy another. My photos look better on paper but displaying them on Flickr is a decent alternative. I pay for the "Pro" level so I can post unlimited images. I'm not into social media at all so the other photo sites are not interesting to me but I like following other photographers whose work is interesting. Many of them post here on RFF.

I do admit I was hesitant to post on Flickr due to knowing of image theft from the site. That's something that can happen to anyone no matter how careful they are. And, really, there's little to be done other than spending my entire life online to search for stolen photos and then paying an attorney to write threatening letters. Oh, well, that's not for me. As for avoiding posting photos of friends, family, etc., that would restrict my photography significantly. I'm just a snap shooter and I take pictures of everything and everyone and everyone's things. Not to be an A-hole about it but once a photo is taken it becomes mine and I can do with it what I want. I'm pretty sensitive to people and I've deleted lots of photos I felt would be in poor taste or would appear to ridicule the subjects.
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Photo theft is basically unpreventable if you're posting to the internet. The only money I've made from photography as come directly from clients and not from licensing, so I haven't sweat it too much. The only theft of one of my photos that I'm aware of is that of my Zucchini Duck, which has since travelled the world. It's amused me to watch its progress over the years and it's by far my most viewed photo. For awhile it came up within the first 10 results when you searched google image for 'zucchini.' At some point I changed it to CC licensing.


Screenshot 2023-11-15 at 9.47.09 AM.png
 
Everyone is in Instagram and Flickr is quieter than in it's heyday; In terms of size, Flickr is a blip on the Instagram radar. No question about that.

That said, Instagram is optimized for mobile phone viewing, Flickr for laptop/desktop; Instagram viewing is driven by algorithm while Flickr is much more search based; Instagram is owned by Meta/FB, Flickr isn't. For all these, perusing Instagram grates on me in a way that Flickr doesn't. It's true there's a cost associated with Flickr but since a few days Instagram also charges (in the EU) for ad free use.
 
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