I just deleted my Flickr account and now I don't know how I feel

[bluesun267]

This post is probably a little silly and sentimental of me.

But isn't that the goal, or end-game, of social media? To keep you coming back for more? To become such a part of your life you feel you can't live without it? To punish you emotionally for not participating? Well I guess it worked.

BUT, the ads just got to be too much for me. A couple weeks ago Flickr started doing a banner ad across the top of the page that makes you have to scroll down to see the whole photo. Oddly if I signed out I didn't get the ad anymore. When I saw that, I felt angry and singled out as a so-called 'free' member. It seemed a willfully hateful move on their part, designed to 'persuade' me into paying $6-$8 a month for their 'pro' membership.

My feeling about a pro membership is, even if I could afford it, it's too expensive for the service they offer, and for what I would use it for. And after 10 years of being a content creator on their platform, shouldn't there be a little more respect? I mean at least Youtube pays a penny per thousand views. Lifetime views of my photos was 250K apparently. So is just asking not to be deluged by ads crowding out the photo on every single page too much?

I guess it comes down to Flickr no longer being the right fit for me as a photographer. I was very selective about what I posted there (keeping only about 100 photos at any given time). A film shooter exclusively. Not in need of the storage. Not super participatory in the social aspect of it. I do value the few transitory contacts I made there. And I was glad to be able to pass the administration of the Nikkor 50mm RF lenses group onto one of our RFF members before I left (thanks Steve).

But there's a history there I just erased, some small record of the last ten years of my life in photography, and it makes me sad.
-Timoleon

 

[helen.HH]

So very Sorry to hear ...
.unless You are happy with your decision.

I have often thought of doing this as of late
BUT will not simply because I am not on Instagram, facebook, twitter, etc
it's my One major social media Indulgence.

my way of keeping track of my photos since 2008
Had a Pro membership cept for the last 3 years
I realized I only have four hundred something photos listed so I really do not need pro

Met one of my favorite contemporary photographers
on flickr, became fast friends, and we met here in NYC, dear sweet, Junku Nishimura ...
Was asked to be in the Leica book 'Leica Myself' via flickr by the creative director doing the book ..
Flickr has been very good to me

Well I do hope You will share and post your photos here ~

 

[p.giannakis]

But there's a history there I just erased, some small record of the last ten years of my life in photography, and it makes me sad.
-Timoleon

I would argue that the history are the pictures taken, not the platform they are uploaded on.
Flickr is not for me either - i use it mostly to link pictures to other websites (i.e. RFF). It used to be a more vibrant community in the past but I suppose most peope moved to Facebook groups at some point. It had it's own advantages, i.e you can search threads on Google - you can't do this with facebook. I am not sure when i started losing interest on Flickr but i havent visited it for months (if not more).

 

[Pál_K]

Just as one death is a tragedy and a million deaths is a statistic, I think if I were to place photos on any social media platform it would be like adding another grain of sand to the beach.

A better experience for me is the idea to share photos with one’s family, friends, and a few others.

 

[bluesun267]

Just as one death is a tragedy and a million deaths is a statistic, I think if I were to place photos on any social media platform it would be like adding another grain of sand to the beach.

A better experience for me is the idea to share photos with one’s family, friends, and a few others.

Thanks. I needed to hear that. It has been gnawing at me a while. I'd been thinking just how foolish and a waste social media is, because in the end, most of us can only meaningfully affect the lives of those in our immediate circle.

 

[bluesun267]

I would argue that the history are the pictures taken, not the platform they are uploaded on.

Thank you for that!

 

[bluesun267]

Well I do hope You will share and post your photos here ~

Thank you for this Helen. I am looking at other options, and don't intend to go underground just yet.

 

[splitimageview]

I exited Flickr a couple of years ago and they've been threatening to delete my images as I'm over their new limit, but they are still there.

 

[Archiver]

Ten years of history isn't something to sneeze at. It sounds like you were very selective about your posting on flickr, and were similarly choosy about your social interactions. Flickr's move to profitability/sustainability is understandable, given their acquisition by Smugmug. Membership has gone up a fair bit, and you can't even get a two year membership, only single years. They recently sent out a survey which asked how much would be too much, in terms of Pro account costs. Some of the options were disturbingly high, so I hope that my low answers will help keep prices stable for a little while yet.

I am unaware of a good free photo hosting site, unless you count Imgur. And that's not terribly good, as everyone and their dog uses Imgur to post random pictures of anything and everything. Flickr, at least, is largely populated by people interested in photography.

Joining flickr was a way for me to follow people and groups I found interesting, and then I began posting a few images. As things went on, I posted more and more, interacted with likeminded people, and now my account has over a thousand images. When a country town in Victoria burned to the ground in one of our most terrible bushfires, I uploaded dozens of images that I had taken previously as a way to keep its memory alive. During the time of the Borders bookstore chain closure, I uploaded a series of images that documented those times. I was planning to do the same with the Masters hardware store closures but didn't quite get around to it. There are sets devoted to cameras, to trips taken, and a few events. It's my online personal portfolio but ironically hardly anyone in my physical life knows about it.

 

[markjwyatt]

Just as one death is a tragedy and a million deaths is a statistic, I think if I were to place photos on any social media platform it would be like adding another grain of sand to the beach.

A better experience for me is the idea to share photos with one’s family, friends, and a few others.

That is why I went to Flickr. People actually see my photos. I might show a photo here or their to a friend or family, but mostly I do not. On Flickr I get hundreds or even thousands of views. Does it matter? Maybe not, but if you can't have others get some enjoyment out of your photos it seems a little meaningless to keep adding more photos.

 

[dexdog]

Just as one death is a tragedy and a million deaths is a statistic

That statement is attributed to Joseph Stalin, and is really creepy because he was speaking about killing millions of people. I think that you should employ a better metaphor. There has to be a better way to talk about photography than using this kinda reference

 

[dexdog]

I used to have a Flickr account once upon a time, but dropped it in 2005 or so because I did not like their privacy terms and conditions. I have been using SmugMug ever since then. While it costs me about $80 per year and terms and conditions are not ideal, I find it preferable to Flickr

Edit: Flickr is a good venue if you want to get a lot of exposure to the public for your work. I am not a professional photographer or anyone who has a need to get their images and vision out to the larger world, so SmugMug works for me.

 

[bluesun267]

If I'm being honest with myself, the times I was engaged most w/ Flickr are when I spent the least time engaging with close friends and family about my photography. I think this is one of the realities of social media: that it serves as a stand in for face to face contact. That may not have been foremost on my mind when I deleted the account but it was an underlying issue to me. Thanks for reminding me.

 

[Pál_K]

I think that you should employ a better metaphor.

Thinking about it, what I wrote actually doesn’t even fit - the “grain of sand” metaphor captures what I was really thinking.

If the mods want to delete the post or edit it, that’s fine with me. I’ll apologize in advance for adding to their workload.

What I’m trying to contrast is the value of recognition to the photographer. Are the “likes” of thousands of anonymous people valuable? I don’t know. I suppose it’s subjective; an individual decision. To me, it seems Flickr is filled with amazingly good (and sometimes not so good) photos on any subject in the universe. I feel like any contribution I would make would be totally insignificant. So, instead, I enjoy sharing photos with a meaningful circle of people. However, even on this forum I have very high regard for many of the people here who have shared their photos and I’m very glad they did.

 

[dexdog]

Not trying to be too critical of you or censorious, but I think that the grain of sand thing works well, similar to a drop in the ocean. 😎

 

[Bingley]

I’ve been on Flickr for many years. I despaired of the site when Yahoo acquired it and then proceeded to wreck it by trying to turn it into another version of FB/Instagram. I briefly considered deleting my account. But the acquisition of Flickr by Smugmug has, IMO, been a great improvement, a return to form as it were. The Flickr groups are better than anything else out there in terms of sharing common interests in gear or technique or aesthetics. As for ads, I hate them, so I have a pro account; bingo! no ads. I prefer a subscriber service, which eliminates ads, as a means of supporting a website where I can post photos and share interests. I also post on Insta, FB, and Tumblr (remember Tumblr??), so I am familiar with what else is out there. Flickr sucked a few years ago, but I don’t thing it sucks today… in fact, I think it’s quite a good platform for displaying one’s work and sharing work and interests w/ others.

 

[Archiver]

If I'm being honest with myself, the times I was engaged most w/ Flickr are when I spent the least time engaging with close friends and family about my photography. I think this is one of the realities of social media: that it serves as a stand in for face to face contact. That may not have been foremost on my mind when I deleted the account but it was an underlying issue to me. Thanks for reminding me.

Sites like Flckr allow the user to engage with people they would otherwise not, for reasons of geography and proximity. I found RFF around the same time as flickr - in fact, I posted to the flickr RFF group and later started posting here, which gave me the opportunity interact with all you fine folk. I can count on the fingers of one hand how many people I know in my vicinity who are into rangefinders, and most of them are local dealers.

Generally I dislike social media, especially Facebook. On one hand, it gives me the opportunity to group chat with friends around the country. On the other, Facebook is filled with mindless garbage, and it takes a lot to find something useful and engaging beyond the omnipresent cat videos or Tiktok reposts. I never thought of flickr as social media, more as a site where one could enjoy the photography of others and perhaps engage with likeminded people.

 

[Nitroplait]

It is possible I am naive, but Flickr does not seem as invasive as the dominant social media platforms.
I only use Flickr for hosting images I use elsewhere - in forums mainly. Most of the Flickr groups I have encountered over the past few years are lying dormant. I imagine most activity has moved to Instagram and Facebook (which I don't use anymore).
As a free image host service, I can live with the ads.
If I were in need of a portfolio type presentation, I would probably look elsewhere.

 

[raydm6]

...

BUT, the ads just got to be too much for me. A couple weeks ago Flickr started doing a banner ad across the top of the page that makes you have to scroll down to see the whole photo. Oddly if I signed out I didn't get the ad anymore. When I saw that, I felt angry and singled out as a so-called 'free' member. It seemed a willfully hateful move on their part, designed to 'persuade' me into paying $6-$8 a month for their 'pro' membership.

....

I'm curious, are you running any ad blocker software in your browser? I'm not a paid member and I am not seeing any ads when logged in (or out for that matter).

 

[JohnBeeching]

After the Cambridge Analytica scandal I deleted my FaceBook account and, though I had withdrawal symptoms for a while, I now no longer miss it. Devote the time you would otherwise have wasted on FB to taking more photos!