Flickr Pro vs Free

Ah well, I'll continue to enjoy the 'freebie' while I can. :)

If I do lose it, I'll not pay for a pro account, and probably won't bother with the Flickr Free option either, if its full of adverts.

Apart from using it to share photos with friends and family, I find that Flickr Groups, at least the many that I have looked at, are full of somewhat reclusive people that never talk each other, and when they do its usually little more than one line meaningless 'back-patting' comments, e.g. "fantastic image", even when it isn't.

Thousands of pictures, several hundred members, and minimal or zero discussion, seems to be the 'norm' for
Flickr groups.

At least on the forums, people actually converse.

If you are someone looking to sell your photos, then Flickr is probably a good medium via which to get them noticed, other that than it is little more than image storage site IMO.

All that said, I guess its a case of 'whatever floats your boat". :)

Dave
 
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I should add, that as an experiment, 3 months ago I created a Flickr group, relative to my geographical area, with a description that reads:

"Not just another place to post your latest image, but a group for amateur photography enthusiasts, whether novice or experienced, to share their hobby with like-minded people. Discuss equipment, and techniques, both capture and image processing. Share images, and both give and receive friendly critique if required."

The fact that in 3 months, not a single person has joined the group, endorses my view on Flick groups, as described in my previous post.

I will likely leave it for a little longer, or at least until Flickr tell me that they are going take away my free Pro account, and then I'll 'pull the plug'.

Dave
 
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DaveS2 said:
If I do lose it, I'll not pay for a pro account, and probably won't bother with the Flickr Free option either, if its full of adverts.

Except it isn't. You can 'turn them off' just been on my Flickr pages including groups, albums, edit, in fact every page I could and not one advert.

Apart from using it to share photos with friends and family, I find that Flickr Groups, at least the many that I have looked at, are full of somewhat reclusive people that never talk each other, and when they do its usually little more than one line meaningless 'back-patting' comments, e.g. "fantastic image", even when it isn't.

Again, the groups I'm in DO have discussions, also tips, tricks and some helpful info, you are in the wrong groups!

Thousands of pictures, several hundred members, and minimal or zero discussion, seems to be the 'norm' for
Flickr groups.

See above.

At least on the forums, people actually converse.

If you are someone looking to sell your photos, then Flickr is probably a good medium via which to get them noticed, other that than it is little more than image storage site IMO.

Never sold a photo, do not particularly want too. I have had interested people asking to use an odd photo on a related group website, and as long as they credit me, that's fine.
When all said and done, its free storage and a showcase for your images, what's not to like?

All that said, I guess its a case of 'whatever floats your boat". :)

Dave
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To me it's a place to post my pictures so friends and family can see them. I'm not interested in groups or chatting or whatever. But it's free. I can upload direct from my photo manager and I can see my pictures on the Internet telly with an app.
 
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Seems like you 'struck lucky' Craig.

I've looked a great many that are relative to my particular interest (wildlife photography) in my part of the country, and they really are very insular and reclusive, dare I say, even a bit cliquey.

Plenty of interesting discussions on the forums, but in general we are geographically wide spread, so things like meeting up for a 'field trip, and a beer, are just not practical.

On another 'Brand Specific' forum to which I belong, members often express a desire to meetup, but the distances involved make it impractical.

I was talking to a photographer the other day, who was in on Flickr right from the beginning, before Yahoo took it over, and he said that in those early days, it really was about discussion and sharing the hobby with like-minded people. He now sees it very much as I do. :(

Dave
 
ianp5a said:
To me it's a place to post my pictures so friends and family can see them. I'm not interested in groups or chatting or whatever. But it's free. I can upload direct from my photo manager and I can see my pictures on the Internet telly with an app.
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That why I joined in the first place Ian, and is my primary use for it. However, I thought it might be nice to share my photography interest, with other amateur photographers in my area. Unfortunately, around this part of the world, Flickr Groups are no more than a place to show off what you can do.

Before anyone suggests it, I did try a club, but like most all photography clubs, it became more about competitions than amateur photography. I stuck it for almost two years, before I got bored with the endless round of competitions, and left.

Dave
 
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Flikr has a pretty poor or dumbed down way of displaying pictures in the photostream and albums though.

1) Landscape format pictures are usually displayed twice as big as portrait format.

2) You can't change or customise how it displays them.

3) Changing the order is pretty clunky and often ignores changes you made.

Maybe it's really cool and flexible if you pay.
 
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DaveS2 said:
I should add, that as an experiment, 3 months ago I created a Flickr group, relative to my geographical area, with a description that reads:

"Not just another place to post your latest image, but a group for amateur photography enthusiasts, whether novice or experienced, to share their hobby with like-minded people. Discuss equipment, and techniques, both capture and image processing. Share images, and both give and receive friendly critique if required."

The fact that in 3 months, not a single person has joined the group, endorses my view on Flick groups, as described in my previous post.

I will likely leave it for a little longer, or at least until Flickr tell me that they are going take away my free Pro account, and then I'll 'pull the plug'.

Dave
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If you start a group on Flickr you must either have a well known contingent of people who are waiting for you to set it up so they can use it, or having set it up you have to put a lot of effort into advertising it. encouraging likely looking people to join, encouraging joiners to use it, and so on. If you just set up a group, make some announcement of its existence, and hope people will stumble across it and start using it, then they probably won't.
 
You are probably right in what you say Chris, but on the other-hand, I searched for particular area and subject matter groups on Flickr, and having found two, I joined them.

Unfortunately, despite introducing myself, posting some pictures, and trying to stimulate some discussion, by making comments that expressed an interest in other people's images (as opposed to the standard "fantastic image" norm), it became very apparent that it was a reclusive society, whose only purpose is to show their images to the world.

As an example one of these two groups has some 100+ members, 6000+ posted images, and just three discussions, with the last discussion being over three years ago.

Perhaps this is something unique to East Anglian photographers ;), but then I haven't joined any groups that aren't related to East Anglia.

Maybe its because I'm not East Anglian born, albieit I've lived here over 30 years:cautious:, but then how can they recognise my London accent when they can't hear me.:LOL:

Dave
 
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DaveS2 said:
You are probably right in what you say Chris, but on the other-hand, I searched for particular area and subject matter groups on Flickr, and having found two, I joined them.

Unfortunately, despite introducing myself, posting some pictures, and trying to stimulate some discussion, by making comments that expressed an interest in other people's images (as opposed to the standard "fantastic image" norm), it became very apparent that it was a reclusive society, whose only purpose is to show their images to the world.

As an example one of these two groups has some 100+ members, 6000+ posted images, and just three discussions, with the last discussion being over three years ago.

Perhaps this is something unique to East Anglian photographers ;), but then I haven't joined any groups that aren't related to East Anglia.

Maybe its because I'm not East Anglian born, albieit I've lived here over 30 years:cautious:, but then how can they recognise my London accent when they can't hear me.:LOL:

Dave
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I agree that Flickr isn't always the best place to discuss photography. It is more of a place where you can digitally share photography. It is in a sense a place that you do it, rather than talk about it. There are more active groups than your East Anglian groups. The discussions can be very informative, for example, on such specialist subjects as cross processing, caffenol, etc. Some of the film groups have high levels of discussion - but it seems only if the group is well moderated and managed. Quite often, the moderators lead many of the discussions.

Flickr isn't perfect. It is owned by a big fat Internet giant. It has certainly changed a lot since I joined it nearly ten years ago. It does have a lot of snapshot fluff. However, it is the community that you make it. I'm afraid to admit to being sad enough to check through my Contact's uploads nearly every day - sometimes several times a day. I have over 21,000 images in my Favourites stream. You are correct, some people only upload in order to exhibit and promote their images. These people are easy to spot. 5,000 contacts, and 10 faves. What is sad, is how many people are on Flickr with those sort of figures. Despite all of the snobbery against Flickr, there are many cracking, stunning photographers using that site. Original, creative - I so enjoy looking through their photos, whether street, portrait, journalistic, conceptual or whatever.

As for East Anglians, I'm Norfolk born, Norfolk bred. You are correct, we are er... pretty reserved. Here's a photo I took on the Cambridgeshire border last week:

 
Hi Paul, I'm sure you are right, in that there are some Flickr groups where active discussion takes place, as Craig also said. Unfortunately, none it would seem, related to this part of country.:(

I agree there are some stunning images on there, even within the groups that i joined, indicating the presence of some very accomplished photographers. The sort of experience that could be shared in a constructive manner with those at the lower end of the 'learning curve'. However, they appear to have no desire to do so, and use Flickr only as a display gallery to show the world what they can do.

There is one guy on one of the forums that I referred to, who produces some superb wildlife 'shots', and the minions 'fall at his feet' in adoration, while he shares not a word with them.

I would like to think that after 30+ years I have integrated with the good folk of Suffolk. I've even learn't to understand their dialect, and somewhat different vocabulary, e.g. "that's gorn hum", meaning that is worn out. :)

I like the warning sign. :clap:

BTW, all of my grandchildren are Suffolk born and Bred. :)

Dave
 
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XA2inmypocket said:
I'm afraid to admit to being sad enough to check through my Contact's uploads nearly every day - sometimes several times a day. I have over 21,000 images in my Favourites stream. You are correct, some people only upload in order to exhibit and promote their images. These people are easy to spot. 5,000 contacts, and 10 faves.
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What are contacts? I don't see reference to that anywhere. Or is it just on pro accounts?
 
ianp5a said:
What are contacts? I don't see reference to that anywhere. Or is it just on pro accounts?
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People that you follow Ian. I thought you were joking, but I checked your flickr, and sure enough, you have not followed anyone - either by design, or by not being aware of that social networking side of Flickr. Check your Flickrmail, see if you have any contact notifications awaiting since you joined in 2008. It should be your contacts uploads that appear on your home page, but as you don't have any, you might be given Explore?
 
Well sometimes it says someone is following me. Which sounds creepy. Is that what you mean by contacts? As I can't see that term used on my Flikr.
Anyway. I'm not sure what following someone does. I'm pretty sure I don't need it. I only use Flikr to display my pictures.
 
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ianp5a said:
Well sometimes it says someone is following me. Is that what you mean by contacts? As I cant see that term used on my Flikr.
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Yahoo does like to "redesign" things. What were once called Groups are now called Communities. You'll find references to "People", "Followers", "People that you are following". In a few places you might still see them referred to as "Contacts". Next to each user's name on his/her photostream, there is a Follow button. Click on that button, and you will be following them. They may, or may not recipricate. Anyone that follows you, will see your latest uploads pop up in their full glory on their Flickr home / start page.
 
Thanks. That explains the mystery. You can still see the word 'contacts' in the URL. But it's now just "People you follow" on the page you sent the link to.
 
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