Hmm, time to dump flickr and finally build my own website?

[LeeRatters]

Well I've just binned 2800 photos. Most of it was old s***e anyway, so probably for the best.

I'm going to go through mine at some point in the same way & see how many I am left with

 

[Fuji Dave]

I looked into the actual figures today , I have been with Flickr virtually from the start and have in that time amassed over 7000 photos that I quiet often in wildlife go back to to get the date of when a migratory species arrived back . I also in that time have had just under 300 explores , and looking at my about account I have had over 7 million views of my photos , wow that’s even surprised me .
Anyway as I quit my pro account a few years back and am realistic enough to realise you get owt for nowt , I actually did the conversion rates , and please remember if your in the u.k the price is in dollars ...... so once converted to pounds shillings and pence it works out to the grand sum of just over £26 or 50p a bloody week and if your really altruistic it gives you 12 months grace to sort something else out ..
I also see a lot of I’m leaving because they put it up , but full price is a quid a week and your probably shooting with a few grands worth of kit and paying a tenner a month to process your raw files in lightroom cc ....

I know the price of my Fuji kit is a damn sight more than a Years worth of Pro Flickr so I might actually just get the Pro. Still glad I deleted a lot of the old 70D images though as already have them saved in other places.

 

[the black fox]

Trouble is a lot of peeps post a photo and think there going to get faves and comments without making any back ,it works if you put the effort into it .i personally think that after the initial shock last night and then sitting down and working it out it possibly might bring the spirit of the community back , all my published photos have come via Flickr links, all my paid for photos have come via Flickr links , the photos that have been stolen and then taken to court netting me nearly 3 grand have all come via Flickr . It’s controllable ,easy to use and I real money terms worth every penny or dime .

Hopefully the new owners will also look at the fact there’s a hell of a lot of pure porn on there to , just put the keywords in the search bar check it out . Honestly it’s no holds barred on there it you like a bit of titilattion

 

[Jelster]

Its doubled.

I thought it was $25, and was surprised when it said $50. However, that's still pretty cheap.

Why are people talking about having to download their images? It's a photo hosting/sharing site, not a cloud backup solution.....

 

[Harriers9]

Mines just gone through the bank and at the 30% offer works out at a few pence over £28 for the year including currency charges. So it's not much more than what I've previously paid.

 

[the black fox]

I’ll ask a couple of questions when you post to Flickr do you.
1 add it to subject specific groups
2 have contacts on there
3 do you comment and fave other peoples and contacts photos
4 use it to link your photos from

If your answer is yes to all these then your using it correctly if the answer is no then in all honesty dump your account and find somewhere else

 

[mickledore]

Trouble is a lot of peeps post a photo and think there going to get faves and comments without making any back

But a lot of folk on there play the numbers game. You fave me and I'll fave you. It's the Twitbook mentality. A lot of faves makes you think that you are good, and other folk like you. All wrong.
I frequently get contacted by members who start following me then expect me to do tit for tat faves. They soon stop following me. If I like a picture I will give a positive comment: I won't play the numbers game.
At the end of the day the only opinion that counts is the guy who takes the shot. Automatic faves signify nothing.

 

[the black fox]

But a lot of folk on there play the numbers game. You fave me and I'll fave you. It's the Twitbook mentality. A lot of faves makes you think that you are good, and other folk like you. All wrong.
I frequently get contacted by members who start following me then expect me to do tit for tat faves. They soon stop following me. If I like a picture I will give a positive comment: I won't play the numbers game.
At the end of the day the only opinion that counts is the guy who takes the shot. Automatic faves signify nothing.

To true frank , I only comment ,fave on photos that deserve it . I even fave yours sometimes

 

[mickledore]

I even fave yours sometimes

I remember it well

 

[sk66]

It's not a lot of money but that doesn't automatically make it value for money either.

I've got 1785 images on there resized for the web taking up 0.1% of that 1TB. Member since 2009.

That's the thing that gets me... the 1000 photo limit is ridiculously low in terms of data storage/load (even if you could upload full res raw files). I've got 1670 photos on flickr, most are full resolution, and I'm at less than 1% of the 1TB we were promised.
There's a ton of places you can store/share photos from for free. Most internet contracts even include some server space (or used to anyway).

 

[Fuji Dave]

I’ll ask a couple of questions when you post to Flickr do you.
1 add it to subject specific groups
2 have contacts on there
3 do you comment and fave other peoples and contacts photos
4 use it to link your photos from

If your answer is yes to all these then your using it correctly if the answer is no then in all honesty dump your account and find somewhere else

The only one with a No sometimes is number 3, I do comment on ones I like but not all the time all the rest are yes. When I do go pro I will still comment on images I do like.
PS: I don`t comment on all my contacts ones, as a lot follow me but I do try and comment on some.

 

[Cobra]

so once converted to pounds shillings and pence it works out to the grand sum of just over £26 or 50p a bloody week and if your really altruistic it gives

As I posted previously, $49.99 = £38.38p on todays "market" not sure how much less (more in real money terms) it would be via the banks though.

I thought it was $25, and was surprised when it said $50.

it was $24.99 ( this time last year)

I’ll ask a couple of questions when you post to Flickr do you.
1 add it to subject specific groups
2 have contacts on there
3 do you comment and fave other peoples and contacts photos
4 use it to link your photos from

If your answer is yes to all these then your using it correctly if the answer is no then in all honesty dump your account and find somewhere else

2 out of 4 for me ( 2& 4) and 3 occasionally.

If I like a picture I will give a positive comment: I won't play the numbers game.

Exactly

 

[Cobra]

and there was a size limit, I couldn't upload the full res-image, so had to waste time re-sizing the images just for a forum post.

1024px on the longest side and 500kb
And generally thats plenty for most people.
Its a free resource, band width costs money

 

[Cobra]

I'm still on the fence at the moment, its convenient storage handy for sharing where ever,
but what do "we" paying guests" actually get out of it?
I've been on it for years not not gotten anything in return,
I pay I use, they collect my money for the rented space ...

 

[mickledore]

I pay I use, they collect my money for the rented space ...

That's the same for any commercial relationship. You could rent a shop on the high street, but if you don't push your wares to the wider public you'll get little back.
Same with flickr.
Just putting photos on there and expecting that the world will come knocking at your door to buy your product will leave you disappointed. It's a tool, a means to an end. If you want to get a return then you have to push it. But if you are that keen then there are other ways to consider.
For Joe Public, like you and I, we are unlikely to get any tangible return. Then you have to do a cost/benefit analysis.

This is a hobby. Hobbies don't come without cost. Only you can decide when to draw the line.

 

[Cobra]

For Joe Public, like you and I, we are unlikely to get any tangible return. Then you have to do a cost/benefit analysis.

Exactly

 

[Cagey75]

I’ll ask a couple of questions when you post to Flickr do you.
1 add it to subject specific groups
2 have contacts on there
3 do you comment and fave other peoples and contacts photos
4 use it to link your photos from

If your answer is yes to all these then your using it correctly if the answer is no then in all honesty dump your account and find somewhere else

All of the above at some point or other, I will probably just pay up.

 

[Jelster]

I’ll ask a couple of questions when you post to Flickr do you.
1 add it to subject specific groups
2 have contacts on there
3 do you comment and fave other peoples and contacts photos
4 use it to link your photos from

If your answer is yes to all these then your using it correctly if the answer is no then in all honesty dump your account and find somewhere else

Yes to all. I'm amazed the amount of "Fav's" some of my images get. I do follow you though Jeff

 

[Phil V]

Just as a hosting site so I can link photos from it onto this forum, hence the rather sparse and eclectic selection of photos I have on there!

Me too...
My Flickr collection bears no resemblance to my lightroom catalogue, or my old website (which I may have to rethink the need for)

 

[4wd]

Just checked I have 600 on one account and 200 on another, so not much worried for a while.
It's sad if they are going to be deleting archived images from inactive accounts.
There's a lot of historical images have been uploaded to be shared rather than languish in old albums till they rot.

 

[Ganton Gunner]

eek just seen this I have almost 6000 pictures lots of them are ones from my shooting comps which I host on various air rifle forums so guess it will be best for me to go pro

 

[4wd]

It's just that Pro fee is a little too high isn't it.
It would be an easier choice if there were two levels and the lower one was about half that.
But even then they would be constantly edging it up with an amazing list of minor improvements you didn't want.

 

[AndyG123]

I've not read through all of this... But Amazon Photos is really good if you have prime.. It has an automated scheduled backup system. It supports Raw files. I uploaded 89gb on there yesterday (36 hour upload) of 5000 images... It has a windows app, an android app, you can sync different folders into different folders (one for jpeg one for raw etc, and it's unlimited free image storage... Worth looking into. You also have sharable links for your raw or jpeg files.

 

[RedRobin]

For Joe Public, like you and I, we are unlikely to get any tangible return. Then you have to do a cost/benefit analysis.

This is a hobby. Hobbies don't come without cost. Only you can decide when to draw the line.

.... Agreed about hobbies costing money and especially photography when you are a serious amateur!

The point about hobbies is that they are a joy and you can't, or shouldn't, cost that joy. It's actually good for both your mental and physical health and can you put a cost on that?

 

[RedRobin]

It's just that Pro fee is a little too high isn't it.
It would be an easier choice if there were two levels and the lower one was about half that.
But even then they would be constantly edging it up with an amazing list of minor improvements you didn't want.

.... Whether the Pro fee is a little too high or not is relative.

Your idea of two levels of Pro membership is a good one in my opinion and would be easy for Flickr to offer. They would simply have to have a different perks list. I don't need any of their current extra perks anyway.

Any profit seeking organisation has to take their competitors' prices into account and so I'm not sure that the Pro fee would be "constantly edging it up" but would merely change according to market forces and their own costs.

 

[the black fox]

I've not read through all of this... But Amazon Photos is really good if you have prime.. It has an automated scheduled backup system. It supports Raw files. I uploaded 89gb on there yesterday (36 hour upload) of 5000 images... It has a windows app, an android app, you can sync different folders into different folders (one for jpeg one for raw etc, and it's unlimited free image storage... Worth looking into. You also have sharable links for your raw or jpeg files.

But if you don’t have prime it will cost you to sign up to that , this is like the magic roundabout but a good alternative ,as everyone’s needs will be different . Bet there will be a lot of alternatives between now and January though

 

[the black fox]

I thought it was $25, and was surprised when it said $50. However, that's still pretty cheap.

Why are people talking about having to download their images? It's a photo hosting/sharing site, not a cloud backup solution.....

My price of £26 u.k pounds is based on changing from free to pro accounts this year . That’s enough time to see what else emerges out of the ashes

 

[TheBigYin]

well - after a good deal of thought about this...

Personally, I've been with flickr for pretty much all my "digital photo" life - it's a timeline of what I thought was worth keeping or sharing in the early years, then, as I joined here, it gets a bit more expansive, and when I started running cycling challenges over on another website, theres masses of photos and artwork concerned with those. A large proportion of the pictures on my flickr are shared or linked somewhere out on the net, and I'm vain enough that I wouldn't want them to go to "image not found".

I've currently got a Pro account, and, yeah, the doubling of the charge is a bit of a slap in the chops, but, for me, the fee has been a bit of a bargain for the past few years, so I can't really complain. Looking at the alternative, basically moving my hosting to my own webspace - copying all the images into my own website is going to take time, as is researching and installing some form of browsing interface that'll work as well or better than flickrs timeline and other options - so I can find the image and get links... Then, the biggie.... re-linking all the images already hosted out there. Some are on fora that have a "time lock" on edits - so, I wouldn't be able to change them. Others, like on here, I can edit. But it'll take time, lots of time.

Cost analysis time. If I value my available time at the meagre pay rate I receive in my s***ty menial "day job" of around £10 a hour, then going flickr pro for another year is going to cost me around 5 hours. I seriously doubt i'd be able to research, setup and configure the viewing platform on my own webspace in that time, never mind actually download the images from flickr, re-upload them to my own space, and do all the re-linking.

For me, i'll take the hit this year at least - and probably for the upcoming years, unless some upstart company comes along with a better offer that includes some form of migration...

I do, however, worry a little as to the effect it's going to have on some sections of this forum - as obviously a lot of you are seemingly intent on ditching flickr, and we're heading for another Photobucket Meltdown situation.

 

[Cobra]

Cost analysis time. If I value my available time at the meagre pay rate I receive in my s***ty menial "day job" of around £10 a hour, then going flickr pro for another year is going to cost me around 5 hours. I seriously doubt i'd be able to research, setup and configure the viewing platform on my own webspace in that time, never mind actually download the images from flickr, re-upload them to my own space, and do all the re-linking.

I do, however, worry a little as to the effect it's going to have on some sections of this forum - as obviously a lot of you are seemingly intent on ditching flickr, and we're heading for another Photobucket Meltdown situation.

2 excellent points

Actually make that 3

For me, i'll take the hit this year at least - and probably for the upcoming years, unless some upstart company comes along with a better offer that includes some form of migration...

 

[rob-nikon]

For me Flickr and my website are totally different entities and function completely differently. Flickr is somewhere I share images that I feel worth sharing and has a community feel. My website is somewhere I try to share only the better images. It’s also a hub for blog style rambling’s and links to social media and Flickr. Basically my main online photography presence.

Flickr is a community where you can see and follow what others are up to. That was the great part of Flickr but it’s sadly dropped away in the last few years. Part of my dislike of Flickr is the ‘numbers game’, it just like social media where the ‘I like you like’ happens, it bears no resemblance to if the image is good or not. I’ve been a free member for the 18 months because I felt the stats didn’t give me much and weren’t worth paying for. Before that I was a pro member for 5 years. The problem was the additional benefits they gave weren’t really that useful and I never used them.

I have no problem with Flickr going back to 1000 limit, I seem to remember they had it prior to their stupid decision to give free accounts 1TB storage. The problem is one of Flickr’s own creation, that free 1TB storage decision gave people the opportunity to take the mick and use flickr as cloud storage (photos set to private so not contributing to the community). I don’t have any sympathy for anyone that’s going to lose their photos if their only copy was held by flickr.

I’m not sure if Flickr is going about this the right way or not. The price hike seems to be alienating the pro members that have stayed and not really enticing previous pro members back. Their point seems to be based around getting people who have or are near the 1000 limit to either stay pro or go pro. It’s weird they say only 3% of users are above this point so it’s a weird one to be banking on for pro membership.

Another point they are pushing is you won’t be eligible for explore unless you are a pro. As currently a free member not having explore eligibility isn’t too much of an issue as I’m not that worried about likes and views. I’ve got used to not having stats or worrying about the ‘numbers game’ over the last 18 months. This point may entice current pro members to stay.

Another point is the time line they have set for the changes. It would have been nice if they had made it so you could keep uploading but only see the last 1000 uploads but give you a year before they do the image deletion. That way people could come back to their account in 6-8 months time, gone back to pro and everything was as they left it. Now if they do that anything over the 1000 limit will have been deleted. I guess the no further uploads is something to push people towards going pro just so they get functionality back quickly.

It’s a good point about the effect it will have on forums, so many unlinked images may appear ruining threads.

The problem I see for flickr is they need to rebuild, go back to their roots as a community photography sharing platform and work out their unique selling point that’s different to other social media platforms. Making changes such as price rises and eglibility restrictions doesn’t really entice people back and recreate the community that’s been lost in the last few years. As can be seen in this thread (and from speaking to friends that are still pro members) it starts to push the pro members that are left away. I know they offer ‘benefits’ too but if those benefits aren’t something I’m going to use then they aren’t worth paying any extra for.

I’m wondering if they have also thought of the effect these decisions could have on the smugmug brand? If these decisions are seen to be a heavy handed way to push people to stay or rejoin it could have a perceived impact on smugmugs reputation and ultimately on their smugmug website users. Up to now they have they trumpeted ‘Flickr is now owned by smugmug’ so the two are in a way intertwined.

I was slightly above the 1000 limit at 1175 so I had a quick deletion session of some of my earlier images from 7 years ago. I’m now down to 875 so have some room for a bit. I have been wondering about using the 30% discount offer. It takes the price down to £26 and it would give me a year to see if it progresses forward. I can then make a decision in a years time after seeing what they do (its not like I need to do anything now as I’m below all limits and on a currently on the free account). I would love to see flickr get back to what it was, I’m hoping it does but the jury is still out for me.

 

[Mark Johnson]

I'm tending toward that view too ... .75p a week and less for the first year,

Yep I have signed up. The presence of Flickr works for me, and I store what I consider my better photos there, All at low Resolution tho'. It just keeps the photos I value in one place, and accessible from anywhere.

Also I want to keep my friends that I have made there. How many will stay there after January remains to be seen.

The cost is reasonable IMO, and as yet I don't have to penny pinch...…….

 

[Paulie-W]

For me, it`s the double the price hike that grates a little. I`ll be going free from whenever my renewal comes around. Then wait and see what the smugmug brigade come up with, before I re consider.

 

[StephenM]

I've just had a look and I seem to have a free account, which has no followers and no photos. Probably the two go together. I joined Flickr in the first place because I was being told I should post photos to gain credibility on another forum; I dropped Flickr when they moved to the new, modern layout that crammed everything together rather than leaving breathing space between images. I think that this might have been the move to a less dated style that most people seem to prefer. I switched to Ipernity which preserved the old layout, but when it died my account vaporised as well. I can't recall why I rejoined Flickr; but as I can't stand the way photos are displayed the fate of Flickr doesn't bother me, except insofar as it may result in broken links all over the internet as well as here.

I'll be interested to see what happens to the few people whose photostreams I do look at though. Although I do look only infrequently because of the display style...

 

[gramps]

I've not read through all of this... But Amazon Photos is really good if you have prime.. It has an automated scheduled backup system. It supports Raw files. I uploaded 89gb on there yesterday (36 hour upload) of 5000 images... It has a windows app, an android app, you can sync different folders into different folders (one for jpeg one for raw etc, and it's unlimited free image storage... Worth looking into. You also have sharable links for your raw or jpeg files.

and how much does that cost, in comparison to Flickr?

 

[RedRobin]

People here are saying things like "I would love to see Flickr get back to what it was" and that it has lost its "community" and "social media" but it's not a social media site with a community anyway. I see no social interaction on it except via posting comments on individual images and that is very limited and not conversational.

Personally I enjoy reading positive comments about my efforts and also having my ego stroked when my pictures are chosen by Explore - It's not the be and end all but it's encouraging.

I only Comment or Fave someone's image if I genuinely like it.

 

[rob-nikon]

Anyone remember what the free account limit was before they brought in the 1TB of storage space for the free account. I can’t remember exactly but seem to think 200 images was the limit.

 

[rob-nikon]

For me, it`s the double the price hike that grates a little. I`ll be going free from whenever my renewal comes around. Then wait and see what the smugmug brigade come up with, before I re consider.

It is quite a big increase but it was known prior to this recent announcement that the price would be going up to $49.99 on the next renewal. Seem to think there was a thread back in June that discussed that.

 

[droj]

I don't really see all of Flickr as a community, but allow that it can be a vehicle for community. By that I mean that no way do I want to trawl through everyone's good, bad or indifferent images, but it's enriching to be aware of new images made by people whose image-making skills you like and respect. It can also be reinforcing to receive genuine approval of your own images by those people.

There was a bit of a glitch before, when mass desertion was on the cards, but people generally settled back into the groove after a month or two.

So we've been here before, really. And so it'll recur to the end of time.

Make the best of things whlst they're there and fit the bill. Move on when they no longer suit the purpose.

 

[Paulie-W]

It is quite a big increase but it was known prior to this recent announcement that the price would be going up to $49.99 on the next renewal. Seem to think there was a thread back in June that discussed that.

I must have missed that. Only found out yesterday when a message popped uo on the flickr site.

 

[AndyG123]

and how much does that cost, in comparison to Flickr?

Amazon prime is £80 0er year, we use it for the delivery, amazon music, and the amazon video service. I know a lot of people have this, so for those who already have it, it's great.