Seems to be dead in the water at this moment? Can't log in!

I presume some changes are afoot?

This I can well believe. Why would someone click through for a slightly larger version of a pic they feel they have already "seen"? Make a thumbnail big enough and it is no longer a thumbnail; it is the picture.

True, in part. Although they also allow for quick visual selection from a large group, which is why we still have them on the desktop.

Seems to be going from bad to worse. Flickr just isn't working for me this morning, everything else is fine so it must be a problem at their end.

Holy st that's bad, massive drop in DSLR uploads!

Thought I'd take screenshots in case the ability to look at the graphs should break for any reason:

Canon



Nikon

One thing that a friend has just pointed out to me is that these are percentage graphs. So an influx of cameraphone users would cause the *percentage* of DSLR users to plummet even if the total *number* of DSLR users remained the same or even grew.

Anyway, graphs aside, we all know Flickr has gone downhill suddenly and people are leaving or planning an exit strategy.

I don't think it's an influx of cameraphone users. I suspect it's just that iPhone users are continuing to upload as normal (mostly via the app), while DSLR users are pausing to get familiar with the new layout. That would cause the DSLR traces to fall and the iPhone ones to do the opposite.

I have to say, for what I use Flickr for (more storage/presentation than the groups aspect) I'm really starting to like the revamp. I've uploaded a few photo's this morning and it works just as well (if not slightly quicker) and feels slicker, with better presentation.

As for the business model side, I'm far from an expert but whilst initially it sounds unusual to take a well established, well paying 'Pro' system that's cheap enough that a lot of people will use it, I suspect what they are trying to do is open up Flickr to more people. Social media these days is very much a numbers game - and whilst we (as amateur and semi pro photographers) treat Flickr as a photography website, it is still intended to be a social media site.

Flickr was already losing members to sites like 500px before the revamp and (anecdotally) appeared to be slowly heading down. Opening it up with more storage than Joe Public will ever use makes perfect sense - getting mum's storing/backing up all their photo's on there, or little Billy with his 18-30 Ibiza trip snaps, knowing full well that they can share via Facebook/Twitter etc with two clicks could get Flickr what they really need - a massive increase in footfall. That means they can make more in advertising and gives a possibility of longevity and growth.

I know it's not best for some photographers - and I'm sure a lot of people have and will move to more 'hardcore' sites aiming at photographers. But as a strategy for a social media site I can see the logic.

I have to confess, I can see a lot of sense in your post and I hadn't really thought of it that way.

If Flickr feel that in order to survive they need to move from being a site for photographers to a site for "casually sharing a stload of snaps" then so be it. But it's a very great shame, and is also completely missing the point of what made Flickr so much better than the likes of Photobucket et al.