Flickr...What have you done?

[ukaskew]

Not sure if I've got the wrong end of the stick, but it seems risky downgrading from Pro (which you can never get back) without fully considering it, and without knowing how disruptive ads will be in the future.

The Ad Free version costs twice as much, loses stats, imposes a storage limit (albeit 1tb), and only really gains larger file sizes, but I guess 50mb per image is more than enough for 99.99999% of users. It's only an advantage over Pro if you're a videographer.

Ironically the Doublr account, at $500 per year, is still inferior to the Pro account in terms of stats and storage space.

Edited by ukaskew on Tuesday 21st May 13:28

[14-7]

chrisga said:

I think i'll probably get used to it, but it was a bit of a shock when I first opened it today.

When I open flickr using the url as just www.flickr.com all I see is huge photo's from my contacts. Is there a way to make it so that when I open flickr I see my photos? Or would the only way be by editing the URL in my favourites to go straight to my photo page?

Change the bookmark url to www.flickr.com/photos/(username) and it will then go straight to your pictures.

[CommanderJameson]

Stu R said:

Guess it's just me who likes it then

I thought old flickr was a brilliant service delivered by a ghastly mess of a site. New design works for me

I love the new layout, but the account changes are alarming to me.

[lloyd h]

2slo said:

lloyd h said:

Only thing I liked about using flickr was the ability to embed images on forums etc.

You can still do that. Bottom right of image click on square box with an arrow coming out of it 'more ways to share' and copy the HTML code as usual.

Oh I know you can, what I mean is thats the only thing that I'll miss about not using it really. I won't be renewing my Pro and neither will I be paying $49.99 to get rid of ads. I will probably still use it but purely for being able to embed images.

[chrisga]

14-7 said:

chrisga said:

I think i'll probably get used to it, but it was a bit of a shock when I first opened it today.

When I open flickr using the url as just www.flickr.com all I see is huge photo's from my contacts. Is there a way to make it so that when I open flickr I see my photos? Or would the only way be by editing the URL in my favourites to go straight to my photo page?

Change the bookmark url to www.flickr.com/photos/(username) and it will then go straight to your pictures.

Yep, thanks. That's what I suggested in my original question and is what I have done.

Thinking about it, I want to open flickr and see my photos, not massive pictures from any contacts. But perhaps I use flickr in a different way to how they intend most people to. I use it to store and view my pictures and am not too worried about the sharing side. I just wondered if there were any preferences to change your flickr homepage that anyone had found. Another example is the iphone app which seems to open my group page by default when i'd prefer it to go straight to my photographs.

I think the new layout will be a grower. Won't be cancelling my account just yet.

Edited by chrisga on Tuesday 21st May 15:09

[Stu R]

CommanderJameson said:

Stu R said:

Guess it's just me who likes it then

I thought old flickr was a brilliant service delivered by a ghastly mess of a site. New design works for me

I love the new layout, but the account changes are alarming to me.

I'm an utter noob (both to Flickr and photography) so don't have a Pro account, but I can see why those with them are concerned.

[poprock]

Flickr are trying to reposition themselves as an upmarket Instagram. A version of Instagram for ‘proper photographers’, if you like. So long as they don’t screw up their service as a photo storage site, that shouldn’t affect anyone who wants to just keep using it as they did before.

If Flickr wanted to bring in advertising, then they had to do this. They needed to shift the focus of the site towards something you would visit socially (viewing your friends’ photos, liking and sharing, etc) to generate the sort of regular traffic they need to be able to increase the value of their ad space.

Bumping up the storage limit is tied in with that goal. If there’s a relatively low storage limit on free accounts, people don’t post as many photos, their friends don’t have as much to look at, site visits drop and the advertising space declines in value.

This leaves Flickr wondering what to do with their Pro users, because they’ve just handed the main Pro benefit (storage space) to everybody for free – in exchange for future ad revenue.

All seems fair to me, when you break it down.

[ukaskew]

poprock said:

This leaves Flickr wondering what to do with their Pro users, because they’ve just handed the main Pro benefit (storage space) to everybody for free – in exchange for future ad revenue.

All seems fair to me, when you break it down.

That doesn't really explain the removal of stats (which are incredibly useful to the many that use them) from all new accounts, even the paid ones.

I also struggle to see the business sense in going from happily collecting £15 a year from hundreds of thousands of people, to essentially promoting the idea of downgrading to a free ad supported account. They are placing an awful lot of faith in ad revenue if they think my photos alone are worth more than £15 per year to them. That makes me very suspicious in exactly how intrusive and clever ads will become on Flickr.

Probably my main concern relates to excellent apps like Flickrstackr, which for browsing photos on an iPad is pretty much unrivalled. As these exist outside of the actual Flickr site, how are they going to be forced to change to incorporate the new advertising tiers?

[poprock]

ukaskew said:

That doesn't really explain the removal of stats (which are incredibly useful to the many that use them) from all new accounts, even the paid ones.

The Doublr account level is the most baffling thing to me. 10x the price of a Pro account for a lesser level of service?

[Disastrous]

I've literally just set up an account in the last few weeks so before I go down the route of committing to it, what are the likely alternatives?

Photobucket seems like just an image dump, if you know what I mean?

Any others? We're are the 'quitters' going to go?

[Crafty_]

I don't mind the website but they've utterly fked up the android app, I've got it on two devices and all it shows is photos from my contacts, I can't even see my own stuff.

All the outrage will soon die down and people will just continue using it.

I probably wouldn't bother paying $50 a year just for stats, so if they force this I'll go to a free account.

I think Flickr's only saving grace are the groups. If google+ had a decent way of doing that I'd probably go that route.

For some reason 500px has always seemed intimidating.

[tenohfive]

Crafty_ said:

I don't mind the website but they've utterly fked up the android app, I've got it on two devices and all it shows is photos from my contacts, I can't even see my own stuff.

It's a little cack handed but it's still there. Press the menu icon then tap your user name. A stream of your photo's will come up. To go into Sets, Favourites or Groups tap your user name again and they'll come up.

It feels a bit backward but one thing I will say - it seems to run/load photo's faster than the old app.

[Crafty_]

I was just messing about with it on my phone, didn't work. I uninstalled & reinstalled the app and now it does
I'll go and try the tablet again in a minute.

[2slo]

Well if my contacts are anything to go by, there's been a massive drop in postings on Flickr today. That alone should tell the management something, even if they don't read other forums.

[CommanderJameson]

2slo said:

Well if my contacts are anything to go by, there's been a massive drop in postings on Flickr today. That alone should tell the management something, even if they don't read other forums.

Nah, today's all >DRAMA!< and >OMG!<.

Next week, and the week after. That's when we'll know.

[driverrob]

On top of everything else, they've just emailed me to say my pro account expires on Saturday.
I paid for 2 years' sub. 12 months ago and I was given a free 3 months extension.
I await their apologetic reply to my email.

[Crafty_]

Probably because people are working their way around it, seem some people say it doesn't load photos properly when viewing streams, seen the odd one or two not do so myself.

Its not like they are going to put it back...

I have had another look around 500px, its okay but I think its still harder to get around than the new flickr. Sets are an afterthought and the search is limited and the little preview of prev/next photos is indistinct, so you never know if you are looking at a set of a photostream.

[blugnu]

Disastrous said:

I've literally just set up an account in the last few weeks so before I go down the route of committing to it, what are the likely alternatives?

Photobucket seems like just an image dump, if you know what I mean?

Any others? We're are the 'quitters' going to go?

I've moved over to ipernity. It's like flickr with the makeover it should have had. It's the same deal as old flickr - £19.99/year for unlimited use and stats, or nothing for a 200 picture limit and some adverts I haven't noticed yet.

There will be a 'load content from my flickrstream' plug in for firefox available in the next few days.

[andy-xr]

Gave up on serious use of Flickr a while ago, it seemed to overfill with porn and become less community driven. I daresay the same will happen to Tumblr, which is what I moved most of my stuff to in free storagey, social media type bloggy places. Yahoo: stop fking things up!

[tenohfive]

driverrob said:

On top of everything else, they've just emailed me to say my pro account expires on Saturday.
I paid for 2 years' sub. 12 months ago and I was given a free 3 months extension.
I await their apologetic reply to my email.

I thought I saw reference to my account expiring soon (well, August) but checking on order history:
http://www.flickr.com/account/order/history

..shows it expiring when it should (March next year.)