The problem with Flickr

[Steve9091]

I used to love flickr, I have been a paying member on there since 2005 and I have been an admin of a few groups aimed at British users, such as http://www.flickr.com/groups/britishcountryside/ and http://www.flickr.com/groups/coolbritannia/.

There are now more groups than ever and lots of photos but the problem is no one seems to talk or share knowledge and ideas about their work and others work anymore.

It seems to be a me me me attitude, upload lots of pics and hope someone pastes lots of welldone, great photo picture and invite type posts on the photos.

Its not fun anymore and I think it has peaked and it has now had its day. I would love to know others thoughts on it, do you like it, hate it, feel the same way. Do you still use it and can you make any group recomendations.

[Chris George]

I think I agree to some extent. Flickr is populated by people looking for praise for their work - and is not a great place to learn about photography. However, if you think of it as a giant gallery where exhibits and visitors are photo enthusiasts it makes more sense. What makes it great is its size. You can wander around and find practically any type of picture. Hopefully PhotoRadar will grow to offer something similar, but with more help and advice

You can see my own old, rarely-updated Flickr page at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisgeorge/


PhotoPlus magazine has a group page at

www.flickr.com/groups/photoplusmagazine

Chris
Chris George
Associate Editor
PhotoPlus

[Eileen]

The thing about Flickr which is currently much better than Photorddar is the quality at which images can be viewed and previewed and their gallery structure generally. PR's picture quality has improved with the last update but is still poor - and as for those tiny blurry previews! Until these problems are resolved there's not much chance of having a vibrant gallery community.

I sometimes start to look at the user gallery page but the previews are so poor it's hard to work out which ones are worth opening, and then there's the much-documented problem with not being able to see recently updated galleries so individual posters can flood the pages...

For the meantime at least I will do my browsing and commenting elsewhere.

[Wiggy]

Flickr photo management system is flawless, the whole of flickr is great in my opinion. Agreed on the user side of it though. Personally, I find the group chat thing a little strange, it only shows the 5 latest discussions and generally is just not a nice ui or system to communicate over.

[Slashcan]

Flickr Bicker

I disagree to a certain extent, I find useful information. It's also seasonal, post seem to wain in the summer months in general. I don't think making blanket assumptions here is productive or positive for this site either. If you or anyone wants something better then why not let it be? Why carry over a basher mentality and create an atmosphere for a site based on discontent? In a way your comments above suggest this or another place may be better and seem elitist. I really can't decide if your question is a question or just a commentary based on your personal disgust with certain Flickr people types....Therefore it's not really about Flickr and it's about your perception of specific people...that's the point, "people" you single out. They aren't bound to be anything except what they are whether they belong to Flickr or any other group....it was very shallow commentary and sort of an arrogant statement I find rather immature and child like. (that's about your choice of words, not you). If that's how you choose to be perceived then guess what, it's very likely.

Attention deprived are we? I say take that attitude some place else it distracts from what secure people already know....

[ABERS]

Originally Posted by Chris George

I think I agree to some extent. Flickr is populated by people looking for praise for their work - and is not a great place to learn about photography. However, if you think of it as a giant gallery where exhibits and visitors are photo enthusiasts it makes more sense. What makes it great is its size. You can wander around and find practically any type of picture. Hopefully PhotoRadar will grow to offer something similar, but with more help and advice

Chris
Chris George
Associate Editor
PhotoPlus

You state that it's not a great place to learn about photography, one of the first things you should do is look at others' pictures, look and learn

You're right, it is a vast gallery where you can see all types of photography from all over the world, and that's it's USP. You are not restricted to the mundane and repetitive, although of cousre Flickr is subjected to those that like that type of photography. You can see what new efforts photographers are making to produce images that are exciting and really worth viewing, and over time you build up a list of contacts employed in that type of photography. It certainly makes a change from looking at rock strewn beaches with ridiculously manipulated sunsets, flowers and a plethora of family snaps plus the odd pet or two, which seem to be the main fodder on other photographic sites.

However that's what people enjoy, but Flickr can help them to expand their horizons.

.

[Hevans]

I like flickr for browsing images, particularly when using the cooliris add on. The forums/discussion boards are terrible, getting to the last post involves too much scrolling. Finding anything on the site is also a chaotic process. It takes a long time to find the inspirational photographers, and has a very slow integration curve for new uses (if you don't already have friends on flickr then making some is not easy as you're having to penetrate well established groups). There are also no facilities for making polls. None of these weaknesses seem to be addressed by the website maintainers.

Also the number of groups that feed of backslapping is awful. If you want genuine criticism/help, there isn't nearly as much help.

In summary: they've got the best gallery upload/organising/browsing/display software around, but the actual human community/communication side is sorely inadequate.

H.

[spuras]

Hi Guys
I have looked over Flikr a couple of times... BUT do not post my images on their system... the main reason for this is according to the information I have seen/been told in the past, when you place your images on their site, your giving them permission to use them in what ever way they seem fit. I believe that you sign copyright ovet to them when you join up??

Can any one confirm or deny this at all??

[Hevans]

Originally Posted by spuras

Hi Guys
I have looked over Flikr a couple of times... BUT do not post my images on their system... the main reason for this is according to the information I have seen/been told in the past, when you place your images on their site, your giving them permission to use them in what ever way they seem fit. I believe that you sign copyright ovet to them when you join up??

Can any one confirm or deny this at all??

The relevant terms and conditions for Flickr regarding this are found under their parent company T&C (Yahoo), which can be found here: http://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/details.html. In particular it is clause 9. Which starts:

Yahoo! does not claim ownership of Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Yahoo! Services. ...

However, they do require you to give them a use license, the terms of which are found in the following paragraphs of clause 9. The upshot is that they need this license in order to: feed the images to the website so others can view them, upload and compress/resize the images to different sizes. The license is also revoked as soon as you include the content in their service (no grandfather clause).

Without the use license, they don't have your permission to allow the material to be displayed via their web sites.

H.

[spuras]

Cheers H...
I appreciate the quick response.

Spuras