Any one having problems navigating Flickr

[F1.2]

Since deciding not to go pro and downloading 3000 images then starting again its been slow and none responsive, i only intend using it for images i want to post on certain forums and a few groups. The uploading images is no problem its still fairly fast,when i want to add to a group though its a different story, i add one or two images to a group and just get the two little dots moveing towards each other, it will sit doing that until i come off the page then go back maybe 10min later.
The search box on my home page will not let me search for groups or lenses only images.
The bell icon most of the time will only let me look at notifications if i have selected one of my images, am i being punnished for not going pro?

I Think you have answered your own question here , see above , Do you think they will give you a normal usage when paying nothing ?

 

[mikew]

I Think you have answered your own question here , see above , Do you think they will give you a normal usage when paying nothing ?

Yes

 

[rob-nikon]

I Think you have answered your own question here , see above , Do you think they will give you a normal usage when paying nothing ?

It would be a strange marketing ploy if they did knowingly restrict their product to free users in that way.

My guess is that it’s a potential browser issue. I had similar issues regarding functional/response speed when first setting up my Adobe Portfolio website using safari. Changing to chrome meant everything worked as it should.

It’s one thing to set limitations of services to free accounts that they see fit such as the number of stored images or stats (and rightly so when there are paying subscribers) but to limit functionality in such a way that uploading/post is snail speed slow would have a detrimental effect on the perceived quality of their product, and likely limit the number of future ‘pro’ subscribers. Flickr have gone back to their pro subscription roots (circa 2010). It’s not a bad thing but sadly the digital age has moved on since then and they need to offer a product/service that users value in the current market.

The thing is the current free users are their future paying pro users who they want to entice across to the subscription. If they were to restrict free users in such a way that it made it nearly impossible for them to use Flickr it would likely make those free users dump Flickr all together rather than sign up to pro and pay $50 a year. Why would anyone sign up and pay for service in the hope it becomes useable, you just wouldn’t do that. Flickr like other subscription services need to provide enough incentive for users to see the benefit of their service and upgrade to a paid subscription but not too much that users don’t upgrade to pro. BUT at the same time provide enough service differentiation for pro users to see why they are paying extra over a free account user. It’s a very fine balance to strike and potentially difficult to make as going too far one way or the other can have dire consequencess. For Flickr to thrive in the future it needs to entice users over to pro. The ‘well you’re not paying attitude’ would be another nail in the coffin for Flickr and ultimately current pro users. Whether current pro users like it or not they need the free users to be there to create a thriving community and to be enticed as ‘pro’ users of the future. Flickr’s future depends on enticing enough paying users to make it profitable. If it isn’t it will be assigned to the history bin like others before it.

In someways Flickr isn’t that much different to the subscription model Adobe are now using for lightroom and photoshop. Everybody has their own perception of the value of a subscription service and makes their decision whether it’s worth it for them or not.