Anyone else fallen out of love with Flickr?

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Rob
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As the title. I’ve probably not posted any images to Flickr for nearly a year now. It probably doesn’t help that when I go to sign in that I have problems and pretty much give up after it can’t recognise my password (I know they did some change this year to make log in easier without needing s yahoo account but it’s ended up stopping my password auto save on my phone and tablet so I pretty much can’t be bothered to sort it out). I’ve kind of fallen out of love with Flickr to an extent that I don’t bother with it any more. I wasn’t wondering if it’s just me or if others feel the same. Is Flickr still relevant in terms of photography image sharing?
 
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I rather like Flickr and see it as a place for publishing photos that photographers would like shown for the merit of the imagery alone.

I don’t use Instagram but largely I see that more as platform for publishing photos that have a back story such as “Hey, look at me and how great my wonderful life is” etc. etc.
 
I've only ever really used it as somewhere to put images to share on sites like this and there is nothing better for that purpose IME. I know I can upload directly to here but it's easier to have most of the photos in the same place.

Sshhh! the are listening - as i was typing I got an email from Flickr - spooky :cool:
 
I agree that it does nothing but cause trouble for me and my students with logon not working, site hanging, groups failing to load, and the "bad panda" screen that seems to be more frequent than ever. It feels like the first thing Smug Mug did was take the whole thing off dedicated hardware and chuck it on a dusty VM somewhere. Probably in a cloud.

However it still serves the excellent function it always did. I can run private groups for my students, open groups for others, join groups and get inspiration for the things I like, not get bombarded with crappy Ads, look at pictures on a big screen, and have a feed that's much more "what I want to see". The bonus effect of linking images is nice too.

I wish SumgMug would realise what they've got and try and do something positive with it, but I suspect they won't. I doubt it's growing at the rate it used to though, and with all the pros paying for subs they're probably sitting pretty on the cash. The 12 month SmugMug period is almost up for me though and I won't be renewing my subs as they've done absolutely nothing with the site in the last 12 months.

Sad.
 
I'm still trying to live with it, despite the fact that I can't log on from work anymore (it won't let me go to the logon screen using IE) I can access the most recent part of my photostream but get 'Bad Panda' if switching to groups/albums/search/page 2 of the photostream or just about anything else useful.
At home I can still use it but it nags me frequently about reaching the 1000 image limit - I was close when they put a limit back but have removed a few hundred shots so I've under 800 shots there now.
 
In my case, a long time ago when they decided in their wisdom that images should be crowded together to give an unending page rather than giving them breathing space. It seemed to me that it prioritised immediate impact over everything else, so I dropped out.
 
Is Flickr still relevant in terms of photography image sharing?
It can be used in different ways, I've heard that some use it as cloud storage (!), but for the function stated, yes it is, especially since (so far!) it can still be used free.

But since I don't bother looking, I won't be aware of many alternative candidates - can you name any, and explain their strengths and weaknesses?

You'll know what you need, though. And it sounds as if you'd be served by opening a new account there if you want to carry on. A fresh start.
 
Never got on with Flickr so don't ( or extremely rarely) use it and as such haven't fallen out of love with it as I never fell in love to start with lol
 
Still use it ,no brainer for me around 7 k of images plus over 8 million views .. seems to work seamlessly for me ..with little or small problems
 
'In love' might not be the right term - the question is whether it's functional for your purposes.

Thinking back not so far to a pre-internet world - how might you have shared images in a widely-available, democratic way - even locally, never mind world-wide? Down at the camera club (groan)? Even if you got published, it was in a one-way package rather than a real-time interaction. Though I do enjoy my shelves of photographer books, I sometimes wonder if books are an anachronism. Their reproductions no matter how good are no substitutes for real photo prints.

Neither are images on a computer screen, though they're vitalised by the light shining through them rather than off them.

But back to Flickr. For 'family & friends' photo-sharing, it's possible that Bacefook fits the bill better (I wouldn't know, I haven't sold my soul). Other Flickr functions have been often documented on here (as image-linking resource, for instance).

In the end, we do what we need to.
 
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I still 'like' it - it's not without it's frustrations, but I still think it's the best site for displaying your images.
 
All the comments above I find to be true and honest. I was off and on Flickr frequently beginning back in 2009 when first started doing digital. Back then there was much activity throughout the web with a wide variety of photography sites. Most of ceased or tried to revamp i.e. Woofie (died); Ipernity revamped, etc. The photography energy on the web in general seems to have ebbed quite a lot since 2009; slowly. I remain a true loyalist of FotoCommunity even as 500pix was sold early this year and has been deflating ever since. As for Flickr it has been a movie for me. Got away from it for a month, and now it is hard to get my head around it once more. The switch over in May really created 'hell' for so many with buggy behavior by Flickr everyday or moment. Things are better now with SmugMug working quietly behind the scenes with ongoing matters. There is a recent post from admin in the Help Forum confessing that 'improvements' are ongoing. I am not so sure that whatever they are and when ever they are completed that Flickr will resume being what it was back in 2009 and 10. Am glad that the often screaming, demeaning, childish behavior often seen in such groups as Flickr Central seems to finally been curtailed, and in other places on Flickr as well. So maybe we can get back to actually discussing and sharing photography once more. Time will tell. Someone asked above about the alternatives to Flickr. I've been looking around. As for discussion there remains many interesting sites like this one. However, as for posting and sharing photos Flickr seems to still have the best and most flexible set up. Should you want both discussion and photo postings in one place about the only place I've found was ePhotozine which has an active gallery and an active forum set up. However, daily post to the general gallery is limited to one a day and forums, through active, are rather quiet. But, if you really like to be in the company of great photographers and follow them FotoCommunity seems to be the best for that.
 
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I used to love Flickr. Was a member of a local Flickr meets group when I lived in a different area, which met up once a month. I learnt a lot on our outings out. Up until a year ago I still loved Flickr, but I've had enough now so cancelled my pro subscription. Bad panda every log-on, stats always broken and inaccurate, pro fees doubled, and not to mention all the spam porn (Might be an advantage for some!)
After being asked by 5 different photographers within a month if I was on instagram, I reluctantly joined and I'm preferring it so far. I've found some good photographers, but there is a lot of fake/over edited stuff, and also the "hey look at my great life" shots.
I've also won a (minor) photography comp so instagram's winning at the moment for me
 
Tried to take a look - it seems to be hard to sample without signing up - and its appearance was rather splashy with frequent ads. Not encouraging.
I never see the ads on any site since my browser has a built in adblock. Try using Opera or Brave.
 
I used to love Flickr. Was a member of a local Flickr meets group when I lived in a different area, which met up once a month. I learnt a lot on our outings out. Up until a year ago I still loved Flickr, but I've had enough now so cancelled my pro subscription. Bad panda every log-on, stats always broken and inaccurate, pro fees doubled, and not to mention all the spam porn (Might be an advantage for some!)
After being asked by 5 different photographers within a month if I was on instagram, I reluctantly joined and I'm preferring it so far. I've found some good photographers, but there is a lot of fake/over edited stuff, and also the "hey look at my great life" shots.
I've also won a (minor) photography comp so instagram's winning at the moment for me
What annoys me about Instagram is the license I must grant them to post to their site. I'd hate to see a photo of mine used in some ad somewhere making money off me. Would rather pay a fee to join and keep control of my photography, if I must.
 
The recent changes to flickr have not been in the right direction I feel, but it still is a superior platform to others out there. People post images there for the hobby of taking pictures, whilst for example instagram is more of a social media where people post every single picture of their food and dog they take that day. I didn't know about the licensing thing but apparently as West Camera mentioned the license isnt great either. But mostly, it is the resolution. If someone took a great picture, I want to zoom in, see the detail and the nuances. I think that often distinguishes a mediocre picture from a great one, that attention to detail.
Instagram is like walking past a gallery and glancing over it through the window, its designed for people browsing over their whole feed in a minute or two, not taking the time to appreciate something good.
Meanwhile, I feel flickr (500px and other similar sites) are more like an art gallery where if you see a good piece, you lean in to appreciate the detail and effort in all scales, macro and micro.
 
Wow thank you for all of the responses.

It’s only logging in via a browser where I have an issue. I have the PhotoExplorer app and that’s still working so I can still get. I think some of the changes are probably the reason why I’ve not been using it. Currently I have 879 photos after deleting some so I’m not too far away from the 1000 limit. I guess that’s part of the problem, being so close to the limit means I’d have to make a decision in the future about whether to carry on and upgrade to pro again. So far I’ve not seen $50 worth in Flickr to pay each year. Another issue is trying to manage posting on Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and instragram. I was using zapper to automatically post from Flickr to twitter and fscebook. There was no way to post to Instagram from flickr. Sadly that’s broken now and I worked out instagram can post to Facebook and twitter automatically so it’s much easier to manage the three from there and Flickr gets left out. Facebook works very well from instagram (aren’t they both owned by Facebook?) whilst twitter it a link back to instrsgram. If there was a way to manage all four by posting to one then that would be perfect but sadly I can’t find a way to do that. That’s probably a big reason why flickr has been left because of the extra time it needs to post and via a desktop too. Most of my social media posting is via my phone. I save images stored in Dropbox to my phone and post from there to the places.

I did like Flickr back in its heyday but I’ve just fallen out of love with it. I guess part of that are the changes but also because you have to be a member of Flickr to see the photos. It was a nice way to follow what other photographers were up to but it means non photographers (most friends and family) couldnt see what I was doing. Other options like facebook, Twitter and instagram have a greater variation of users so it reaches a wider audience beyond photographers.
 
Other options like facebook, Twitter and instagram have a greater variation of users so it reaches a wider audience beyond photographers.
I don't do Facebook but have sometimes tried to check someone elses Facebook page and all I get is a great big pop-up telling me to 'sign-up'.
I will never join Facebook but in a similar that you describe I am prevented from viewing these pages. :)
 
I don't do social media so Flickr is the only place I publish publicly viewable images.
Its handy to share with other people and catch up with friends who also use it, but I keep my most important images away from it.
 
I used to love Flickr. Was a member of a local Flickr meets group when I lived in a different area, which met up once a month. I learnt a lot on our outings out. Up until a year ago I still loved Flickr, but I've had enough now so cancelled my pro subscription. Bad panda every log-on, stats always broken and inaccurate, pro fees doubled, and not to mention all the spam porn (Might be an advantage for some!)
After being asked by 5 different photographers within a month if I was on instagram, I reluctantly joined and I'm preferring it so far. I've found some good photographers, but there is a lot of fake/over edited stuff, and also the "hey look at my great life" shots.
I've also won a (minor) photography comp so instagram's winning at the moment for me
I have almost never got spam porn - I think twice in many years of using Flickr. Whether you are unlucky or I have been lucky, I don't know.
 
I have go off flickr in recent weeks- I forgot my password- Flickr provided an e mail link to reset same. It didn't work and I've Now lost access to my original Flickr account- I generated a new account now, to allow image posting on this forum

I have in the past used IMGUR

Les :)
 
I used to post to Flickr a lot, particularly when I was participating in the "52 Week" challenge groups (4 consecutive years). I enjoyed the interaction. But the community and interaction tailed off, so by the time the annoyed the price rise for the pro account, I decided to stop paying for it. I had to cut my image collection down the keep under the 1000 limit, but I don't miss it. I did sort out my login so I can get into it, but I rarely bother and have only posted 1 image in the past 6 months just to see what happened.
It has gone downhill and even the Explore page is not as good with it pushing/prioritising images from paid pro members so you seem to often get 4 or 5 images on the page from each of the pro accounts and not so many from others.

I do use Instagram a lot now, but I have a new account which is more focused on the local area and I post images and tag them with area-specific tags. There are area-specific Instagram accounts that run local meet ups (and will re-post images if you want to allow that, which sends people your direction) and following that account and it's hashtag will allow you to connect with other local photographers/instagrammers. Doing this has been much better than my previous way of using Instagram.
It's the old adage, "you get out what you put in".
If you want to connect with others, then seek out a relevant community account, much like you would seek out a Flickr interest group.
If all you do is post an image with a few generic hashtags, then you'll not get a great deal out of it.
IG is not a photo hosting site, the images are not even brilliant resolution, but it does get your work out there and particularly if you're a working photographer, it's almost an essential these days.
Instagram can be used in different ways. There are lots of different users on it, not just other photographers and that's where it's valuable for working photographers.
Even as an amateur/hobbyist it's worth trying out, but you have to give it a little time once you're on there and find the accounts and hashtags that interest you, then you'll stop being shown stuff that doesn't interest you and your experience will improve.
As someone who shoots a fair bit of landscape stuff, I find it very good for inspiration and location ideas. But as with Flickr, the value you find in it depends a lot on what you want to get out of it.
If all you want is photo hosting then Flickr is still one of the best options. If you want community and interaction, then I'd suggest that Flickr isn't so good any more.
 
I used to post to Flickr a lot, particularly when I was participating in the "52 Week" challenge groups (4 consecutive years). I enjoyed the interaction. But the community and interaction tailed off, so by the time the annoyed the price rise for the pro account, I decided to stop paying for it. I had to cut my image collection down the keep under the 1000 limit, but I don't miss it. I did sort out my login so I can get into it, but I rarely bother and have only posted 1 image in the past 6 months just to see what happened.
It has gone downhill and even the Explore page is not as good with it pushing/prioritising images from paid pro members so you seem to often get 4 or 5 images on the page from each of the pro accounts and not so many from others.

I do use Instagram a lot now, but I have a new account which is more focused on the local area and I post images and tag them with area-specific tags. There are area-specific Instagram accounts that run local meet ups (and will re-post images if you want to allow that, which sends people your direction) and following that account and it's hashtag will allow you to connect with other local photographers/instagrammers. Doing this has been much better than my previous way of using Instagram.
It's the old adage, "you get out what you put in".
If you want to connect with others, then seek out a relevant community account, much like you would seek out a Flickr interest group.
If all you do is post an image with a few generic hashtags, then you'll not get a great deal out of it.
IG is not a photo hosting site, the images are not even brilliant resolution, but it does get your work out there and particularly if you're a working photographer, it's almost an essential these days.
Instagram can be used in different ways. There are lots of different users on it, not just other photographers and that's where it's valuable for working photographers.
Even as an amateur/hobbyist it's worth trying out, but you have to give it a little time once you're on there and find the accounts and hashtags that interest you, then you'll stop being shown stuff that doesn't interest you and your experience will improve.
As someone who shoots a fair bit of landscape stuff, I find it very good for inspiration and location ideas. But as with Flickr, the value you find in it depends a lot on what you want to get out of it.
If all you want is photo hosting then Flickr is still one of the best options. If you want community and interaction, then I'd suggest that Flickr isn't so good any more.

I think you sound like where I’m heading towards.

I think part of my problem is that I’ve got too many places to post images and then manage. Between my website, Flickr, Instagram, facebook and twitter it’s just too many. My website should probably be the main focal point with everything else leading towards it. I guess I’m probably looking at a change of direction at what I’m trying to do but will try to keep Flickr going with an image once in a while whilst concentrating on other outlets.

I don't do Facebook but have sometimes tried to check someone elses Facebook page and all I get is a great big pop-up telling me to 'sign-up'.
I will never join Facebook but in a similar that you describe I am prevented from viewing these pages. :)
I can understand that. I’m of the generation that grew up with the introduction of Facebook (and MySpace before that- what happened to MySpace?) so probably have a slightly different outlook as I already have an (partially) active account. I guess the way I’m looking at it which has potentially the larger audience. That said Flickr May have a long life span of a image. Social media like instragam isn’t only supposed to last up to 19hrs before it’s too old.
 
Wow thank you for all of the responses.

It’s only logging in via a browser where I have an issue. I have the PhotoExplorer app and that’s still working so I can still get. I think some of the changes are probably the reason why I’ve not been using it. Currently I have 879 photos after deleting some so I’m not too far away from the 1000 limit. I guess that’s part of the problem, being so close to the limit means I’d have to make a decision in the future about whether to carry on and upgrade to pro again. So far I’ve not seen $50 worth in Flickr to pay each year. Another issue is trying to manage posting on Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and instragram. I was using zapper to automatically post from Flickr to twitter and fscebook. There was no way to post to Instagram from flickr. Sadly that’s broken now and I worked out instagram can post to Facebook and twitter automatically so it’s much easier to manage the three from there and Flickr gets left out. Facebook works very well from instagram (aren’t they both owned by Facebook?) whilst twitter it a link back to instrsgram. If there was a way to manage all four by posting to one then that would be perfect but sadly I can’t find a way to do that. That’s probably a big reason why flickr has been left because of the extra time it needs to post and via a desktop too. Most of my social media posting is via my phone. I save images stored in Dropbox to my phone and post from there to the places.

I did like Flickr back in its heyday but I’ve just fallen out of love with it. I guess part of that are the changes but also because you have to be a member of Flickr to see the photos. It was a nice way to follow what other photographers were up to but it means non photographers (most friends and family) couldnt see what I was doing. Other options like facebook, Twitter and instagram have a greater variation of users so it reaches a wider audience beyond photographers.


Actually you are incorrect regards not being able to view photos on Flickr if not a member. What you do is Google www.Flickr.com. A search box will appear when the site loads. If you know the name of the photographer you want to view, enter it in the search box and press 'search'. The photographer's account will be shown, and you can view his/her posted photos there. Same too for groups. So, you can get quite a bit of access to Flickr and still not be a member. Or, if you just Google the photographer's Flickr name his account may come up, too. So for those who know you by your name on Flickr they can see your photos very easily.
 
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Actually you are incorrect regards not being able to view photos on Flickr if not a member. What you do is Google www.Flickr.com. A search box will appear when the site loads. If you know the name of the photographer you want to view, enter it in the search box and press 'search'. The photographer's account will be shown, and you can view his/her posted photos there. Same too for groups. So, you can get quite a bit of access to Flickr and still not be a member. Or, if you just Google the photographer's Flickr name his account may come up, too.
You are right. If you click on Flickr link on my web site it shows my Flickr images. It’s good to know but it still doesn’t help posting in one place and automatically posting to the others.
 
I have fallen out of love with it completely.

I didn't go 'Pro' with my subscription so got all the warnings about deleting my oldest images.

Fine, I downloaded my entire Photostream and backed it up to my hard drive.

But now when I go on there and try and upload a new picture it tells me I am over the maximum allowed storage space for free photos.

I was hoping Flickr would automatically delete the old stuff like they had threatened to. But it seems I have to manually batch organise and delete a load of stuff before I can add new photos.

Does this seem correct?

Because I have not found the time to, it means I am also not posting pictures onto this site for the last few months either...
 
I have fallen out of love with it completely.

I didn't go 'Pro' with my subscription so got all the warnings about deleting my oldest images.

Fine, I downloaded my entire Photostream and backed it up to my hard drive.

But now when I go on there and try and upload a new picture it tells me I am over the maximum allowed storage space for free photos.

I was hoping Flickr would automatically delete the old stuff like they had threatened to. But it seems I have to manually batch organise and delete a load of stuff before I can add new photos.

Does this seem correct?

Because I have not found the time to, it means I am also not posting pictures onto this site for the last few months either...
They may have deleted your oldest photos but if they have they'll only have deleted enough to get you down to the limit.

I've never gone Pro on flickr & the way they're handling things at the moment I'm a lot less likely to now than I ever was before.
 
I offloaded 10k photos deleted my flickr pro account when the charge went up.

Now I have a new one almost reached the 1000 limit. I guess then I'll delete the older half to make room
 
I offloaded 10k photos deleted my flickr pro account when the charge went up.

Now I have a new one almost reached the 1000 limit. I guess then I'll delete the older half to make room
Or open another free account? Why not? There is no limit on the number of accounts you can have. Just slightly change your account name such as 'Sam #1, Sam #2, etc. And, actually from what I understand the site wide automatic deletion never happened. I've seen many free accounts with well over 1,000 photos still on Flickr. Those that deleted down to 1,000 are now classified as free and can't add more. But, many who never did kept their many photos while staying a free account are still happily carrying more than 1,000 photos on their accounts and adding more. Do you know of anyone who actually had some photos deleted by Flickr from their account? I don't.
 
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I still use it all the time, it's what? €5 p.m? I spend more on peanuts
 
Just had notifacation of this years bill 49 dollars . Less than a quid a week
 
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