Hmm, time to dump flickr and finally build my own website?

I only encounter problems while uploading, if the connection is bad at my side. Last time I tried this from another place than home with known bad Wi-Fi connection, it didn't work and so I used the old style uploader, which did the job. There you can't assign photos to groups with that, but at least you can assign tags.

At home I have a good and stable internet connection, there have been no problems for a long time now.
 
LC2 said:
In my opinion, the decision a few years ago to allow unlimited photos on the free accounts was probably the worst idea in the history of bad ideas, it gave the expectation of something for nothing. At the time I think it was something like 100 photos for free and you paid for more (iirc - it was a long time ago).

I'm happy enough to pay for flickr, but then I have 16k+ photos on there.
Maybe there is an argument for a sliding scale of charges? I guess they have to stick to the 1000 free now, but maybe £10 a year from 1000-2000, £15 from 2000-3000 etc.
Click to expand...

I agree, I thought the unlimited free accounts were the worst thing they ever did too. It made the paid accounts pointless.

I can see where you’re coming from with the sliding scale idea but I’m not sure it would work because if you are nearing a limit then would continue uploading as much?

I think they had implemented the 1000 photo limit whilst keeping the pro account the same amount ($25 wasn’t it) they would have got more to go pro again. It was doubling the subscription that made me think I would sit back and see what improvements they make before going pro again. So far I’ve not seen any real improvements that have made me thinking it’s worth $50 a year.

LC2 said:
TBH, less than a quid a week for unlimited hosting / storage is very cheap. I pay twice the flickr charge to Amazon for my backup storage and that doesn't have any options to display them for others to see (and it would be even more expensive if it wasn't part of prime).
Click to expand...

I’m not sure it’s comparable because amazon prime offers much more (TV, music, delivery) than just cloud storage. You would be the first I know who’s got Amazon Prime only for the cloud storage. For most the cloud storage is a free add on that they probably don’t use.

There are other cheaper options out there for cloud storage, from dedicated providers to web hosts. I think Zenofolio offer unlimited cloud storage on their £5 a month account. That’s probably as close as you can get to compare services to Flickr but it’s a personal website building/provider rather than public hosting.

I don’t think you can compare Flickr to the likes of amazon prime, Netflix’s or other subscription services (adobe lightroom/photoshop). They offer more for roughly the same price as Flickr. To me it seems to be Flickr’s $50 self worth price tag that’s the issue. Lower that permanently to say $20-30 a year and they would get more people go pro again. Personally I think they made too many changes too fast. The free account limit was a big change to make, coupling that with doubling the pro account price was too much.
 
lemo said:
I only encounter problems while uploading, if the connection is bad at my side. Last time I tried this from another place than home with known bad Wi-Fi connection, it didn't work and so I used the old style uploader, which did the job. There you can't assign photos to groups with that, but at least you can assign tags.

At home I have a good and stable internet connection, there have been no problems for a long time now.
Click to expand...

My home connection is fast and stable, unlike Flickr. :p
 
rob-nikon said:
To me it seems to be Flickr’s $50 self worth price tag that’s the issue. Lower that permanently to say $20-30 a year and they would get more people go pro again. Personally I think they made too many changes too fast. The free account limit was a big change to make, coupling that with doubling the pro account price was too much.
Click to expand...
I completely agree with all that (y)

ancient_mariner said:
My home connection is fast and stable, unlike Flickr. :p
Click to expand...
OUCH :LOL:
 
Looks like my Flickr pro has auto renewed, I was thinking of not doing so as Ive done very little photography in the last year but didn’t think it was due until the end of the month.
 
Last edited:
Flickr just offered me renewal of subscription at 2019 prices (£3.73 a month for a 1 yr plan, £3.60 something for a 2 year plan).
Seemed quite a reasonable offer, except they want the money now (or at least card details) and my sub doesn't expire until Nov 20.

Seems *odd* to be pushing a renewal 2 months into my subscription.
 
LC2 said:
Flickr just offered me renewal of subscription at 2019 prices (£3.73 a month for a 1 yr plan, £3.60 something for a 2 year plan).
Seemed quite a reasonable offer, except they want the money now (or at least card details) and my sub doesn't expire until Nov 20.

Seems *odd* to be pushing a renewal 2 months into my subscription.
Click to expand...


I`m not 100% but a while ago I thought I read about a scam trying to catch folk out by doing this, might be worth sending a message to Flickr staff to see if it`s true or not.
 
The 'deal' is there if you log in to Flickr. As my subs run from May they want me to sign up for two years - payable in advance!
 
Dave70D said:
I`m not 100% but a while ago I thought I read about a scam trying to catch folk out by doing this, might be worth sending a message to Flickr staff to see if it`s true or not.
Click to expand...
nah Dave, this is legit, it's on the flickr page.
Ed Sutton said:
The 'deal' is there if you log in to Flickr. As my subs run from May they want me to sign up for two years - payable in advance!
Click to expand...
They do seem desperate to get us to fund their deficit don't they.
 
Just cancelled my pro account as it was bad enough when they doubled the price and now they want to put it up again by a considerable amount !
 
Sootchucker said:
Just cancelled my pro account as it was bad enough when they doubled the price and now they want to put it up again by a considerable amount !
Click to expand...
I didn’t know they are putting it up again. I’ve just had a look and it’s £4.66 per month on the annual plan. That’s £55.92 per year. Wasn’t it $50 a year (£38.33 at the current exchange rate) before this latest price increase. That’s a 46% increase on top of the previous doubling of the price. I guess for that’s the end of any plans to rejoin flick pro membership for me. For me if they got rid of all the discount benefits and lowered the price I may think of rejoining but I don’t want any of those ‘benefits’

ancient_mariner said:
Question to ask is whether you think they'll still be there in 2 1/2 years time?
Click to expand...
I wouldn’t place a bet backing them still being around.
 
But the thing is that Flickr still enables a certain kind of community that hasn't as far as I've seen been replicated anywhere else. Of course it can be used in different ways, and some of those ways will be better fulfilled elsewhere - which doesn't diminish my claim.

It seems to me that its strength is its capacity for peer group sharing and dialogue. Where else can you get that? Barcefook? Nuts!

To me, it's an on-line art gallery without compare. And I mean that deeply.

I don't refer to the whole morass of what everybody posts on there - but you can discover and consort with stimulating equals, which is nourishing. You act as your own curator.

I really don't know where else that can be done so freely, in the realm of photography.

And I note that the general tone of the above posts trends towards the negative. But then these forums don't mostly have much bias towards the cultural.
 
Last edited:
droj said:
But the thing is that Flickr still enables a certain kind of community that hasn't as far as I've seen been replicated anywhere else. Of course it can be used in different ways, and some of those ways will be better fulfilled elsewhere - which doesn't diminish my claim.

It seems to me that its strength is its capacity for peer group sharing and dialogue. Where else can you get that? Barcefook? Nuts!

To me, it's an on-line art gallery without compare. And I mean that deeply.

I don't refer to the whole morass of what everybody posts on there - but you can discover and consort with stimulating equals, which is nourishing. You act as your own curator.

I really don't know where else that can be done so freely, in the realm of photography.

And I note that the general tone of the above posts trends towards the negative. But then these forums don't mostly have much bias towards the cultural.
Click to expand...
That is Flickr’s USP and something they should build on. I’ve always liked Flickr as it was an excellent platform in its day, and I met several other photographers through. The problem is Facebook/instagram have altered how we share photography. That’s mainly because how photographs are taken has changed from cameras towards mobiles. Flicker is aimed towards a niche diminishing camera market which doesn’t help. As photographers with ‘proper cameras’ we probably need to understand that photography is now a niche market.

At present I don’t understand what they are doing. It seems they are losing members which then affects revenue. Their idea seems to be play on the heartstrings of all previous Flickr members and keep putting the price for their remaining members to maintain a level of revenue rather than attract ‘free’ members back to paid ‘pro’ to maintain that level of revenue. If they went back to the circa $25 pro membership I think they may attract more previous pro members back. They can’t keep putting the price up because it pushes more and more people away. They need to attract the previous pro members back rather than increasing the price for everyone that’s stayed or thinking of going back. I’d likely going back to pro if the price went back to $25/£25.

I’m not trying to be negative because I like the platform that Flickr is/was, but there is a price that I feel it’s worth to support it. Hiking the price doesn’t help even though it’s on par with 500px which is it’s closest competitor.
 
Oh well iv’e just done it again I have renewed my pro account for the next 2 years total cost is £87.90 p less than a pound £ per week so I just hope they are still around in 2 years time ?
But that’s not bad value in my opinion for what’s offered.
And like someone stated earlier it’ not often you get anything for nowt!
Although you can still get a free account atm
 
Last edited:
It's irritating, nowadays there are so many micro-subscriptions and they all add up in terms of overall monthly cost.. Prime, Netflix, Office365, Adobe, FlickrPro, etc... If people are in the same position, I can bet FlickrPro is at the top of the list to be cancelled to make room for other services.

I am tempted a build a wordpress site to replace it - in terms of hosting and sharing my personal images, not backup.
 
Plenty of FREE website options - like WIX or WEEBLY :)

I was looking at pro, however: not for me I'm afraid, I'll creatre my own website for hosting if push comes to shove etc

Les:)
 
droj said:
And I note that the general tone of the above posts trends towards the negative. But then these forums don't mostly have much bias towards the cultural.
Click to expand...

Flickr is absolutely key to me with my photography classes as I have set up a private group for each class that allows students to share their images in a "safe" place, have a place for discussion, and allow peer comment on their images as they work to complete their set project. Being able to look back over time and see improvement is also really beneficial. Being public rather than college based, it allows them to continue on once the course is over as a groupd of friends. It's an extremely popular part of the course. If Flickr went away, I'd have to come up with something else and today there isn't anything close (apart from perhaps Ipernity).

However, something can still be excellent but not offer value for money. And I mean literal value for money. As @benc98 mentioned I have a ton of micro-subs, and I look at what I get for that. The old "it's just a cup of coffee a week" won't cut it for me. Amazon Prime is £80/year (Prime delivery, unlimited photo storage, TV stuff). I really believe I get value for that. Flickr is £60(?) but all I get for it is storage (don't care about ads, don't need analytics). I don't need storage and thus I don't need Pro. If it was £20/year, that would then be worth it to get rid of ads and as a contribution to "keep the site running", but I still wouldn't use the storage. No value for my money.

If Flickr fails, it will be due to mis-management and not lack of community support (although one will likely beget the other sadly)
 
When they sent that begging email a few weeks ago i wondered why as I was already a pro member on two accounts, why are they asking me for money, they have it! My mate said probably a price rise - and ta da! he was correct.

I can justify paying pro for the site i put my gig photos on (altho i think the cost is a bit steep) but i also have my original flickr where i used to put photos public but now have private to share or to refer back so not sure i can justify a 2nd pro account. i know i can download all my photos but some are holiday photos where i put captions and other things that i do refer back to (& took time to do initially) and that is not downloaded when you take out your data. but is that a good reason to pay £55! i guess i had better decide quickly..... :oops: :$
 
I have a PRO account which is seriously under-used.
I only put sets of "Web" sized images up so I can direct folks if they show an interest (Mainly gigs / festivals.) I don't use it as a back up option (Should I?)
What do you do that i don't that you find useful?
 
I know its another increase but put it in perspective the site is loosing money so it will close if it does not at least break even (this is just business), since smugmug bought them? they have been 100% stable and site runs quick or at least for me it has where as before it was not, its hosting all of my pics and besides the public ones, I have hidden ones for family use etc so its a full back up and a small price to pay to not loose family pics (which I have before with HDD failures etc)

It is a lot of money for some people but again put it in perspective how much have you spent on photography over the past few years I am sure this will not seem so bad then ?

I have no affiliation with them for the record but just trying to put some reasonable thoughts into the issue
 
im not going to jump in feet first and renew for two years ,at my age I may or may not be here then ... plus I renewed just before xmas .. also take into account its renewed in dollars ... if the pound soars after Brexit it will be to our benefit to hang on before buying something from the u.s .. if trump gets impeached . again the dollar could take a massive tumble .. so my view is .....DONT PANIC ..
as for staying a PRO member I currently have 7883 photos stored on there over about 12 years + and currently have had 8,342,753 views on them .. its a no brainer unfortunately
 
Graham W said:
I only put sets of "Web" sized images up so I can direct folks if they show an interest
Click to expand...
You could do that just as well with your own web-space ...

Lez325 said:
I'll creatre my own website for hosting
Click to expand...
But who's going to see it?

A personal web-space doesn't engender a community function. If anyone wants to share their work on-line, who do they end up sharing it with?

A web-space can be functional for some purposes, including business, but people have generally to be directed to it. Flickr, by contrast, enables photographers to discover each others' work and (often) experience reciprocal interest. It's not the place, though, to host your portfolio, for which you need the more self-structured environment of dedicated web-space.
 
I would say it's still a decent price. It's only like £5 a month. I spend £10 a week on Costa Coffee.

You could go Amazon prime which gives unlimited full Res photos storage, plus you get prime TV and a free music app. I paid £16 a year extra for 100gb of Amazon so I can upload videos also.
I will still pay for Flickr though, maybe miss 1 coffee every 2 weeks.
 
Comparing it to other subscription products is quite difficult because they aren’t exactly comparable.

Amazon Prime- £7.99 or £79 a year.
Free delivery
Amazon music
Amazon video
Cloud storage


Adobe Photography Plan - £9.99
Lightroom
Photoshop
Website- portfolio
Spark page and post
Mobile apps with cloud storage

(Cheaper if you pre paid when there are offers).

Flickr is completely difference to both of these. Part of the issue is I know friends and family that aren’t into photography that used to have Flickr accounts to share pictures with friends and family. Now most take those on mobile phones there are easier ways to share without needing Flickr. That’s probably a big chunk of the user base gone right there. What’s left is a niche product for photographers to share their images with other photographers. Photography is now a niche market and getting smaller.

It’s a hard one because Flickr needs to develop and diversify beyond what it was previously. It’s niche as a photographers sharing platform but that’s quite a small segment and limits you to photographers only. You need the none photographers too. To me add the extra discount ‘benefits’ aren't helpful as they aren’t really needed and you are paying for them. I can see further prices rises as the user base reduces further (trying to maintain the same revenue). They need to attract new members or previous members back. St the moment that’s not happening.

I really want Flickr to work out because it was a great platform to meet other photographers. But it feels it’s never moved forward as everything around it developed (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram). I don’t want to see it go the same way as MySpace.
 
Last edited:
I would like to see a lower-tier Flickr paid account that didn't major on storage but where you could host say 500 images for sharing purposes, without ads. This would lower the bar for paid membership. Storage could be separated out as a different component for those wanting it, as could options for hosting more images. Thus a more modular approach, and this could possibly widen their customer base.

There's nothing wrong with being a niche product. We need niches.
 
Testudo Man said:
Requested my Flickr Data recently...6 Zip files were sent to me promptly.
Downloaded 5 of the Zip files, then copied/backed up those again.

No going back now ;)...i wont be paying for a Pro account(i did give this some thought 1st though).
So far, ive deleted approx 800 images from my photostream(which wiped out over 200 000+ views)...no big deal!
Still have to delete another 466 images, to get me below the 1000 photos allowed for a freebie account!
My Bird pics were easy enough to delete...but im struggling to delete many more Butterfly/Vipera berus(Adder) images!

I can kinda see why a lot of people will go Pro though...especially if they have big number images in their Stream!...its been tedious/time consuming to go through all my pics, an choose which will stay, an which will go!...nice trip down memory lane though, because i can remember how/why/where/when i took those shots............but i dont need to pay 50 bucks a year for those memories ;)

As a side note, checked out/joined 500px(not active on there yet though)...spent some time viewing the kinda subjects/images that interest me...an it seems that a lot of poor photoshoppin/editing is popular on 500px..............an whats with all these edited/fake reflection type images on there???!!!

Oh well, onwards an upwards.
Click to expand...

Just quoting my own/last post in this thread.

No regrets at all, about not going/paying for PRO status........................................Im still goin "onwards an upwards" too. :);)
 
This arrived via email last night
NOW they really are taking the p***!
Especially the plus tax bit!
(I guess that's Vat?)


We’re writing to inform you that effective today, the price of Flickr Pro subscriptions has increased to:


  • 1 month: $6.99, plus tax
  • 3 month: $18.99, plus tax
  • 1 year: $59.99, plus tax
  • 2 year: $117.99, plus tax

To thank loyal Pro members for your continued support, we are offering all current Pros the opportunity to renew now at last year’s price.
 
Cobra said:
This arrived via email last night
NOW they really are taking the p***!
Especially the plus tax bit!
(I guess that's Vat?)


We’re writing to inform you that effective today, the price of Flickr Pro subscriptions has increased to:


  • 1 month: $6.99, plus tax
  • 3 month: $18.99, plus tax
  • 1 year: $59.99, plus tax
  • 2 year: $117.99, plus tax

To thank loyal Pro members for your continued support, we are offering all current Pros the opportunity to renew now at last year’s price.
Click to expand...

Yep, I got that and did some sums and bit the bullet even though I don't use Flickr to its fullest extent................for £44.70 my membership now runs to Nov 1st 2021 (NB I renewed in Nov 2019).

They now(?) use Digital River as their payment processing merchant so the costs are calculated up front to £'s & VAT rather than paying in $'s and getting hit with any exchange charges which I think used to show up on my CC statement! Separating the payment to a merchant.............................I wonder if Flickr should go belly up I could claim my refund from Digital River???
 
Last edited:
Box Brownie said:
.I wonder if Flickr should go belly up I could claim my refund from Digital River???
Click to expand...
Shouldn't you have posted that in the joke thread ;)


Box Brownie said:
for £44.70 my membership now runs to Nov 1st 2021 (NB I renewed in Nov 2019).
Click to expand...
Mine renewed in Dec 2019 for 12 months @ approx 40 quid.
That's a hell of a leap though eh?
 
Cobra said:
Shouldn't you have posted that in the joke thread ;)



Mine renewed in Dec 2019 for 12 months @ approx 40 quid.
That's a hell of a leap though eh?
Click to expand...

Hmmm! a joke eh ;)

As for the money, based on current exchange my Nov 2019 payment of $49.99 'was' £37.49.....
 
Box Brownie said:
As for the money, based on current exchange my Nov 2019 payment of $49.99 'was' £37.49.....
Click to expand...
Mine auto renewed through paypal I can't remember the exact amount now, but I don't think I got much change out of 40 quid
 
I suppose my next one will be close to £50, OK so its about a £ / week but the way its creeping up leaping up, wonder how long it'll be before it's £100 / year ?
 
I`ve got until December next year, so have cancelled my auto renewal, and will wait and see what happens closer to the time.
 
Paulie-W said:
I`ve got until December next year, so have cancelled my auto renewal, and will wait and see what happens closer to the time.
Click to expand...
That's what I did the previous year and got the "cheap" sign up price.
But like an idiot I forgot to do it this year well last year now.
 
Cobra said:
That's what I did the previous year and got the "cheap" sign up price.
But like an idiot I forgot to do it this year well last year now.
Click to expand...

Now where`s that "face palm" smiley ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top