4 ms·

Guessing we are either going to see major changes in pricing structure, or a shutdown of Flickr. Pretty bummed.

by jscheel 11y ago

pmlnr 11y ago
Flickr has an immense historical value being the first large photo portal. I'd be devastated to see pictures nowhere else can be found going away :(
- bby 11y ago
  scrape it brother
ghaff 11y ago
Hard to say. There isn't a lot of direct competition. Smugmug probably comes closest (and I see their current pricing structure again makes it reasonable for non-professionals which it wasn't for a time). It really depends on how many people pay for a premium ("pro") flickr account which Yahoo seems to have been fairly ambivalent about collecting over the past few years. Personally, I'd find it something of a bummer if flickr were to go away or seriously decay. I could switch but it would be a definite pain. (I also find flickr a great source of CC photos.)
- pmlnr 11y ago
  I've been running my own site for displaying images; for backup, I have a dedicated server + synthing. It's the archives I'd really, really miss, from people who more or less stopped taking photos. If Flickr was to offer what Smugmug and 500px does for pros ( like direct upload from Lightroom, eyecandy portfolios, etc. ) instead of focusing on an app that uploads every picture it finds by default, I believe they'd see a return of the many and probable could become profitable. But this would need immediate and massive changes, which I don't think will happen at all.
  - ghaff 11y ago
    You can upload directly from Lightroom using something like jfriedl's plug-in. Works great. I agree that galleries of some sort would be a great addition. I put a lot of photos up on flickr so they're available to myself and others. But I'd like the ability to showcase a more curated collection.
  - DannoHung 11y ago
    Flickr has direct upload from Lightroom... Actually, I think that's built in to Lightroom.
    - pmlnr 11y ago
      Lots of thing have Flickr upload; it was just not build by Flickr itself, supporting the professional photographer culture in the first place.
  - ghaff 11y ago
    >It's the archives I'd really, really miss, from people who more or less stopped taking photos. That's fair. The greatest loss if flickr were to go away at some point would be that a lot of content would be permanently removed from the Web. And flickr's scale is such that I can't really imagine something like the archive team being able to copy flickr content and archive it in a useful searchable way. I may be wrong though. Given that there are functioning businesses in the flickr vein, I'm reasonably hopeful it will continue on though. Even if that's wishful thinking on my part.
    - toomuchtodo 11y ago
      It might be time for Archive Team to start archiving Flickr.
  - samstave 11y ago
    I was really excited when Flikr relaunched and offered a TB of space... but the upload feature ALWAYS failed for me. I could never upload lots of images (I have many thousands) -- so I finally gave up. Then "Origami" was supposed to launch and solve that - but they shut down before they could even go live!
ghaff 11y ago
If you look at the landscape of "flickr-like" companies, it looks as if you can make a business out of it (Smugmug, 500px) but it's probably not a huge opportunity business given how many such efforts have been shuttered or allowed to largely languish over the past 15 years or so. The reality is that most people are just fine with uploading their camera phone pics to Facebook and be done with it. The number who are willing to spend $25-50 per year for a premium site is probably a pretty small percentage--and would be even smaller if you up that to $100+.
- rchaud 11y ago
  Part of this may be related to the lack of direct monetization opportunities from Flickr. If you take the example of Instagram, the enormous number of users they have have created, "Instagram celebrities" out of thin air, with people securing modeling contracts or product endorsement deals simply by being popular on the network. I'm sure some photographers are getting business opportunities by posting their work as well, although that has a lot to do with how good they are at getting themselves exposure. Even if
  - ghaff 11y ago
    What the world really needs is another platform for vapid promotion :-) Flickr/Yahoo! have taken some steps related to allowing users to monetize their photos over the years. There's been an agreement with Getty and they've done some other things as well. At its heart, though, flickr started out with very much a community orientation and, while they haven't necessarily done the best job of it, they've maintained more of a community than a commercial flavor. Aside from the young, female, and attractive though, it's pretty hard to commercialize a flickr presence in any significant way. Even microstock sites which are explicitly about selling aren't a great source of income for most.

Guessing we are either going to see major changes in pricing structure, or a shutdown of Flickr. Pretty bummed.

by jscheel 11y ago

Guessing we are either going to see major changes in pricing structure, or a shutdown of Flickr. Pretty bummed.

pmlnr 11y ago

Flickr has an immense historical value being the first large photo portal. I'd be devastated to see pictures nowhere else can be found going away :(

bby 11y ago
scrape it brother

ghaff 11y ago

Hard to say. There isn't a lot of direct competition. Smugmug probably comes closest (and I see their current pricing structure again makes it reasonable for non-professionals which it wasn't for a time). It really depends on how many people pay for a premium ("pro") flickr account which Yahoo seems to have been fairly ambivalent about collecting over the past few years. Personally, I'd find it something of a bummer if flickr were to go away or seriously decay. I could switch but it would be a definite pain. (I also find flickr a great source of CC photos.)

pmlnr 11y ago
I've been running my own site for displaying images; for backup, I have a dedicated server + synthing. It's the archives I'd really, really miss, from people who more or less stopped taking photos. If Flickr was to offer what Smugmug and 500px does for pros ( like direct upload from Lightroom, eyecandy portfolios, etc. ) instead of focusing on an app that uploads every picture it finds by default, I believe they'd see a return of the many and probable could become profitable. But this would need immediate and massive changes, which I don't think will happen at all.
- ghaff 11y ago
  You can upload directly from Lightroom using something like jfriedl's plug-in. Works great. I agree that galleries of some sort would be a great addition. I put a lot of photos up on flickr so they're available to myself and others. But I'd like the ability to showcase a more curated collection.
- DannoHung 11y ago
  Flickr has direct upload from Lightroom... Actually, I think that's built in to Lightroom.
  - pmlnr 11y ago
    Lots of thing have Flickr upload; it was just not build by Flickr itself, supporting the professional photographer culture in the first place.
- ghaff 11y ago
  >It's the archives I'd really, really miss, from people who more or less stopped taking photos. That's fair. The greatest loss if flickr were to go away at some point would be that a lot of content would be permanently removed from the Web. And flickr's scale is such that I can't really imagine something like the archive team being able to copy flickr content and archive it in a useful searchable way. I may be wrong though. Given that there are functioning businesses in the flickr vein, I'm reasonably hopeful it will continue on though. Even if that's wishful thinking on my part.
  - toomuchtodo 11y ago
    It might be time for Archive Team to start archiving Flickr.
- samstave 11y ago
  I was really excited when Flikr relaunched and offered a TB of space... but the upload feature ALWAYS failed for me. I could never upload lots of images (I have many thousands) -- so I finally gave up. Then "Origami" was supposed to launch and solve that - but they shut down before they could even go live!

ghaff 11y ago

If you look at the landscape of "flickr-like" companies, it looks as if you can make a business out of it (Smugmug, 500px) but it's probably not a huge opportunity business given how many such efforts have been shuttered or allowed to largely languish over the past 15 years or so. The reality is that most people are just fine with uploading their camera phone pics to Facebook and be done with it. The number who are willing to spend $25-50 per year for a premium site is probably a pretty small percentage--and would be even smaller if you up that to $100+.

rchaud 11y ago
Part of this may be related to the lack of direct monetization opportunities from Flickr. If you take the example of Instagram, the enormous number of users they have have created, "Instagram celebrities" out of thin air, with people securing modeling contracts or product endorsement deals simply by being popular on the network. I'm sure some photographers are getting business opportunities by posting their work as well, although that has a lot to do with how good they are at getting themselves exposure. Even if
- ghaff 11y ago
  What the world really needs is another platform for vapid promotion :-) Flickr/Yahoo! have taken some steps related to allowing users to monetize their photos over the years. There's been an agreement with Getty and they've done some other things as well. At its heart, though, flickr started out with very much a community orientation and, while they haven't necessarily done the best job of it, they've maintained more of a community than a commercial flavor. Aside from the young, female, and attractive though, it's pretty hard to commercialize a flickr presence in any significant way. Even microstock sites which are explicitly about selling aren't a great source of income for most.