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> I think that Smugmug needs to explain the differentiation between Smugmug versus Flickr Perhaps. Personally I'm not sure they do need to particularly do that

> I think that Smugmug needs to explain the differentiation between Smugmug versus Flickr Perhaps. Personally I'm not sure they do need to particularly do that though. Smugmug is a place to backup and showcase your photos as an individual. It's a portfolio service. There's not much community there really. Flickr was a community for high quality photography. They talk at great length in the post about how it lost it's way and want to get back to the community and quality aspect. If anything I'd say they're talking about the right stuff - how they're going to make Flickr great again.

bad_user 8y ago
The reason Flickr has had a big community of photographers is because it was free and virtually unlimited, so people could back up entire albums and then share them. That's one big reason. Flickr is a giant database of photos that will now disappear from the web. In terms of the actual community, the groups themselves have always been full of spam and the discussions pretty dumb to be honest, what has always been great being the photos themselves.
- PuffinBlue 8y ago
  Not really sure I agree with any of that. Flickr was one of the first movers, so it got a lot of traction and community because of the time and place it was created in. Not just because it was free. Flickr to me was best when there were pretty tight upload limits, so the early days were by no means 'unlimited'. And I think there were limits even then to how many photos you could see as a free account. That goes back a long way now but I was around back then and the groups were pretty vibrant and people actually discussed things. If anything, the groups went to shit as more and more uninvested people piled in dumping more and more photos just to chase likes - mostly thanks to limits being relaxed. I think it got even worse with the redesign and the 1TB limit. Especially as the new Pro accounts were limited too! That was nuts. At least that's what I remember and why I left. Seems now unlimited is actually unlimited again. Thankfully Instagram can now fulfil that need and hopefully putting up a barrier to entry will cut out the hoards who aren't interested in the community.
  - bad_user 8y ago
    Before the 1 TB, I remember the upload limits to be 300 MB. Given the image sizes back then, it would have taken you 3 months to reach the current limits. Also the yearly subscription for removing the limits was dirt cheap, I remember it being something like $20 per year.
ghaff 8y ago
My impression was always that Smugmug targeted pros and semi-pros who wanted to display their photos while protecting them and have a way to sell them. Flickr was more of a prosumer community site. Those are not distinct categories of course but there is a difference between them.

bad_user 8y ago

The reason Flickr has had a big community of photographers is because it was free and virtually unlimited, so people could back up entire albums and then share them. That's one big reason. Flickr is a giant database of photos that will now disappear from the web. In terms of the actual community, the groups themselves have always been full of spam and the discussions pretty dumb to be honest, what has always been great being the photos themselves.

PuffinBlue 8y ago
Not really sure I agree with any of that. Flickr was one of the first movers, so it got a lot of traction and community because of the time and place it was created in. Not just because it was free. Flickr to me was best when there were pretty tight upload limits, so the early days were by no means 'unlimited'. And I think there were limits even then to how many photos you could see as a free account. That goes back a long way now but I was around back then and the groups were pretty vibrant and people actually discussed things. If anything, the groups went to shit as more and more uninvested people piled in dumping more and more photos just to chase likes - mostly thanks to limits being relaxed. I think it got even worse with the redesign and the 1TB limit. Especially as the new Pro accounts were limited too! That was nuts. At least that's what I remember and why I left. Seems now unlimited is actually unlimited again. Thankfully Instagram can now fulfil that need and hopefully putting up a barrier to entry will cut out the hoards who aren't interested in the community.
- bad_user 8y ago
  Before the 1 TB, I remember the upload limits to be 300 MB. Given the image sizes back then, it would have taken you 3 months to reach the current limits. Also the yearly subscription for removing the limits was dirt cheap, I remember it being something like $20 per year.

ghaff 8y ago

My impression was always that Smugmug targeted pros and semi-pros who wanted to display their photos while protecting them and have a way to sell them. Flickr was more of a prosumer community site. Those are not distinct categories of course but there is a difference between them.