What do you think about Flickr?

Andrewteee

All-Pro
I've been reading a lot about this article the past couple of days essentially claiming that Yahoo has killed Flickr and that they should have instead made it the hottest mobile photography site on the Internet. But I don't get it.

I mean, I understand their points, but they are looking at Flickr through the lens of the social and mobile Internet. But what about people who simply love photography? In my opinion, there is NOTHING like Flickr today. I visit several times a day and I'm always inspired. I discover great pictures and great photographers. While I agree Flickr has been left to languish, and could be better, I think that for lover's of photography of all kinds it still has tremendous value.

What do you think?
 
I think you're spot on in one way.

To view it as a failure because - in essence - "it's not facebook" commits a basic error.
Maybe it'll be around in another 10 years, maybe it won't - will facebook? google? twitter?

I like like Flickr a lot ... but then I would, that's where I host all my snaps.
It is of course choc-a-bloc with photographs I don't like, but hey, whatever ...

Of course there are those who say that Flickr has ruined photography ... they often seem to be the same people who use the phrase "real photographer" to refer to themselves ... hehehe ... but that's another story (or another forum, to be precise) ;)
 
Those guys are a bunch of self-absorbed know-it-all windbags. I'm in agreement with pdh that their definition of failure is myopic. I have no interest in a "social network" and will never be on facebook. But I have made a bunch of "friends" on forums and flickr. I follow along with their photography (both the serious, and the cat photos ;) ...... to me they are ALL photography, I don't discriminate).

Frankly, I think flickr will be there long after Gizmodo has ended up on the virtual trashheap.
 
I'm in the technology business so I understand the "facebook" perspective of Flickr, but it's blind in many ways.

In addition to Flickr I also have a blog and I use Zenfolio to share photos with family and friends. What I wish I could do with Flickr is use it as a basic photography blogging platform same as I do with Wordpress, or rather, simply create "posts" that include photos and commentary.

I agree that there is a lot of baaaad stuff on Flickr. I'm amazed that some of that bad photography sometimes gets pages and pages of diamond and sparkle and unicorn awards.

I've found that the key to finding great stuff is to check out people's favorites. They essentially curate content for you.
 
I get what he's saying... Yahoo is pretty much a disaster in and of itself. It had potential, didn't make use of it, and nobody much cares about it. I remember when it bought flickr, and we all had to switch to yahoo logins. I already had one, so it didnt matter that much. The only reason I went pro (only a year ago) was because of the sharing possibilities and even the expectation (eg here) that you will use flickr to show your stuff... there's not enough available storage to keep using the gallery here (or anywhere else), for that. If I simply wanted to show my stuff in bulk, I wouldn't use flickr at all. And I am always on the lookout for an alternative.
 
I've found that the key to finding great stuff is to check out people's favorites. They essentially curate content for you.

I think that's right. When you find someone who is really good (or, to be more precise, whose work one really likes), then chasing down their favourites and contacts can lead to real seams of gold
 
I've only recently started to make more use of flickr, mainly to overcome the SC gallery's capacity limits. I'm not looking for it to be only about storage, I like that it's mostly about displaying your shots.

I use facebook mostly for my social shots, although I do add some of my serious photos to it as well. 500px is too crowded with oversaturated stuff, it feels like a humble, natural looking photograph would be bullied there like a highschool kid not wearing the right clothes :tongue:

I do agree with Andrewteee that having the ability to create blogs or stories (with plenty of text) around the stories would be a great addition to flickr, and that's the only thing I'm really missing right now. I think facebook is sorely lacking in its storytelling abilities too, by the way...

I'd love to see something like the slideshows you can make in microsoft office powerpoint, where you have complete freedom over placement of text and photos on each page, and a simple mouse click takes you to the next page. If they'd integrate that in facebook or on flickr, it'd be a fantastic storytelling tool.
 
I love Flickr!

I use it to store all my good photos in case of disaster.

I use it for researching image quality of cameras I am looking at

I use the groups to keep in touch and chat about cameras I do have.

I have some friends on there but love that it's not Facebook.

For me and what I use it for its perfect and I don't need to go elsewhere.

But that's me. Not everyone wants the social sharing like Facebook or instagram. They are there if you like them too.
 
Flickr is perfect for me. All about photography and what people use photography for. Photography is it's centre and all else relates to that. Please please please may it long continue.
 
Flickr is great. Where else in the known universe can you be a Pro shooter for $24.95 or whatever.
I was thinking about dumping Flickr for a spell. I went to 500px and it's ok but.... If your not a Black Book shooter...move on. I don't like the rating system. It's degrading to the spirit of shooters. I love looking at hot Russian woman but my Russian wife doesn't really agree with that form of entertainment.

I then went to Smugmug. It's a good site but it lacks a real traffic generator. It sets up nice but that's it. I left as I'll leave 500px shortly.

Like Andrew, I'm experimenting with Zenfolio. I can't really comment yet.
So I then a little while ago paid the dues to be a Pro again at Flickr.

What I like the most about it is, seeing what everyone is doing. Seeing how my friends are progressing. No other site does that so easy.

If it had a blog setup and some sort of comment system better that what is currently there, well that would get me to pay to be a lifetime Pro.

I'm glad it doesn't have that Facebook thing going, I'd drop it instantly.
 
Flickr's pretty much all I know. It's pretty flexible in the way you have one big pool of stuff and divide it into sets and collections and whatever. People say images look better elsewhere, but they look fine to me. The only reason I'd think about switching to smugmug or Zenfolio or something would be if I wanted to try selling stuff (which my wife and daughter are always telling me I should). But I'd have to pay $100 or $150 or something per year and I doubt I'd make that back on sale profits, so I'm pretty sure I'm an amateur for life. Trying to sell stuff would probably be bad for my head and enjoyment of photography anyway.

It's the Internet and there's plenty of lame stuff on there, but there's also an awful lot of really good photography there too. As for Facebook, it's already a little TOO much like Facebook for my taste, with contacts and groups and favorites and stuff. But you can use that stuff as much or little as you like.

In short, I don't think I'll be going anywhere other than Flickr anytime soon.

-Ray
 
I'm quite chuffed that flickr just changed their default viewing size to 800 pixels instead of 640. Given the resolutions of most monitors there was previously a lot of white space going to waste. Another not entirely well benefit to flickr is the amount of third-party apps to view content. Want to view a continuous stream of images from a group, photostream, set, or search on a black background, small, medium, or large size and with the option of viewing basic exif info and image information? Flickr won't let you do it but apps like flickeflu, flickriver, and fluidr will.

Fluidr / Today's Explore would be my pick out of those three.
 
I like Flickr for storage and for the groups you can get involved in but presentation wise it's not high on my list. I do not like Facebook at all, the way it presents images or it's ever wavering privacy policies. I hope that Flickr doesn't end up being another Facebook. I am rather irritated that 500px now has a constant nag banner about not being properly signed into facebook [I don't have one!!!] at the top of every.. single.. page when you sign in. The irony is when you sign in you have the option of signing in through facebook which is fine for fb users. But to nag everyone else after they are signed in.. anyway, off my rant. Flickr is good for sharing, not portfolio neatness and you need to be a paid member to have more accessible to you but that is with most things.
 
Zenfolio for me. Been on Zenfolio since 2007 and grandfathered in on the 40 dollar a year unlimited plan. I expect Flickr to keep going though.

As time goes on, it's going to be about the storage limits. That is what will make or break any of the photo sites. The stingy ones will go.
 
Its popular and good for the community sharing of images but the interface is awful its clumsy to use the look and flexibility is terrible :( far better is smugmug very slick looking and easy to use but less good for sharing community wise.
 
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